A moral man of wealth, a man upstanding in every way, asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Mark 10:17). Jesus’ answer, give it all up and follow Me, discouraged the man. He walked away sad. Well, thought the disciples, if such an exemplary person doesn’t have it, “Who can be saved?” (Mark 10:26).
Reformation celebrates the answer. Martin Luther said in his explanation of the Second Article, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins….” “Who can be saved?” We are saved only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, which is a Lutheran way of expressing what Jesus said to the rich man. Our lives of sanctification don’t save us; God’s gift of justification through faith in Jesus does.
Church-goers often overlook this fact: the hard question of eternal salvation is irrelevant to many people today. “Who can be saved?” assumes a final accountability for how we live, a judgment of our life and works. And that assumes that we will give an answer to someone greater than we are, the Creator of all things. You and I believe that but surveys show most Americans do not. They find their answers by looking within themselves. “You have your opinion; I have mine. Who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?” “Who can be saved?” That’s a question our contemporaries are not asking.
How do we lead others to be concerned about judgment, grace and the gift of eternal life? C.S. Lewis wrote, “Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis—in itself very bad news—before it can win a hearing for the cure.” That means, in Reformation terms, the use of the Law. Our contemporaries are like Narcissus of Greek mythology, so in love with himself that he died, but our contemporaries don’t know their hurting lives are the effect of God’s Law. Luther: “God’s love does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. Human love comes into being through that which is pleasing to it” (Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 28). God’s love is the cure. “Come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Sharing God’s Law and love with our contemporaries will take our considerable time with them and our own selfless love for them.
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