Verse 16 says, “And behold, one came to Him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” To have eternal life in Matthew differs from having eternal life in John. Matthew is concerned with the kingdom, whereas John is concerned with life. To have eternal life in John is to be saved with God’s uncreated life that man may live by this life today and for eternity, whereas to have eternal life in Matthew is to participate in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens in this age and to share in its manifestation in the coming age.
In the Gospel of John the eternal life is mainly for regeneration, for the new birth. By regeneration, we become the children of God. Furthermore, the Gospel of John reveals that by the eternal life, the life of God within us, we may bear fruit. Hence, the eternal life in John is for reproduction. But in the Gospel of Matthew, eternal life is not for the new birth, but for the kingdom. Many Christians confuse the eternal life in John with the eternal life in Matthew. It is the same eternal life in both John and Matthew, but with different purposes. To repeat, in John the eternal life is for the new birth, but in Matthew it is for the kingdom. No one can have the kingdom life without God’s eternal life.
In verse 17 the Lord answered the one who had asked Him what good thing he should do to have eternal life: “Why are you asking Me concerning that which is good? One is good.” This One is God. Only God is good. This indicates not only that the young man asking the question is not good, but also that the Lord Jesus is God, who is good. If He were not God, He also would not be good.
The Lord also said to this young man, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Here the Lord speaks about entering into life. To enter into life means to enter into the kingdom of the heavens (v. 23). The kingdom of the heavens is a realm of God’s eternal life. Hence, when we enter into it, we enter into God’s life. This differs from being saved. To be saved is to have God’s life enter into us, whereas to enter into the kingdom of the heavens is to enter into God’s life. The former is to be redeemed and regenerated with God’s life; the latter is to live and walk by God’s life. One is a matter of birth; the other is a matter of living.
According to the Gospel of John, to have eternal life is to receive eternal life into us. But according to Matthew, to have eternal life is to enter into eternal life. The eternal life enters into us to give us the new birth to become God’s children. Then we enter into eternal life to have the kingdom life. Thus, in John eternal life involves salvation, but in Matthew it is not related to salvation.
“If you want to enter into life,” the Lord said to the young man, “keep the commandments.” Keeping the commandments is not the requirement for salvation; it is related to entering into the kingdom of the heavens. According to the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, to enter into life requires us to meet not only the standard of the old law, but also the standard of the complemented new law (5:17-48). Salvation requires only faith, whereas the kingdom of the heavens requires a surpassing righteousness, which issues from the keeping of the old law plus its complement given by the heavenly King.
The disciples’ question in verse 25—“Who then can be saved?”—indicates that they thought entering into the kingdom of the heavens was the same as being saved. Many Christians today have the same concept. They know only about salvation; they know nothing about the kingdom of the heavens. When we first preached the kingdom more than forty years ago, we proclaimed the assurance of salvation. Although missionaries had been in China for more than a hundred years, they had not made the assurance of salvation clear to the Chinese saints. Thus, wherever we went, we tried to help the believers to be sure of their salvation. When we preached the assurance of salvation, many pastors opposed us and condemned us for being proud. Some said, “We have been pastors for many years, and not even we dare to say that we are saved. How can you claim to be saved? You are too proud. We all must believe in the Lord Jesus, behave ourselves, and wait until we die and go to the Lord. Then the Lord will tell us whether or not we are saved.” But we fought the battle for the assurance of salvation, giving the people verse after verse to prove that we can know that we have been saved and that there is no need to wait for us to die and go to the Lord. After a few years of fighting, we gained the victory.
After winning this battle, we preached the kingdom reward. We began to say to people, “Yes, there is no doubt that you have been saved. But to be saved is one thing and to receive the kingdom reward is another.” Although this word did not offend very many pastors, it offended many careless Christians. When we preached the assurance of salvation, all the careless Christians were happy and said, “Hallelujah, we are saved! The Bible tells us so. As long as we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are saved.” But their happiness did not last very long, for the same ones who preached to them the assurance of salvation told them that they may have a problem, lose the kingdom reward, and be disciplined. None of the careless, worldly Christians wanted to hear this. After a message on the kingdom, a wealthy woman once said to me, “Brother Lee, is what you are talking about related to my going to heaven? I don’t care about anything else. If I can only be a doorkeeper at the gate of heaven, I shall be satisfied.” Many Christians have this idea. As long as they are saved and bound for heaven, they are happy. Those who say this have been drugged, caring only for salvation and heaven. But in Matthew 19 the Lord speaks about entering into the kingdom of the heavens. Although you may be saved, you may be in danger of not entering into the kingdom of the heavens. Surely the Lord’s word about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God is not concerned with salvation. This word is concerned with the kingdom of the heavens. It is very difficult for one who loves riches to enter into the kingdom of the heavens.