Why didn't Jesus just tell the rich man to belief in Him and he would be saved?

Question

WAS JESUS PREACHING A DIFFERENT MESSAGE HERE THAN WE PREACH TODAY? OR ARE WE PREACHING A DIFFERENT MESSAGE THAN HE PREACHED?



Mark Chapter 10
17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

TODAY THIS MAN WOULD NOT HAVE WENT AWAY SAD.HE WOULD HAVE BEEN TOLD TO BELIEVE AND HE WOULD BE SAVED.

PLEASE READ ALL BEFORE ANSWERING THE QUESTION.THANKS!

Answer 1

I read the whole question and the answers. I am disappointed in many of these answers. Am I mistaken or were you not alluding to our tendency in many churches to call people to believe in Jesus for salvation, without first admonishing them to repentance? I find that to be one of the biggest problems I see in modern day Christianity in America. Repentance is not optional, neither is making Him the Lord of your life. Lordship meaning that you subjugate yourself to His will. People today believe that they can believe in Christ and live however they want and they'll be o.k. They have been falsely converted. I may be wrong but I think what you're getting at here is much bigger than the problems associated with the prosperity Gospel. Am I right?

Answer 2

Don, you have forgotten that Jesus could read the minds of men (and women). As God, he knew before anyone opened their mouth what they were really thinking. If Jesus had perceived true humility and a desire for truth in this rich man, then his words would have been different. As it was, he saw right through this man and asked him to do the one thing he knew he would not.

Believe in Jesus and be saved still applies. But some people still put their faith and belief in material possessions, status, power - in other words, they cannot, will not believe in Jesus. They're far too busy believing in themselves.

As followers of Christ we are unable to read the hearts of men. We can merely extend the invitation, but it is the Holy Spirit which convicts and leads others to saving grace.

Answer 3

WRONG< PEOPLE!!
There you Christians go again, making stuff up!

Is the rich man already "knew" Jesus, then WHAT WAS HE DOING ASKING JESUS HOW TO GET ETERNAL LIFE?

He OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T KNOW JESUS ENOUGH TO BE SAVED!!!

So what does Jesus do? WWJD? WWCD? What would Christians do?

Well, Don has a fantastic point here by intimating exactly what a Christian would do today.

The Christian would not do what Jesus has done here.

So what's the discrepancy?

We have an example of something Jesus did concerning salvation - the most important doctrine in Christianity....

But Jesus doesn't do it the way the Christians now do it.

Either the Christians are missing something fundamental or a careless scribe MISSED this whole point when making up this story.

I'd say that all in all, the people/group who put the Bible together should have taken at least a hundred extra years to make sure all the doctrines, etc, made sense.

Not that they didn't do good with what they had come up with after, oh, I don't know, 14 CENTURIES!!!

But times change, people are now (some of them) smarter, and these things will keep popping up until someone has the epiphany to put them all together and show the world the fallacy that is THE ENTIRE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIOUS TRADITION..

With Love,

Answer 4

To paraphrase a certain comic book movie, "With great belief comes great responsibility."
Mankind tends to only look on the surface of things and rarely do they dig deeper to get the true meaning. When John 3:16 uses the phrase "whosoever believes" it does not mean an intellectual belief (head knowledge) it means "faith and obedience" John 14:15 expounds a little on that concept, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."
In this scenario, the command that is missing is idolatry. The material wealth was an idol to him. Jesus spoke more on money than he did on hell. By selecting what this person had made an idol, Jesus, was opening the eyes of this noble and showing him his true heart. Unfortunately, just like today, people have a hard time giving up what they truly desire.
The interesting thing about this passage, one that is often overlooked is verse 21. "Jesus looked at him and loved him. . ." Jesus spoke out of love and compassion, for this person was truly lost. If the one thing a Christian can glean from this passage is, Jesus spoke out of love, not out of condemnation. Nowhere did Jesus speak to the lost and say, "You're going to hell." He loved them. All of his fire and brimstone condemnation speeches were aimed at the self-righteous ones.
Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

Answer 5

Well, that is true in some churches that believe once saved always saved, which the bible does not support. He knew in the heart of the rich man that he was selfish. He read the hearts and minds of many on other occasions. When he read this he knew the person needed to learn, so he told him to give all his possessions to the poor. The man loved his riches too much, so he didn't comply.

Those same churches condemn my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They say we are not Christian. I pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ. I know that if I, an imperfect man gets to return to my father, it will be through his grace or gift and it will be because I have accepted him as my savior and have repented from all evil doings and have loved my neighbor, done good deeds and have charity for all. Those same churches condemn me and say I am going to hell. My church says that all good people will come forth in the first Resurrection when Jesus reigns. They condemn me to Hell. My church says they will be their as long as they are righteous. Which is the more Christ like operation I ask? You be the judge.

The family is the greatest organization on earth. When the earth begins to live the laws of God during that time it will be a wonderful life. No crime, no one in prison, no locked doors, everyone equal and has plenty. I look forward to the day, and don't even consider hell and damnation of any good people no matter what religion, or even no religion. At some time during that last 1000 years, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.

