Eternal Life Doesn't Come From Believing In Jesus

"Eternal Life Doesn't Come From Believing In Jesus" - yeah, for real ... and it isn't something I pulled out of thin air, either; instead, it comes right from Jesus himself.

Let's flip the Bible open to the book of Matthew and explore chapter 19 where Jesus encounters a rich man who poses an interesting question to Jesus ...

"What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Man.

This is Jesus' big chance, right?  He took all of the Evangelism classes in seminary, he surely mastered all of his internships and memorized the Great Commission (that he hadn't given yet).

Right?

And so this is his big chance to make to make his very best pitch - a fastball right down the middle that the Rich man would surely hit out of the park.

"Eternal life?  Ahhhh, my friend.  Wonderful question.  First, you must believe that I will die for your sins.  Yes - me.  I am going to get nailed to a cross with all of the sins you ever committed.  And I'm going to do that because God is super mad at your sin, but rather than abuse you for it, he's going to abuse me.  Yeah - I'm going to take YOUR punishment.  All you need to do is believe that, confess yours sins (even though I'm going to die for them - I know it's confusing, Rich Man, but hang with me), and vow to follow me all the days of your life.  And then, BOOM - eternal life is yours."

And since this is Jesus' big chance to spell out once and for all exactly what eternal life is, we (as good church people) would expect that this would be his response, right?

"Believe in me!  Believe in me and you will be saved."

Except ... that's not what he says.  Like, not at all. Apparently Jesus wasn't paying attention in his Evangelism class because he doesn't give the right answer, but (instead) gives an answer that would make his Evangelism professor write a big fat "F" on the top of his paper.

He says this ...

"If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.  You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Wait, what?

You mean you don't need to believe in Jesus to get eternal life?  There's no magic prayer?  There's no blood sacrifice that needs to be made to make this dude right with God?  Or worthy of entering the Kingdom?

He just needs to ... obey the commandments?  Like, it's not about what he believes, but about the way he lives his life?  

Apparently.

And so the Rich guy says that he's done all of these things already and so then Jesus tells him to sell all of his stuff and give to the poor, which was apparently way too much for the Rich guy to handle and so he went away sad.

I have nothing profound to say other than the obvious - eternal life isn't really about what you believe and it's not about saying a magical prayer.  If it was, Jesus would have made it pretty clear when the Rich guy very bluntly asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Life, instead, comes from living a life of love and grace and mercy and forgiveness.  It comes from choosing to live a life that isn't violent and isn't full of hatred or jealousy or revenge.  It comes from living the life that Jesus modeled for us, even with his last breath when he begged God to forgive even his greatest enemies.  

Let’s put it this way: if “believing in Jesus” is important at all, it’s not about believing in something he did as much as it is believing in the life that Jesus lived, believing that the life of love and grace and forgiveness that he modeled is the best way and the truest way to be human, the only way to bring heaven to earth.

The early Christians were called “Followers of the Way” for a reason. Not “followers of this doctrine” or “followers of that theology” or “followers of that thinking” or “followers of that belief system”, but followers of the way.

Why?

Because this …

THIS.

THIS is eternal life - this way (the Jesus way, the way of Christ) is the kind of life that brings life from heaven to earth.  This is the kind of life that rips the curtain that separates heaven and earth.  This is the kind of life that will change the world. 

Sign me up.

Peace.

(PS - yeah, I can hear it now … “You’re just talking about this one verse from Matthew. What about what Luke said? Or Paul said? Or Peter said? What about what they said about Jesus?” Yeah, I know what they said. I spent 8 years in seminary and 4 years in Bible College and 8 years in a Private Christian School. I know the verses. But I’m not talking about what they said that Jesus said. I’m talking about what Matthew says Jesus said to the Rich Man. And if eternal life really is about believing the right things about Jesus so we can get to heaven and avoid hell, then Jesus did the Rich Man dirty, lied to him, and got him tossed into hell … which is a pretty un-Jesus-like thing to do. Wouldn’t you agree?)