What does Luke 18:24 mean?
A crowd has been listening to Jesus speak with a rich, young ruler. The man wants to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus leads him through a conversation that shows he can't do anything. He can't be good enough. Only God is ultimately, perfectly good. The inquiring man is good to other people. He faithfully follows the Ten Commandments. But he balks when Jesus tells him to give away his possessions to the poor. He's very rich and the thought of choosing between his earthly wealth and eternal life disheartens him (Luke 18:18–23).The point of this message is not that being rich is a sin, or that those who are wealthy cannot possibly be saved. Rather, wealth has a way of numbing us to our dependence on the Lord. It can become our identity and take God's place as the highest priority in life. That seems to be what's happened to this man.
What Luke does not include is that before Jesus says this, the young man has walked away (Mark 10:22). When Jesus listed the commandments the man should follow, He included every one that had to do with interactions with other people except "Do not covet" (Luke 18:20). It appears the crowd is filled with people who are not rich. There's nothing they have this man would covet.
But the people are now confused. Between intimations in the Mosaic law and the general culture of the time, wealth is considered a sign that a person satisfies God. The crowd voices their confusion: "Then who can be saved?" (Luke 18:26). In their way of thinking, a young man good enough that God allowed him to become wealthy must be good enough to deserve eternal life.
In truth, it makes no difference if the man is wealthy. Nor does it matter, eternally, that he's "good" according to a worldly standard. He's in the same position as the tax collector in Jesus' parable (Luke 18:13–14). Salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone (Ephesians 2:1–10; John 14:6). No one is good enough.
