A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.' " "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
No matter how much you think you have, God still thinks you are a beggar terribly lacking something important in life. What good are you to Him if you do not have Christformation in you? Christformation in you is your treasure in heaven. However, to have Christformation in you is not that easy. It is easier to become a 'Christian' these days, but to have Christformation in you is rather difficult. You would have to go through that "narrow door" in order for Christ's divine nature to be formed in you. Are you willing to pay the price for Christformation in you? This ruler above wasn't willing to pay the price. The question the Lord Jesus Christ asked that ruler was... are you willing to give up pleasing the sinful nature of the Devil in you completely? To that, he said "no" to Jesus. He knew that if he had to give up pleasing the sinful nature of the Devil in Him, he would have to give up on all his pleasures and the security he has through his money and accumulated wealth. He depends on his wealth and money for his security and pleasure, and not God. He was afraid that if that was gone from him, then he had no other reason to live for. He did not know what he had forfieted in exchange for temporal pleasures, safety and security. He chose rather to continue being a beggar in God's eyes than before men's eyes. So that he could continue boasting to men of his riches. He even preferred this lifestyle of showing off his wealth and possessions. It is rather very easy to keep but it is harder to give up. Think about this.
"Then come and follow me" sounds more like a pre-qualification set by the Lord Jesus Christ. Until then, do not follow me, that's what He literally meant. Until then, what? Until you have given up pleasing the sinful nature of the Devil in you completely, you cannot follow me where I am going. I am going to my Father in Heaven. Would you like to follow me there? You have to be like me to follow me, heading towards my Father in Heaven. To be able to meet the heavenly Father, you would have to be like me in nature and character first. You have to walk with me to know my character and nature fully first. How will this happen unless my nature is fully formed in you? This ruler in this story was not ready to give up pleasing the sinful nature of the Devil in him. Are you ready to give up when He asks you to give it all up? Anyway, one day you would have to give up what you have now. You are not going to bring with you what you have amassed or accumulated! Everyone has to give up all he has now. Whether, its your wealth or possessions, family or people whom you love, your dreams or achievements, everything has to be parted from you. You will be exiting out of this world empty handed. Are you ready to show me that you are even willing to part with the sinful nature of the Devil in you, which gives you lots of pleasure which fulfills all the evil desires and passions that come out of it. The ruler, said "no" to the Lord and walked away sadly. He was hooked to the sinful nature of the Devil in him even though he had kept all of God's commandments. He liked having that security and safety through all the wealth he has and not God. That itself is a grave sin. Unbelief is a grave sin, no matter what excuse you give.
The people of God in the wilderness with Moses were destroyed because of their unbelief towards God. Unbelief is a grave sin. It means that, you have stubbornly and rebelliously called God a liar by turning to the security and safety that your wealth and possessions give you. You did not believe that God could sustain you without fail, like in the desert when the people doubted God and wanted to go back to the world. Wanting to go back into Egypt is going back into the world through unbelief, declaring openly that God cannot sustain you in the dry and scorching desert. Peter said to the Lord in the passage above that, "we have left everything to follow you", what about us? Why do you need to leave everything behind to follow Him? You have to leave behind the sinful nature of the Devil in you, if you want to follow Him to where He is going. You have to put it to death like He put to death His flesh on the cross at Calvary. The people who crucified Him on the cross wanted to know if He would yield to the sinful nature of the Devil finally. No, he had overcome the sinful nature of the Devil in man. Even the grave couldn't hold Him in there. He was raised to life again. Now, He gives every human a hope of escaping eternal death by following Him to the Father in Heaven. The ruler forfeited this just for the pleasures and passions that the sinful nature gives him. How sad! He chooses to go back into the world.
1 John 2: 15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
