Then the story continues with, “Jesus…said unto him, One
thing thou lackest.” What he lacked was a working revelation of
the covenant. The young man only did as he was supposed to.
He presented himself as knowing the Word, and Jesus tested
his knowledge by saying, “Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and
come, take up the cross, and follow me.” What did the young man
do? He walked off sadly because he had great possessions. Jesus
could have stopped him right then and explained what He
meant, but if He had, the man would have obeyed in the natural
and not by faith. If he had asked Jesus to explain Himself,
He would have. Each time His disciples asked Him to explain a
parable, He did, but He never explained it in order to get them
to act on it. If the man had really known the covenant, he
would have thought, “What does the covenant say about giving to
the poor?” He would have remembered Proverbs 19:17 that
says, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and
that which he hath given will he pay him again.” This was the
biggest financial deal that young man had ever been offered,
but he walked away from it because he didn’t know God’s system
of finance. He didn’t take the time to inquire; he just
assumed that God wanted to break him. Instead of being Word minded
that young man was money-minded.

When the rich young ruler walked away, Jesus said, “How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”
Then an interesting thing happened. The next verse says, “And
the disciples were astonished at his words.” We have just taken
it for granted that Jesus and His disciples didn’t have anything.
But the Bible describes Peter, James and John as professional
fishermen. They owned more than one boat, and they had
household servants! When Jesus spoke those words, it shook
them. It was adverse to what they had seen. They were astonished
at His words! Jesus was not poor in His ministry. He had a
treasurer! Turn off your religious head and read the Word of
God as if it were your newspaper.

Another point I want you to grasp is the reality of Jesus’ words,
“Come, take up the cross, and follow me.” What does “the cross”
refer to? The “cross we are to bear” is selfish, unlovely people. The
greatest commandment is that we love one another. Unfortunately,
some people are not easy to love, but we are to love them anyway.
We are to bear one another’s burdens and uphold one another. We
must stop strife with the love of God. This is our cross. Do you
realize the significance of His words, “Come…follow me”? These
are the words Jesus spoke to every man He commissioned as an
apostle. When I saw this, the Lord said, “Wouldn’t this man have
been the logical replacement for Judas?” Judas failed because of
the love of money. He even stole from the bag! This young ruler
was an excellent businessman; he was honest and had operated
the covenant from his youth. He was perfect for the job, but he
turned his back on this tremendous opportunity to follow Jesus.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland