# 209: “What Must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?”

There are at least three verses in the New Testament that mention the above sentence (title) in conjunction with loving God with all one’s faculties as a requirement for life, and three that mention obedience to God’s commands as a requirement for eternal life. I will quote all six to see if we can cut through the confusion and come to an accurate conclusion as to what is being said.

1) Matthew 19:16-24. "Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ ‘Why do you ask me what is good?’ Jesus replied. ‘There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commands.’ ‘Which ones?’ the man inquired. Jesus replied, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘All these I have kept,’ the young man said. ‘What do I still lack?’ Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’ When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

2) This verse is similar to # 1 and # 3, and most likely the same incident. Mark 9:17-35. "As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’ Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”

3) Luke 18:18-35. This section is most likely the same account as #1 and # 2. "A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered, ‘no one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, honor your father and mother.’ ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said. When Jesus heard this he said to him, ‘you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’"

4) Matthew 22:35-40. This verse is similar to #5. "One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest command in the law?’ Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."

5) This verse is slightly similar to # 4 and may be the same incident. Mark 12:28-34. "One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which one is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. ‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying there is but one God and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no one dared to ask him any more questions."

6) This section is well-known as the story of the Good Samaritan and could be an elongated form of # 4 and # 5. Luke 10:25-37. "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to enter eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’ He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ In reply, Jesus said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have had.” Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, “the one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”’"

Even though the authors of the same accounts use different words, phrases, clauses—and even leave out or add more or less sentences and paragraphs—the meaning of the doctrines of what they were writing are in agreement. As anyone upon close scrutiny can tell, some of their writings were copied from bits and pieces of manuscripts which might have first been written from memory by eyewitnesses and servants of the word, years before, by unknown persons. Remember, these three gospels were written anywhere from twenty to thirty-five years after—and maybe even longer after—the death of Jesus Christ. And after that many years, even the best memories may not always remember verbatim, even while being inspired by God’s Spirit. Nevertheless, the discrepancies or errors in these sections do not dilute or defile the meaning of the messages; and that’s where the value lies.

The question four of these accounts are asking is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And two are asking, “What is the greatest or most important commandment of all?” It is strange to say, but the same answer applies to all the above verses. Obey God’s greatest commands and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. What shall we make of this enigma? The answer seems to be that we must love God as He requires and be obedient to Christ’s commands. But that is not the complete answer. In order to love God and be obedient, it must be a result of belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Therefore, the answer is to first believe in Christ;, second, love God; and third, obey, which always is the result of our faith and love.

The reason I am bringing up this difficult-to-explain and hard-to- understand subject is because on June 16, 2007, I was watching a Billy Graham rerun of a crusade that was first presented in 1974 in the province of Nova Scotia in Canada. I listened to Graham’s every word, although I didn’t agree with some of what he was preaching. The sermon he was preaching on was concerning the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to enter eternal life?’ He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" What Graham said next blew my mind: He said that no one since the world began has ever kept that command to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” Does he know that obedience to that verse is the foundation which holdsup all that is written in the entire Bible? As it says in Matthew 22:40, "All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." Another important aspect about our heavenly Father is that He would never, ever give us a commandment which is impossible to adhere to; plus, it is the most important of all commands. I am not certain the exact reason why Billy Graham, who is a Baptist, and others believe this way, but my guess is it makes the Christian life much easier to live by without having such a high standard continually hanging over their heads at all times. If you have children/a child, would you give them orders which they could not accomplish?

With the wave of his hands and the movement of his lips, he abolished the most important part of the entire Holy Bible: love for God. I have heard preachers imply what he said, but have never heard it said so blatantly. Then Graham came up with this statement: “How many of you are certain you are going to heaven? Do you sometimes have doubts? If you want to be certain where you are going after death, you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and thus be born again. Then you will know for certain you are a permanent member of God’s family.”

I think—in fact, I know—that he was implying that loving God with one’s all is not going to get anyone to heaven. You need to be born again. And that is true. What he was attempting to do is to delete the following short sentence which says in Luke 10:28, "‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’" Repeating, Bill Graham is a Baptist, and Baptists believe that once a person has accepted Jesus Christ and is born again, they can never lose their Salvation. They call it, “Once saved, always saved.” Click on post # 152: “Billy Graham: Man of God?” to get more details on Graham and the Baptists.

Now back to how Graham’s demonic deletion of the all- important part of Scripture concerning how we must love God. Let me quote the definition of love from Webster’s New World College Dictionary to give us an idea as to what love is according to human standards, and then compare it to our love for God. Love: "A deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons."

