Mateus 19
A.T. Robertson · Citado em PreceptAustin
Mateus 19
Robertson - No doubt people did often crowd around Jesus for a touch of his hand and his blessing. The disciples probably felt that they were doing Jesus a kindness. How little they understood children and Jesus. It is a tragedy to make children feel that they are in the way at home and at church. These men were the twelve apostles and yet had no vision of Christ’s love for little children. The new child world of today is due directly to Jesus. Kenneth
Mateus 19
Robertson says "The impossible by the side of men (para anthrōpois) becomes possible by the side of God. That is the whole point and brushes to one side all petty theories of a gate called needle’s eye, etc." Hiebert adds that "On the basis of the atonement, He can provide the perfect righteousness which man can never attain; through the work of the Holy Spirit, He can bring men to a change of heart, leading unwilling and sinful hearts to accept the divine provision. “Therefore all must depend entirely upon God. Such absolute trust in God makes possible a life of faithful discipleship (v. 28).” (The Gospel of Mark: An Expositional Commentary) Sean O'Donnell describes how God's Spirit used Jesus' teaching about the rich young ruler to push him through the eye of the needle! -- It was nearly twenty years ago that God, in his infinite and irresistible grace, used this very story in this very Gospel as one of the means of converting me to Christ. For the first half of my life I was told and believed the most common religious lie-that I was basically a good person who occasionally sinned, but did nothing that would ultimately disqualify me from one day entering the joys of eternal life. But then the Holy Spirit taught me what should have been obvious-I was a sinner. Not a good person who occasionally sinned, but a sinner (at heart a very bad person) who was in a continual state of rebellion against a good God and his good Law. I didn’t love God. I didn’t love others. And I certainly loved myself. But it wasn’t just the first half of this passage but also the second half that the Lord used to change my mind and heart and will. I knew that God alone was perfectly good. I believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the Savior of the world. But at that time in my life he was never my Savior. He was never my Lord, the supreme Lord of my life. And as I prayed to Christ those many years ago and asked him to forgive me and to clean me up on the inside, I also (with this passage in mind) told him (in so many words) that I would “sell everything,” that I would put him first in my life-first above self, first above family, first above career, first above education, first above sports, first above every aspect and every love of my life. I told him I would be last, and he would be first! (See Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth - Page 554). Ray