<p>10:17<i> And as he was proceeding along the road, a man ran to him and kneeled before him, and asked him: Good Teacher, what shall I do- </i>This young man (Mt. 19:20) was a &quot;ruler&quot; (Lk. 18:18). To come to Jesus in a public place &quot;in the way&quot; and running- when rulers were supposed to never run in public but maintain decorum- all positively indicates a genuine belief in Jesus. Kneeling before Him was also a public sign of acceptance of Jesus as Lord. But he failed as so many do with respect to his wealth. He was a yuppie, a high flier, a rich young man who was also a &quot;ruler&quot;. And he wasn't going to give that up; his 'sincerity' is shown by his sadness RV &quot;his countenance fell&quot; and his going away &quot;grieved&quot; (:22). This walking away is an anti-climax, not the expected outcome of all the devotion displayed. But the account is structured in this unexpected way to highlight the extraordinary significance of a person's attitude to wealth, and how this can make all their other devotion meaningless.</p><p>The man was clearly influenced by the Jewish idea that one supreme good deed (Mt. &quot;good thing&quot;) could assure the doer of salvation. This was particularly popular amongst the zealots, who considered that suicidal attacks on the Romans could assure them of salvation; the same mentality is to be found in Islamic suicide bombers today. But in His typical manner, the Lord doesn&rsquo;t address the misunderstanding but rather works with it. He ends up telling the man that if he sells all he has and gives to the poor, then he will have &ldquo;treasure in Heaven&rdquo;. This, therefore, isn&rsquo;t a global command to every Christian. It was designed especially for this young man who thought that just one great act of obedience would secure salvation. The Lord went along with this by giving him such an example; but added: &ldquo;And come and follow Me&rdquo;, thus gently correcting the idea that one great act is enough for salvation.&nbsp;</p><p>Rom. 7:19 is Paul&rsquo;s allusion here, where he laments that like the young man, the good that he would do same Greek words he finds himself unable to do because of the sin that dwells within him. But instead of walking away from the Lord as this man did, Paul threw himself upon the Lord&rsquo;s grace. This zealous young man was also understood by Peter as representative of us all; for he clearly alludes to him in 1 Pet. 3:10,11: &ldquo;He who would love life and see good days cp. the young man wanting to &ldquo;have eternal life&rdquo;&hellip; let him&hellip; do good&rdquo; (same Greek words).&nbsp;</p><p><i>That I may inherit eternal life?- </i>But Jesus had taught that the Kingdom of God on earth would be 'inherited' by the poor and meek (Mt. 5:5). If the man had thought that one through, he would've known the answer ahead of time. If he was rich and young, the chances are he had inherited his wealth- and he wanted to know how he could inherit eternity as well. He likely figured that money can buy everything- and in a strange way, the Lord was saying that the giving of wealth and inheriting eternity <i>are</i> in fact related, although actually ultimate 'goodness' and acceptance with God can't come from any such work of obedience.</p><p>&ldquo;Inherit&rdquo; eternal life suggests he considered eternity a right that he must receive if he does only one great deed. The disciples heard the Lord assuring His people that those who follow Him will &ldquo;<i>have</i>&nbsp;eternal life&rdquo;, enter the Kingdom, enter into life, etc. But having heard all that, Peter asked: &ldquo;We have left all&hellip; what shall we&nbsp;<i>have</i>?&rdquo; (Mt. 19:27). The irony of it all is tragic. They&rsquo;d just been promised they would &ldquo;have&rdquo; eternal life. But that wasn&rsquo;t enough. Their focus was very much on this life; what shall we have&nbsp;<i>here and now</i>? They couldn&rsquo;t see very much beyond the present, past the curvature of their earth.&nbsp; Ruth&rsquo;s unnamed relative could have been her redeemer; but when he realized he would have to marry her and have children, and split up his fields into more strips so as to give those children an inheritance along with that of his existing children- he pulled out. He wouldn&rsquo;t &lsquo;mar his inheritance&rsquo;. He saw ahead to his death, to the next generation. His horizon was 20 years at most. But Boaz who didn&rsquo;t think like this established his spiritual inheritance eternally, and is therefore mentioned in the Lord&rsquo;s genealogy. Whilst the short sighted man passed off the page of history anonymously; his name wasn&rsquo;t preserved.</p>