TWO LEVELS OF SALVATION
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The idea of two places to spend eternity
following the millennium, one on earth and the other in heaven, may be a new
idea for many students of the Bible.
Yet, this teaching by our Lord in so many Scriptures throughout the
Bible is an exciting treasure hunt.
This study deals primarily with just one of many places that this truth
is taught. This study deals with the
three Gospel accounts of the Rich Young Ruler.
Quite often when one tries to prove the
Biblical teaching of two levels of salvation, he is using Scriptures that need
more support. For example, the Lord's
prayer alludes to two levels of Salvation.
I'm sure everyone knows it by heart.
It’s Matt: 6:10 which is the Lord’s prayer. This prayer teaches two levels of salvation but most students
fail to see it that way. Let’s look at
it: Someone please quote it or else please read it from your
Study guide: (Matt. 6:10):
"Thy
Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
In this prayer we have an overview of a
very basic truth concerning two levels of salvation. To the thoughtful student of the Scriptures the words heaven
and earth indicate there are two places where life exists.
Jesus clearly taught that there are TWO
places where one may spend eternity.
All of Christendom believes in a heavenly
salvation, yet the fact of an additional earthly
salvation is overlooked by millions of these same Christians.
It’s quite true that our Lord had a great
deal to say about Heaven and the Kingdom of heaven. But why should we pray “Thy kingdom come….to earth as in
heaven?” What a foolish thing to ask
for if no one is going to be here to be in that kingdom during all of
eternity? On the other hand, many
Christians do share a belief in two levels of salvation. Oh they may call it different things, but it
amounts to TWO quality places where one may spend eternity. To be sure
our Lord never said there is only one place to spend eternity nor did He teach
any such thing.
Once again let's read the last part of the Lord's Prayer.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven.
Obviously there were two places to live
when Jesus gave us that prayer. And
those two places are earth and heaven.
And the interesting thing is that our Lord told us to pray for God's
kingdom to come to earth and for His will to be done on the earth. Certainly, He intends for that to come to
pass. And when that prayer is finally
answered and God's will is actually being done on the earth, then the earth
will be a beautiful place to live.
But, again, the Lord's prayer alone would not give us enough
Scriptural proof to teach others a doctrine of TWO levels of salvation, would
it?
Consider the covenant God made with
Abraham in which God said that Abraham's
seed would be as the sand of the seashore and as the stars of
heaven. Again a teaching of two
levels of salvation.
And there are others like these. Yet everyone has their own way of
study. In my case, when it comes to
complex proofs I use what I call Charlie's Law. Let me explain. Charlie's
law is simply "If you know what
you are looking for, then you can recognize it when you find it."
There are other Scriptures we could use to prove these "two levels
of salvation." But we feel the three accounts of the Rich Young Ruler are
the best. This is NOT a parable
but a real live encounter between our Lord and a young man. It is a factual story. And we find this
account in not one or two BUT three of the four Gospels;
Matthew, Mark and Luke. Although these
versions are all worded very much the same, there are some very subtle
differences that deserve considerable study.
You have your study guide with all three
of these accounts printed side by side in columns. To begin let's read the Matthew account from Matt. 19:16 stopping
with verse 22: Someone read:
Matt: 19:16-22
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I
do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And Jesus
said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is,
God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith
unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honor thy
father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
20 The young
man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I
yet?
21 Jesus said
unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when
the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great
possessions.
Please keep in mind that we are looking
for scriptures to prove eternal life in both HEAVEN and EARTH. So, according to Charlie's law, since we
know what we are looking for, we will recognize it when we find it.
This is normally referred to as the
account of the rich-young-ruler. But nowhere
does it call him a "rich-young ruler.
However in the Matthew
account (verse 20) the man is said to be YOUNG.
Then in Luke 18:18 we learn that he is a RULER and in verse 23 he is said to be "very rich." So we just lump it all together and call him
the "Rich Young Ruler." We
will use this principle of using all the accounts, whenever we can, to help us
arrive at the truth.
So let's begin. Look at the first verse of all three accounts. We just read the
Matthew account which says, "behold ONE
came and said unto him "Good Master...".
Now what does the Luke account say in
Luke 18:18?
Someone
read:
"a certain ruler asked him saying, Good Master...".
But the Mark account is slightly
different. What does the first verse of
the Mark account say. Someone read Mark 10:17: "there came one running and kneeled to
him, and asked him "Good Master...?"
