**Day 25: More Than External Obedience **
'Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,follow me.” But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.' Mark 10:21-22
At my old church in Aberdeen, there was a tall wall of great antiquity, more than a hundred years old at the very least. Due to its age the wall had to be checked for structural soundness which an official from Aberdeen City Council did. Not long after being passed as safe by the Council the wall collapsed; thankfully nobody was there at the time. The problem was not incompetency on the part of the Council, the problem was that the exterior appeared perfectly sound and intact yet the deficiencies in the wall ran deep and went unnoticed on the surface.
Bearing this in mind we turn to the rich young ruler; an individual who could pass with flying colours when measured against a surface examination of God’s law. He was assured when it came to the law that he had fulfilled it, every jot and tittle. However, despite his zeal in fulfilling the law he still seems to lack the assurance of eternal life. No doubt many others, religious and zealous in righteousness, have found themselves in the same position.
We remember a certain German Monk exercised in works of righteousness. Martin Luther strived in penance and all manner of self-discipline. His father superior never could get a moment to himself because Luther was constantly bending his ear in the confessional. On the exterior he strove to be morally impeccable but internally he was rotten, and he knew it. He was pained by the constant reminder of his own sin and his own inadequacy before God.
Just like Luther, the rich young ruler was trying to fulfill the law externally, but that did not provide spiritual fulfilment. In compassion Christ punctures his external bubble and gets to the heart of the matter. As our Lord makes clear in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), external obedience is not true fulfilment.
The Pharisees thought they could make a show of their acts of charity, their personal sacrifices, their long-flowing robes but it all amounted to nothing for their hearts were spiritually rotten. Luther came to realise that we are all nothing but the spiritual and moral equivalent of dung but when we come to Christ we are covered in the snow of Christ’s righteousness.
And this is the point the rich young ruler failed to understand. He thought he was righteous, thought he had done enough, yet his heart was not right and his desires were not after God. And so, he left downhearted because he was not prepared to repent of sin and place his trust in the Savior.
Christ reminds us of the danger of self-righteousness, the issue at the heart of this exchange. Trusting in one’s own ability and one’s own righteousness will not save you but lead only to damnation. Only God can save self-righteous people like us. J.C. Ryle writes, ‘So long as we think that we can keep the law of God, Christ profits us nothing. Let us pray for self-knowledge. Let us ask for the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, show us our own hearts, show us God’s holiness, and so show us our need of Christ. We must not make the mistake of thinking we as believers are immune from self righteousness, we too can fall prey to its enticing call if we take our eyes off Christ. May God guard our hearts that we narrow our eyes exclusively on Jesus and we never turn away from our Lord downhearted!
Written by Christopher Kerr
Passage for today: Mark 10:17-31
A thought to remember: Jesus wants more than external obedience, he wants true repentance.
A question to ask: Where might I be relying on my own ability to obey and not daily coming as a sinner to Jesus.
A song to sing: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross