And those who heard it said, And who can be saved?
Behind this question stands a rich man who asked Jesus about eternal life and then walked away. The Lord called wealth a barrier to the kingdom, and His hearers concluded that the door was shut to everyone.
What the Lord said cut straight across what His hearers secretly wanted.
It is all but impossible — indeed, as far as man is concerned, it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "Then who can be saved?" is the remark of those who heard a sentence so contrary to their secret desires.
Their alarm also had a religious background. In their world, money looked like an advantage with God.
We understand the disciples' shock better if we remember one thing. Sacrifices on God's altar were an essential part of Jewish religion, and the rich could bring more of them, and larger ones, than the poor. They could also give larger gifts to the poor. So people could see wealth as an advantage. These words were said about something else, but how true they are: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). The state of a man's heart hinders his entering the kingdom.
The hearers reach for the word saved. One writer explains why that word slips out, and what the natural heart then does with religion.
Who is to be saved? No one on this ground. But what was impossible with men was possible with God. He only was good. Man's heart was elsewhere, but He who was good could save, and give new life. The hearers use the word "save," for there is always a vague awareness that something is wrong when we seek eternal life. But the natural heart always confuses it all together. It begins its religion from itself, where God is not, and so ends it with itself as well — using religion to shut God out more completely by pride and self-satisfaction.
As a question about what people can do, the answer is bleak. Turn it around to what God can do, and everything opens.
The disciples were used to seeing riches as a sign of God's favour. These words astonished them. They felt that the words cut the ground away completely from under our feet. So, indeed, they do. "Then who can be saved?" is a momentous question. Verse 27 gives a definite answer. Salvation is impossible with men, though possible with God. In other words, it was as though the Lord said: "If it is a question of what man can do, nobody can be saved. But if it is a question of what God can do, anybody can be saved."
Salvation is God's work, but it was not cheap. The writer who names the price also points to the one safe use of money.
Jesus replied, "The things that are impossible with men are possible with God." There is no other hope of salvation. It is of God, not of man. Yet to save cost God everything, yes, His own Son. Happy is the man who by grace makes his wealth serve Christ alone, looking to have the true riches as his own in everlasting glory!
This question is not for studying at a distance. Ask it about yourself, and see where it leaves you.
It is not possible for you and me to be saved by our own efforts. Why is it impossible? Because we are sinners, and cannot save ourselves. How can you meet the claims of God in righteousness? You must be more than a man to do that… Whom then am I thrown back upon? I am thrown back upon God. How can you be saved? You must let God save you.
There is encouragement hidden in the question itself. Feeling the force of it is already evidence of something at work.
If it were as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God as for a camel to go through a needle's eye, then who can be saved? ask the disciples. But salvation is of God; and all things are possible with Him. In fact, if a man has realized his need of salvation, we may hope that God has begun a work in his soul. That work turns the far country into a place of unbearable famine for him — a famine that lands or gold cannot satisfy. He can hardly be called rich who has that famine-fever on him.
- Impossible — the question is a cry of shock. Riches had looked to them like proof of God's favour and a way to do good.
- Nobody — if salvation depends on what a person can do, the answer to their question is no one at all.
- Anybody — if it depends on what God can do, the door stands open to anyone.
- Costly — God's power to save was not cheap power; it cost Him His own Son.
- Yours — if the question grips you, God may already be drawing your heart away from what cannot satisfy. Your part is to let Him save you.
But he said, The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.
The disciples had just watched a rich, moral, eager man walk away from Jesus. So they asked the only question that mattered: if he cannot get in, who can? The Lord's reply does not soften the difficulty. It moves the question off man's ground and onto God's.
One writer explains why a rich man seemed the most likely person to enter the kingdom, not the least likely:
We understand the astonishment of the disciples better when we remember one thing. Sacrifices on God's altar were an essential part of Jewish religion. In the number and size of those the rich could surpass the poor. So people might see wealth as an advantage. The rich could both offer more and of course give larger gifts to the poor. How true these words are, though they were said in a different setting: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). The state of a man's heart hinders his entering the kingdom. On the other hand, salvation is from God; He works on man's heart.
A popular explanation says the "eye of a needle" was a small gate a camel could squeeze through once unloaded. One commentator checks that idea:
Some find this suggestion attractive: the picture of a camel going through the eye of a needle referred to a small gate, and a camel could not get through that gate without unloading. But no reliable historian supports this idea. In fact, the Lord says it is impossible with men, but possible with God. That shows it is an impossibility by nature.
The barrier is not the bank balance. It is anything a person leans on instead of God:
Beyond measure surprised, they say among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" This gives the Lord the opportunity to explain what lies at the bottom of the whole question. Salvation is a question of God, and not of man at all. Law, nature, riches, poverty — no matter what a man loves or fears — has nothing in the least to do with the saving of the soul. The saving of the soul rests on the power of God's grace, and nothing else. What is impossible for man is possible with God.
One writer puts the Lord's answer into plain terms:
"Who then can be saved?" is a momentous question. Verse 27 gives a definite answer. Salvation is impossible with men, though possible with God. In other words, it was as though the Lord said this: "If it is a question of what man can do, nobody can be saved. But if it is a question of what God can do, anybody can be saved."
That God can save does not mean saving was cheap or easy for Him:
"And who can be saved?" is the remark of those who heard a sentence so contrary to their secret desires. Jesus replied, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." There is no other hope of salvation. It is of God, not of man. Yet to save cost God everything, yes, His own Son.
The Lord's words were not a comforting theory. Within months the same crowd of people did freely what the rich ruler refused to do:
He does not in the least relieve the conscience from the pressure that is upon it, but He draws us away to God. "What is impossible with man is possible with God." And in fact this happened only a few short months later. Jesus was exalted to heaven, and then the Holy Spirit came down from there. He revealed the Saviour to souls — the crucified, risen, exalted Saviour. Looking up by faith, they saw the One who had accomplished their salvation. The full tide of blessing so filled their hearts that crowds of people did, without any urging, what the young man refused to do. God had come in and had saved these 3,000 people, and the result was produced at once.
- Impossible — the camel and the needle are not exaggeration. The thing simply cannot be done from man's side, and no clever reading of the image should soften it.
- Everyone — riches are only the sharpest example. Law, nature, wealth or poverty, anything a person loves or fears, has nothing to do with saving a soul.
- Possible — the verse swings on who is acting. If it depends on what man can do, nobody can be saved; if on what God can do, anybody can be saved.
- Costly — "possible with God" was not easy for God. To save cost Him everything, even His own Son.
- Proved — a few months later 3,000 people freely did what the rich ruler would not. God came in, and the impossible happened at once.