The Greek word translated
"Master" could be translated just as accurately with the words
instructor or doctor or teacher. In
fact, some translations use the word "teacher" but in all cases the
word GOOD precedes it.
Right away it becomes obvious that the
young man believed that Jesus was his master or teacher when he called
Him "Good Master." And to
emphasize the point we notice in the Mark account that he kneeled before
Jesus.
At this point I believe we could call the
young man a rich-young-believing-ruler, for it's quite obvious that he
believed our Lord Jesus Christ was his
savior. I think we would be entirely
correct in calling him a rich-young-Christian-ruler.
It must have been the combination of the
words "Good Master" coupled with the kneeling before Jesus that
triggered Jesus response in the next verse where Jesus reminded the young man
that no one is good except God.
Take a moment and look at the second
verse from the top in each column.
(PAUSE)
Next we need to consider what the meeting was all about. From his questions it becomes obvious
that the rich-young-Christian had serious concerns about getting older and
dying. He wanted to know about eternal
life.
His question takes TWO forms. In the Matthew account the question is what
"good thing" shall I do to HAVE (notice the word have)
eternal life.
But, in both the Mark and Luke accounts
the question is different. In both the
Mark and Luke accounts the word "have" is missing and is replaced with "inherit." This makes the question drastically different in these two Gospels. In the
Matthew account he is asking about having
eternal life, but in the other two gospels the young man is asking, "What
shall I do to inherit eternal
life?"
Perhaps this gives us our first real clue
as to why the meeting went as it did.
In reality the young man was asking TWO questions concerning
eternal life. He was asking about HAVING
eternal life and INHERITING eternal life. There is a big difference in
having something and inheriting something.
Please
think about this difference. Any
comments on Having something and Inheriting something?
It may be that the young man didn't
realize he was asking two different questions, but Jesus knew there were two
questions as we will see from our Lord's reply.
To deal with this complex question, Jesus
replied in verse 17 of the Matthew account.
Someone read what
He said:
"if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. You will notice
that all three accounts agree with this.
In other words, Jesus answered the question something like this and
please permit me to paraphrase:
"If you want eternal life, you may have it by keeping the
commandments."
Now
read verse 18!
He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said,
Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal,
Thou shalt not bear false witness,
The young man wanted to be sure, so he asked Jesus,
"Which Commandments?" After all
there were 10 commandments and perhaps the young man had some question in his
mind as to whether all ten were applicable.
Maybe we could restate it this way, "Which of the 10 must I keep to
have eternal life." And Jesus
named FIVE of the TEN commandments. In all three Gospel accounts Jesus named the same five.
1) Thou shalt not KILL, 2) thou shalt not commit ADULTERY, 3) thou
shalt not STEAL, 4) thou shalt not bear FALSE WITNESS, 5) and HONOR thy father
and mother.
You may have counted six commandments in
both Matthew and Mark and only 5 in Luke. But, the words, "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself" in the Matthew account were not part of the
original 10 commandments found in Exodus.
Rather these words are found in Leviticus 19:18. Jesus quoted these words when He reduced
the ten commandments to only two. We
are all familiar with the account in Matthew 22:37-39. This is not in your study guide so I’ll just
read it to you myself.
37 Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind.
38 This is the
first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Clearly the first four of the original ten commandments apply to our
love for God who is in heaven and the next five
have to do with loving our neighbor who is on earth. In reality the statement
in Matthew 19:19 is a summary of the neighborly five commandments.
So when Jesus said there were two
commandments "one great and the other like unto it" it would seem
that Jesus was differentiating between earthly and heavenly
commandments. And He was summarizing
the intent of all 10 commandments.
But, in the accounts of the Rich Young
Ruler the first four of the ten commandments were not quoted.
OK, who
knows what those four are?
1) "Thou
shalt have no other gods before me...."
2) "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image..."
3) "Thou
shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain...."
4) And
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it Holy...."
But also NOT quoted is the tenth
commandment. In fact it's not included
in ANY of the three accounts of the rich young ruler. The tenth commandment is "Thou shalt not COVET." Please remember this commandment is NOT
quoted.
The dictionary defines Covet as to
"wrongfully desire that which belongs to another." But, the best way to understand the word COVET is to see how the Bible
explained it when the 10 commandments were given.