Answer 6

Merely "believing" cannot save anyone. If you tell someone to believe they are saved doesn't save him, and if you tell him to believe in a general sense, it doesn't make him believe. No one is saved before they are saved, but they can believe it.
Do you believe Jesus had insight? The Bible instructs us, faith is not a possession of all people. But we can look around and see that everybody believes SOMETHING. But there is more that the Bible says about these things. First, faith comes from accurate knowledge of truth, understanding the truth of God's Word and of Him, and second, you have to do something with it. Faith is not something you polish and set on the shelf to look at. You must act on your faith. Faith alone cannot save you. Faith without works is as lifeless a s a corpse. And your faith can fail, you could stop believing the truth, and then what would happen? The person saved from drowning in the swimming pool was not saved the day before he was pulled out. He was not saved until he was saved.
Jesus constantly demonstrated that he had insight and wisdom. The man in Mark you ask about, even I can see from the account, he cared more about his possessions than seeking the truth. I think Jesus could tell what was going on, that the man was not going to seek the truth and therefore would not find the true faith, the true belief.
Some think today that they may be ahead of things to the point that they know who will be saved and those who wont, but nobody will know beforehand. If you are fortunate enough to make it, I am sure you will look around and be surprised at who made that you thought wouldn't, and those who aren't there that you were sure would be.
Today many people may be inclined to quick make that rich man believe like we tell him so we can trim a little money off of him, eh? It is shamefully common amongst religions pretending to follow Jesus to do anything they can to placate the rich guy so that they can get some of their money, and that has gone on so long that attitude gets drilled into those not cautious.
Having money isn't the bad thing, but Jesus gave many lessons on the relative importance of things, and evidently he perceived the lack in that man was that he held his riches to be more important than learning the true faith. The lesson hasn't changed. The true disciples follow Jesus.
There are many who try to change what Jesus said, and many believe them, but there is only one truth, only one faith. And Jesus is the only Way to be saved.

Answer 7

Probably because Jesus already knew that the rich man's heart was for his possessions. Jesus wants ALL of us. We cannot put ANYTHING or ANYONE before Him. He is a jealous God. He knew the rich man would not put Him above his stuff/money. He was not willing to give up all and follow Christ.

You're right about us too readily saying, "Just believe and you'll be saved." The devils believe and tremble, but they're not saved!

Serving Christ is a commitment, and we must allow Him to conform us to His Word.

Merry Christmas to you and your wife, Don!

Answer 8

What a lot of people don't realize, especially OUR generation, is that along with receiving the gift of salvation, we have a servant's responsibility to do God's will by serving our fellow man. It's not a matter of just saying you accept salvation and then going your careless way. A GENUINE salvation experience will cause your heart to want to do these things. It's more than following a ritualistic code (Thou shalt ...thou shalt not...) You can follow the "LAW" all day and if your heart and your motives are not pure, you're wasting your time.Jesus was teaching that there are responsibilities one has when they accept Him as Savior. So there's no controversy here, just a clarification of responsibility.

" If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them"

Answer 9

Just reading this little portion brother Don was really touching on many levels.
What stands out to me is that this young man was a " Good " young man. He kept the law from his youth. Observing all of it.
His addressing of the Lord said something to the Lord from the onset.
He called the Lord " Good Teacher"
This young man was very good and he sort the Lord out to know of more " good" things that will cause him to inherit eternal Life.

Yet this young man, even though he was good still did not see that what the Lord was after was not to make more "good " men but men who knew how to deny the self, pick up the cross and follow Him.

What the Lord Jesus asked the young man is what He asks all of us.
This young man thought that since he was already such a good person that he needed a little more good instructions from the Good Teacher in order to gain eternal life.

Did the Lord turn this young man away?
Look at verse 21
"Then Jesus beholding him loved him..."

The Lord looked at this young man and loved him. He saw someone who was so earnest to do good yet missing the mark completely. When we love the Lord in retuen we will speak as our brother Paul who counted all things as " dung" compared to the Lord.
Nothing, not his high attainments could compare the Lord Jesus to whom he was a slave in bonds.

Paul not only followed the Lord, but he first denied all of he was..the good and the bad.. he picked up his cross by living a crucified life.... learning that" godliness with contentment is great gain"
Following the Lord comes with a price..
A price that this young good man was not willing to pay.
The Lord saw this.. and He beheld and loved this young man.. but deep in His heart the Lord knew that if this man could choose NOW between all his riches and Him then He meant business with the Lord. That he was not just after more good knowledge.. not just after Christ as a Good man.. but as a Godman. The Lord was not God to this man. He was just Good.

In closing brother... God truly desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the Truth.

But I'd just want to say this one thing.
Remember when Mary broke her alabaster box and anointed the Lord's body with it ... The disciples saw this as a waste.. but the Lord said something striking four chapters down in Mark 14:9
" Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel of proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial to her."

To me this means that YES the gospel if grace is free to us.. on the one hand...but on the other hand.. we must be willing, like Mary to break and pour out all that we are on the Lord. The gospel is free.. but the price to deny the self,take up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus COMES with it. This is our part. the Lord already paid the highest price for our salvation.

May we follow Him.

Love You brother
Your sister
sandy

Answer 10

Actually my dear, Jesus was exposing the truth of his heart that he would not make it in the long haul. Yes we are told today to just ask Jesus in your heart and get saved. Jesus also said "count the cost" so what Jesus was helping this guy do was count the cost right then and there and IF the price was going to be all his goods the guy could not handle it. So actually this story is a word of wisdom to evangalists, the reason so many people supposedly get "converted" to Christ and it doesn't stick is they did not count the cost and they were not advised to do so. The cost is everything to follow Jesus. Good point you made here brother.