Matthew 19:23

‘And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you, It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingly rule of heaven.” '

As the young man walks away Jesus recognises the conflict that is taking place in his mind, and then turns to His disciples and says sadly, “It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingly Rule of Heaven.” The reason behind His statement is quite clear from the young man's dilemma. Riches prevent a man from being willing to follow fully in His ways. And the implication of it is that if a man would enter the Kingly Rule of Heaven he must first deal with the question of his riches. For to be under the Kingly Rule of Heaven means that all his riches must be at God's disposal. And for a rich man that is very hard.

Here was one who could have become ‘a son of the Kingly Rule of Heaven' (Matthew 13:38) but he had turned away from it. Some see ‘the Kingly Rule of Heaven' here in Matthew 19:23 as signifying the eternal kingly rule beyond the grave. (It cannot mean a millennial kingdom, for rich men will not find it hard to enter that). But Jesus has made abundantly clear that the Kingly Rule of Heaven has in fact ‘drawn near' (Matthew 4:17), and that it is among them (Luke 17:21) and has ‘come upon them' (Matthew 12:28), and is therefore there for all who will respond to it. And the impression given here is surely that the young man has been faced with that choice and has failed to take his opportunity. For the Kingly Rule of Heaven is not a place, it is a sphere of Kingly Rule, and a sphere of submission which is past, present and future.

That the Kingly Rule of Heaven, which initially was intended to result from the Exodus (Exodus 19:6; Exodus 20:1; Numbers 23:21; Deuteronomy 33:5; 1 Samuel 8:7), has in one sense always been open to man's response comes out in the Psalms and is especially emphasised in Isaiah 6 (see Psalms 22:28; Psalms 103:19; Psalms 93:1; Psalms 97:1; Psalms 99:1; Isaiah 6:1). That it is now present among men in a unique way is made clear in Matthew 11:12; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 13:38; Luke 17:21. That it will be taken out and offered to the world is made clear in Acts 8:12, where it parallels taking out the name of Jesus; Acts 19:8, where it parallels the proclamation of ‘The Way'; Acts 20:25; Acts 28:23; Acts 28:28 where it refers to ‘the things concerning the Lord Jesus'. Paul would have had no reason for trying to persuade and teach the Jews about something that they believed in wholeheartedly, the future Kingly Rule of God. What he was seeking to bring home to them was that the Kingly Rule of God was now open to them in Jesus. Compare also how he will say in his letters that ‘the Kingly Rule of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit' (Romans 14:17) and that we (believers) have been ‘transported into the Kingly Rule of His beloved Son' (Colossians 1:13). To Paul as to Jesus the Kingly Rule of Heaven (God) was both present and future, present in experience and future in full manifestation. It can thus be entered now,