Someone read Exodus
20:17 from your Bible:
"Thou shalt
not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant nor his maidservant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's."
This seems clear enough. In other words, to wrongfully desire a
specific something that belongs to thy neighbor is WRONG; it's
covetousness.
The teaching here is that it is a sin to
wrongfully desire anything that belongs to thy neighbor whether it be his wife
or his maidservant or anything belonging to thy neighbor.
Now let's not confuse this with
"keeping up with the Jones'."
If one's neighbor has a new car then it's OK for us to want a new car
too. Covetousness is to desire HIS car so that he WON'T HAVE
ONE. Actually covetousness is almost
synonymous with ENVY.
But covetousness does not have to stop
with wrongfully desiring what belongs to one's neighbor. One may also covet
what belongs to God. One example of
this is Satan who coveted the majesty and position of both God and Jesus. He wanted to exalt himself above God.
And certainly fleshly man can covet
what belongs to God too. One example of
this is the Tower of Babel. Another example is when Satan told Eve that by
following him, her children would be as gods. To covet the position held by our boss is a sin. Covetousness can take on many forms.
I think the key here for our correct
understanding of the Rich Young Ruler Scriptures is that the 10th commandment
was left out on purpose. This
seems obvious when it is left out of all three Gospel accounts.
While it is true that the Rich Young
Ruler had riches, we have no evidence (no documentation) that he wrongfully
desired what belonged to others. He may
have been selfish, he may have been foolish, he may have been a lot of things,
but we have no proof that he wrongfully wanted what belonged to his neighbors. So we have no proof that his riches were
obtained by any act of covetousness.
And we do not have the right to say he was covetous without Scriptural
backing.
Also, it's interesting to note that while
he seemingly worshipped his riches,
the first commandment "thou shalt have no other gods before me" was
not included by our Lord in any of the three accounts as a requirement for earthly salvation.
Now going back to verse 19 of the Mark
account we see the words "Defraud NOT" listed as one of the
commandments. To defraud means
"to cheat." And although the
words "defraud not" are not part of the 10 commandments cheating
someone out of something is vastly different from Covetousness.
But, the young man said in verse 20 of
the Mark account that he had not done this either, from his youth up. I believe
we can be certain that the young man was NOT guilty of cheating people
or of lusting after his neighbors possessions.
We are not told the source of the young man's wealth but evidently it
was NOT from defrauding
others or of being covetous. Enough
said about that.
(PAUSE) Getting back now to the original
question we should note that Jesus was saying something like this, "In
answer to your question, young man, about HAVING eternal life, you can HAVE it
by obeying the five commandments having to do with your parents and
neighbors." We might even hear our
Lord saying, "In response to your question about HAVING eternal life, I trust that I have answered your
question."
We should note that when our Lord
answered the question He said nothing about the young man being a ruler. He said NOTHING about whether or not the young man was rich
or poor. The only thing our Lord
discussed was the five earthly commandments dealing with how he treated his
fellow man. So we have to conclude that
this was Jesus TOTAL answer to the have question concerning
eternal life. In fact this answer from
our Lord completely agrees with John 3:16.
Someone quote John
3:16 from memory.
"For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
You see to believe in our Lord
necessitates believing in His teachings and obeying the 5 commandments He
specified. Most children understand that
quite easily.
But evidently the young man was not
satisfied. Maybe the young man thought that Jesus was holding something
back from him. Perhaps he thought that
if he pressed Jesus a little harder he would find out more.
The young man asked another
question. In Matthew verse 20 we have
his second question. He asked Jesus,
"What lack I yet?" It seems that the young man was asking,
"There must be something better.
What do I lack to qualify for the best there is?"
I hope everyone sees
that?
Now please notice that in the other two
accounts the young man didn't
ask "What lack I yet? "Isn't
that interesting?
However, Jesus said it for the young
man in Mark 10:21 when He said, "one thing thou lackest.”
And then again in Luke 18:22 our Lord
said it for the young man, "Yet lackest thou one thing."
I hope everyone sees
that?
Think about it! If only one thing is lacking then when that one thing is done, perfection is the result. Our
modern day terminology for lacking something is "Your elevator doesn't
quite go to the top" or "you're just one short of a six pack."
So back to our study sheet. Let's pick up the story at Matthew verse
21. Someone read Matt. 19:21:
"Jesus
said unto him, if thou
wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me."
