Part Two  

"The rich young man did not get saved but Jesus stilled looked at him and loved him (Mark 10:21)."...[therefore, does not Jesus love all - even those who reject Him?]

My Response: I nowhere find in the Bible one verse which intimates the young man did not one day see the error of his ways and repent, believing the Gospel. Please educate me if I have missed a verse!

We can, by intelligent exegesis, uncover some very important truths by reading further in the text.

(1) Loving someone does not include silence regarding overt sin. Telling the truth to a sinner or sinning Christian is manifestation of love, not hate. Jesus loved him in telling him his sin of avarice, and what to do.

(2) Without the irresistible, unfailing grace of God, not one sinner would willingly abdicate his love for the riches of sin. A camel can no more squeeze through the eye of a needle than can a sinner rich in sin squeeze into Heaven.

(3) Jesus stresses the impossibility of one person on earth saving himself by his own free-will decision to repent, lose his life of sin, following Christ wherever He may lead. With God all things are possible. The Greek word for possible is dunatos, signifying power, ability to do something, perform something. God is all-powerful -- omnipotent. He can perform the impossible. In this context, Jesus is teaching us that salvation is not in man's power. Believing is not in man's power. Following Christ is not in man's power. Repenting is not in man's power. Hating sin and loving God is not in man's power. Giving up sin and loving holiness is not in man's power. However, these necessary acts of Christian discipleship, proof of genuine conversion, are within the power of God to bestow upon those Elect whom He loved before the foundation of the world.

Proof that this supernatural power is in God's unique dominion finds evidence in the miraculous healings by Christ upon the blind, infirm, and demon possessed, etc. He even raised the dead. In these divine acts of mercy, healing, reconstruction and resurrection are seen God's invisible salvific grace always resulting in forgiveness of sin, regeneration, repentance, seeing the Kingdom of Heaven, hearing Christ, and following Christ, though the sinner was once absolutely dead in his sins. Impossibly, the sinner's stony heart is replaced with a heart of flesh. To circumcise the outward male organ is one thing, but to circumcise the inner organ of the heart is another matter. The latter is the sole gracious work of God upon the Elect sinner. Furthermore, just as Christ never failed to heal one person whom He intended to heal, so it is He cannot fail to save one sinner He wills to save. Christ didn't try to heal, He healed! Likewise, Christ doesn't try to save, He saves!

Additionally, just as the man born blind from birth has no power whatever to heal himself, so likewise does the sinner from birth have no power whatever to heal himself of his sin. Both must place faith in the power of God alone. Both must wait upon the will and time of the Lord. Both must pray for His mercy and compassion.

However, the similarities end when we examine the desires of both. Unlike the blind man who recognizes his need for sight, desiring such, the sinner has no such recognition, if left to his own devices. Unlike the sick man who recognizes his need for a physician, the sin sick sinner refuses to recognize his need for the Savior Jesus. The log of sin in his eye is too massive, hindering his ability to see his need for Christ. The log is too heavy and too deep for him to remove it himself. But once the log is removed, by the grace and power of God, the sinner sees that which he had been blind to those many years: his sin, his need for forgiveness and Christ, his only Savior.