Now here is the question I pose: Is it possible to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength? The answer is a resounding yes! When one has a wholehearted affection, attachment and devotion to God, what more can one do? Of course, we will know we have that form of relationship if we are obedient to all that God, through Christ, teaches. It is that simple. I must reiterate: That attachment to God and Christ can only come about once we have been born again. That new birth is tentative to our continued commitment to Him. If, by some chance, we unknowingly or knowingly fall from grace and are living in continual sin, that supposedly new birth, with or without our knowledge, never resonated with God.

There is a battery of evidence in the New Testament Scripture which corroborates the principle that everyone’s Salvation is conditional on obedience. Just these two upcoming verses shatter the “Once saved, always saved” belief, which many large denominations hold, including Baptists. 1st Corinthians 15:2. "By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain." 1st Corinthians 10:12. "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful you don’t fall." For many more verses, click on post # 197: "If, etc." Displaying that truth is also found in many other posts as a germane part of this blog.

We must remember, God knows the future of every person on this planet. Therefore, those like myself who don’t believe in “Once saved, always saved” are accused of making God into an Indian-giver (today one is saved if they are good, and if tomorrow, one is bad, God takes away one’s Salvation, and so on). That is a stupid and ungodly argument. God is not an Indian-giver.

When we make a commitment (actually being born again) to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and eventually believe everything else Christ did to give us eternal life—to put it in human terms—at that time of conversion, our names are written, ritually and tentatively, in the book of life at the end of time. Only those who endure to the end of their lives are the one’s whose names will remain in the book of life; all the defectors’ (those who believed and obeyed only for a while) names are erased. That final step of erasing the names of the fakes could easily be called “The Revised Edition” of the book of life. Revelation 3:5. "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never erase his name from the book of life."

In summation, if anyone is aware of a need for change in their lives for the better, the best place to go is to the One who designed us; He knows the type of life which is best for His creation. Therefore, go God’s way; make a commitment to Jesus Christ and become a child of God. There are no fees to join God’s club; it is given to us gratis by His grace. Then comes the difficult training; even though we will be living in the joy and comfort of the Lord, it will still cost us an arm and a leg along with a pound of flesh to live in obedience to Christ’s teaching; that obedience is evidence that we love Him, and that same obedience becomes the factor that produces results (fruit, works and deeds.) The reason why living the genuine Christian life will cost so much—not monetarily—and be extremely challenging is because we must continually win over the most unrelenting and powerful innate instinct all humans have been endowed with: our selfish human nature/survival of the fittest. It was taught by nature to always say, "Me first; I love me; who do you love?” and “Hooray for me and boo for you." Of course, we don’t use these self-centered words; instead, we live in a realm of euphemisms, using the word “prosperous” instead of “greedy,” and so on. No one wants to be called greedy, but most everyone loves to be called prosperous. This is the part of the Gospel many churchy Christian religions don’t touch, of which this blog glories.

Through the new birth, our Holy Spirit-inspired obedience is what will teach us how and give us the strength to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. It is like joining the armed services. No one has to pay to become a soldier. But once enlisted, the difficult training starts and never seems to stop since the battlefield is the real training ground.

This commitment we make to Christ does not need any witnesses. We can do it solo. At that time, many lifestyle changes will eventually have to be made, but with the peace and grace we receive from the Holy Spirit, it still won’t be easy and it may take some time to live as we are directed. We may slip and fall—hopefully not—but if we do, we have a loving and merciful God who is full of compassion. Go to Him with a contrite heart and ask for forgiveness, and Christ will be waiting with open arms to make things right.

I am certain most everyone will need some guidance along the way. Studying the New Testament is the best course to go, even though many sections will be difficult, if not impossible, to understand. This blog will be a helpful companion in understanding and bringing to the surface many neglected and seemingly secluded Bible verses. I strongly suggest not joining any established church. They, most likely, won’t teach the unpleasant though absolutely essential stuff. Their main interest is to make us members (numbers count) and get our donations so we can enjoy their half-baked gospel message.

I am certain there are churches that attempt to follow the guidelines of the New Testament. To my dismay, I have not found one yet. Or start your own house church. Or to go to the extreme: Place an ad in the local news paper, etc., stating that you are looking to join a house church that lives in obedience to the teachings of the New Testament. Click on # 96: "The House Church." God bless all who take this post to heart, and He will. This post answers the question: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"