Now, to better understand the term perfection
let us deviate just a bit by reading Matthew 5:48 from the Bible.
Someone please read it:
"Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Our Lord said this to His disciples as
part of the sermon on the mount. The
invitation to be perfect even as our Father is perfect is clearly an invitation
to sonship of God and joint heirship with Christ Jesus. In short we can hear Jesus saying to the
rich young ruler…."now if you want to be a son of my Father and a
brother of mine, you need to achieve perfection, and for perfection the
requirements are more involved and require more."
NOW Jesus was
telling the young man exactly how those earthly riches and position DO
enter the picture. He was about to
explain perfection, which requires a much higher level of commitment.
This higher level of commitment was an
entirely different prescription.
He explained perfection to the young man by saying something like this,
"If you want to be perfect and share with me in my inheritance you
will have to sell all that you have and give the money to the poor. By doing this you will have given up your
earthly rights and ambitions. No longer
will you have earthly rights and privileges of position and honor because your
treasure will have been transferred to heaven.
And perfection meant taking on the Divine Nature and being like
God the Father just as Jesus said in Matthew 5:48. And to restate Matthew 5:48:
"Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
But how can we be sure Jesus was inviting
the young man to the high calling?
Let's look now at Mark 10:21. Someone read
just to the comma:
"Jesus beholding him loved him…"
Only Mark recorded that information. Jesus didn't
say those words, yet Mark recorded what our Lord was thinking. Only the Holy Spirit could have given Mark
that insight. So according to Mark,
"Jesus looked at him and loved him…"
What does this tell us? What does the Bible teach us about those
whom Jesus loved? Let us be
reminded how Jesus loved His disciples, especially the Apostle John. We know
how Jesus spoke one way to the multitudes using parables while explaining those
parables in plain language to His disciples.
So when our Lord looked upon the face of the young man and loved him, He
invited him to become a follower.
Jesus explained more! Now let's look at the Mark account and
verse 21, OK Please continue reading Mark the 21st
verse:
Mark 10:21 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.
"….take up the cross and follow
me." To take up your cross means
to die and Jesus was inviting this
young man to follow Him and to die with Him.
Jesus made this crystal clear in Luke
14:27 where He said: “Whosoever
doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Now in order for the rich-young-ruler, or
anyone else for that matter, to do this it demands enormous trust and love for
Jesus. It means loving Jesus MORE than
anyone or anything in this physical realm.
Again in Luke 14:26 our Lord expounded on
this thought. He said, “If any man
come to me and hate not (which is to say, Love less) his father and mother and
wife and children…..he cannot be my disciple.”
In order to best understand how to love
Jesus more, we need to once again digress.
Let's examine Matthew 10:37 which is very similar to the Luke Scripture
we just read.
It’s not on your study guide so
please read it from your Bible.
"Anyone
who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who
loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
Now, keep that Scripture in mind as we go
back to our Lord's answer to the INHERIT question. Jesus brought to light an entirely new concept heretofore unheard
of. He was teaching perfection. And as
a good teacher, in just a few words, He explained being reborn into the family
of God and being a son of God. He
described living in heaven and being a joint heir with Christ and sharing in
His inheritance. And He explained that this would require loving Jesus MORE
than anyone or anything on this earth.
And for those who are trying to follow in His footsteps, they know that
the way is narrow and difficult and that love for the Master is the motivating
force for such a delicate walk.
But was the young man happy to learn all
this? Certainly not! And just like
millions of Christians today, he would walk away sorrowfully and never pick up
on the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Again our Lord said in Luke 14:33: “So likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsake not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple.” Please keep in
mind that Jesus said “cannot be My disciple.”
He did NOT say cannot have eternal life. We think this is very important.
In all three Gospel accounts (verse 22,
22 and 23) it says the young man went away sorrowfully for he had great
possessions. He was not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain the
high calling or perfection as our Lord called it.
But we must NOT lose sight of the fact
that he was already qualified for having eternal life on planet earth just like
he was. By believing in the master and
by keeping the five commandments our Lord had specified, he could remain
qualified to have eternal life on the earth.
You might say, once saved (to this earthly level of Salvation) always
saved!
(PAUSE)
To be sure this entire conversation between Jesus and the young man must
have sounded very STRANGE to the disciples. Let’s look at what happened
next. Let's examine verses 23-25. All three versions are similar, but it seems
the Mark version has more detail. So someone read these verses from Mark:
10:(23) And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto
his disciples, How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! (24) And the
disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith
unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into
the kingdom of God! (25) It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And right here is where it seems many
miss the entire point of the meeting.
