EXPLORE THE TEXT
We can be encouraged
knowing salvation is received as a gift from God.
23 Jesus said to his disciples,
“Truly I tell you,
it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.24 Again I tell you,
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said,
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
a crowd (Matt. 19:2)
and the disciples (19:13)
were with Jesus during the encounter with the young man.
In the next verses,
we see that even Jesus’s closest followers were flabbergasted by the scene.
Jesus reinforced His statement with a hyperbole
of a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
The picture of a large camel
trying to fit through such a tiny opening
would have seemed impossible.
In essence, Jesus was saying
squeezing a camel through a needle and a rich man getting into the kingdom
both required acts of God.
Explain why the disciples were shocked by Jesus’s words:
Jesus’s statement here was in direct contradiction
to the traditions of Judaism
that intimated that a person’s wealth gave evidence of God’s favor.
Wealthy Jews often thought they could purchase a more favored position
with God through their gifts to the temple
or through the giving of alms to the poor.
Jesus, however, taught something very different. .
Wealth or poverty didn’t matter.
Only God can bring salvation to a person,
for with Him all things are possible.
Salvation and entrance into the kingdom of God
is dependent on God and God alone. (PSG, p. 68)