Human Inability and Divine Sovereignty

¹⁷ As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰ “Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²² But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

²³ Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵ It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel

³⁰ will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”