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. Matthew 19:21
Over the past few years, I filled out a number of online surveys for a polling company. For each one I filled out, I earned a number of points. I received a note recently from the company, telling me I had built up enough points so that I could redeem those points for valuable items or for money. So I accessed my points account, and selected the option to have the points converted into money and placed into my PayPal account. While the points remained as points, they were of no benefit to me or anyone else. But now that they have been transferred into cash, they are useful. In the same way, our possessions here in this life have no real and lasting value, until we convert them into treasure in Heaven.
The Lord Jesus in today’s text is bringing before the young rich man the reality of His failure to love his neighbour as himself. But He is also stating a valuable lesson in economics: treasure in Heaven is obtained by converting our treasure here on earth. The God of Heaven has been gracious and generous to us by giving us many things, including our possessions, our money, our time, and our abilities. But we need to keep in mind that these things have been loaned to us, they have not been given to us permanently. Everything that we own is ours only until the day we die, then it must all be left behind for others to fight over. But the Lord Jesus is revealing a way for that which the Lord has given us to become ours eternally. He is unveiling a program for transferring earth’s possessions into Heaven’s treasures.
It is a two-stage program, as our text reveals. The first stage is to use our possessions as the Lord Jesus directs. The young man with great possessions was instructed to sell all and give to the poor. Those great possessions would have gone far in alleviating misery for many people. Yes, there are many people around us who could surely benefit from receiving financial aid from us or from others. Someone has suggested that God has allowed so many people to be poor so that His people would have plenty of opportunity to transfer their possessions to Heaven through them. God may not have the same plan for you to spend your money, your time, your energies, and abilities. But He does want you to spend them in His service and at His direction. The second step in the transfer program is to follow the Lord Jesus. Having sold all his possessions, the rich young man would become dependent on the Lord Jesus for everything. This is a lesson that every Christian must learn, that we are dependent on the Lord Jesus for everything. The closer we follow Him, the more we understand living by faith and not by self.
Heaven’s bank is now open to accept our deposits. -Jim MacIntosh