As we have just read, Jesus said it's extremely difficult for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God, which is
to say the family of God and become a son of God and joint heir with
Christ. And then He further emphasized
the difficulty using an analogy of a camel going through a very low and small
gate.
So, when the disciples heard all this
Mark says they were "astonished out of measure." The Matthew account
says, "exceedingly amazed." In today's language
we might say, "this blew their minds." So (in verse 25, 26 and 26) they asked Jesus:
WHO THEN CAN
BE SAVED?
What does being saved mean? To many Christians, "to be saved"
means being saved FROM hell. Others think of being saved as meaning to
be saved TO heaven.
But what did the disciples have in mind
when they asked,
"Who then can be saved?"
Then Jesus looked straight at them and
answered the question with a very peculiar reply. He said, "With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible." That's a very strange answer. What was Jesus saying to them?
Our understanding is that Jesus was
saying "Men cannot save men from eternal death and neither can men
determine who inherits eternal life or where that life will be
lived. In other words, only God can
save someone from everlasting death and only God can place him or her into
eternal life and decide whether that life will be lived on earth or in heaven.
However, the disciples didn't hear it
this way. Their minds were still "blown." So Peter spoke up and asked a direct question. Read Matthew 19:27:
Then answered
Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what
shall we have therefore?
It's easy to imagine what Peter was
thinking about. We can just hear Peter
saying, "Lord we've done exactly
what you told the rich-young-Christian to do.
And he turned it down. On the other hand, we HAVE left
everything and followed You....now what do we get out of it?"
Then Jesus gave them a direct response.
The three accounts differ but the Matthew account goes further than the other
two. All three accounts shed light on our Christian walk and in one Gospel
account our Lord issued a warning when He said "with
persecutions."
I want you to notice the small box at the
end of column 3 on your study guide. It
refers to Luke 12:48.
Someone please read from the
box.
Verse 28 of Matthew explains only part of
the rewards; Someone read:
"Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
In verses 29 and 30 of the Mark Gospel
and in verses 29 and 30 of the Luke Gospel we learn more of the rewards for His footstep followers. Although much is given, much is
required. And we should heed the
warning in Mark verse 30 (which we have already read) which says "with
persecutions."
All three accounts promise everlasting
life to those who follow Him and leave all for His sake and the Gospels. When our
Lord told the rich young ruler the requirements for perfection, He didn't
explain the additional rewards.
But our Lord DID explain those things to the disciples. And He explains
it to us today through His word, the Bible.
Jesus was talking about the millennium
when he spoke of "in the regeneration." He was promising joint heirship and inviting them to sit on His
throne with Him to judge the 12 tribes of Israel. He was offering them Glory, Honor, immortality, the Divine
Nature, joint heirship with Himself and the unique majesty and privilege of
becoming sons of God almighty. This was
the promise made to Peter and the others, and it was the same invitation made
to the rich young ruler. And it's the
same invitation today. In order to be
with our Lord in the regeneration we have a price to pay right now. Truly this is treasure in heaven.
And one more thing! In verse 29 of the Matthew account
please notice the words "INHERIT everlasting
life." You see this is the account where the Have question was asked in the first verse…and now our Lord
uses the word inherit in
explaining the 2nd level of Salvation to His disciples. He makes it quite clear that what His
disciples receive will be INHERITED.
And the final verse, verse 30 "But many
that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." This appears to be a summary of the entire
conversation.
In
summary, let me just say there are TWO levels of salvation, two places to
spend eternity. The FIRST opportunity is for earthly salvation, where all tears
will be wiped away, where people are building houses and inhabiting them,
planting vineyards and beating swords into plowshares. This should completely
satisfy millions of highly frustrated Christians who have not left ALL and followed the Master.
But even so, those who have everlasting
life on earth will be last
compared to those who achieve perfection and inherit the other level of
Salvation, becoming sons and daughters of God.
These will be first… not last in the kingdom of God.
Certainly no one should be like the rich
young ruler and walk away sorrowfully when learning of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. And let those who have
forsaken all and who are following Christ get on their knees and praise
God for the blessed hope and the opportunity to live and reign with Christ for
a thousand years. May God add His
blessing to our study of His word.
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