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Riches and Poverty | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we evaluate someone's success in
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life, there is this expectation of visible, tangible proof.
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Right. Like an accountant's Ledger,
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essentially. Yeah, precisely.
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You pull up a bank statement and the numbers show this massive,
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undeniable surplus. The zip code is exclusive, the
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clothes are custom made, and society as a whole points at
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that person and says well they made it.
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The equation makes a lot of sense to our brains.
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You're either abundant or lacking.
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It is a very clear cut quantifiable metric for human
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value. Well, welcome to reformed
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thinking. We are jumping straight into our
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deep dive today and our source material takes that specific
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societal Ledger and sets it completely on fire.
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It really does. It leaves nothing standing.
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We are looking at a classic analysis by the 19th century
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writer and minister JC Rile. This is from his work titled
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Practical Religion. And specifically, we are
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focusing on his breakdown under the famous biblical text from
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the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16. Right, the narrative of the
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affluent, prosperous man and the diseased beggar named Lazarus.
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For those of you listening, our mission today is to impartially
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report on the intense truths Rile extracts from this text and
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look at how it challenges everything we assume about
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wealth, poverty, and eternity. The challenge with this specific
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text from Luke 16 is you know the sheer familiarity of it.
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If you have spent any time around church culture, or even
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just Western literature, you know the broad strokes of this
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story. Yeah, the wealthy man, the poor
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man, the reversal of fortunes in the afterlife.
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Exactly. And the issue with that level of
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familiarity is that it breeds a kind of spiritual numbness.
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Ryall Juliss, Is this right away?
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He argues that our casual acquaintance with the narrative
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completely blinds us to the startling, uncomfortable truths
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it contains. Ready.
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Spot on. Modern readers have a tendency
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to read the text as this safe, distant fable, like an ESOP
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story, rather than a brutal reality about the nature of the
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cosmos. Ryall brings up this fascinating
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concept right out of the gate. To combat that numbness, he
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references what he calls the Arabian standard of eloquence.
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Oh yeah, that is such a brilliant way to frame it.
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It is. The idea is that the absolute
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perfection of language, the highest peak of communication,
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occurs when a speaker successfully turns the ear into
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an eye. Meaning you're hearing words,
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but your brain is bypassing the auditory processing and
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immediately constructing a high definition visual reality.
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Yeah, and this text in Luke 16 is the ultimate example of that
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standard. It's a master class in visual
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storytelling, which is why it hits so hard if you actually
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pause to look at it. The narrative bypasses abstract
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theology and paints this agonizingly vivid.
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Picture it. Carries our senses with
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irresistible force. Right.
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You're forced to become a witness to the scene.
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You see the vibrant, expensive purple dye of the clothing.
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You feel the texture of the fine Egyptian linen.
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You see the imposing gate of the estate.
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And then you know, the camera pans down and you see the beggar
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lying there, physically immobile, covered in open sores.
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You see the street dogs approaching to lick those
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wounds. You can almost hear the sounds
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of the sumptuous feast inside and the beggar outside desiring
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just the scraps that fall from the table.
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And then the scene shifts violently to the agonizing
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waking up in the afterlife, the physical sensation of fire, the
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desperate plea for a single drop of water on the tongue, the
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hopeless remorse. The ear literally turns into an
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eye. I'm struck by the warning Ryle
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attaches to that literary brilliance, though it is one
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thing to appreciate the narrative structure or the
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emotional weight of the story. Right, but it is entirely
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different to let the story indict you.
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Yeah, thousands of people can read this text, visualize the
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imagery perfectly, feel a fleeting sense of pity, and then
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close the book with their conscience completely asleep.
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Admiring the composition of a story does absolutely nothing to
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alter your spiritual trajectory. So Ryle pushes the reader to
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stop looking at the prosperous man and Lazarus as historical
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curiosities. He wants you to ask an
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incredibly threatening question. Lord, is this my picture?
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Lord, is it I? That is the dividing line
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between academic reading and actual conviction.
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If you look at this text and only see a critique of ancient
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socio economic structures, well you have missed the point.
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So, having set the scene, Ryle moves to the immediate physical
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contrast between these two men. And he focuses on what that
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reveals about the structure of the world we currently live in.
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The contrast is jarring and honestly, it is offensive to our
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modern sensibilities. You have one man possessing an
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absolute overflowing abundance of this world's good things.
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He is clothed in purple, which in antiquity was an
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astonishingly expensive dye. It was extracted from sea snails
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and reserved only for royalty and the ultra wealthy.
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And he fares sumptuously, and not just on holidays, but every
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single day. His life is an uninterrupted
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festival of consumption. Then you look at the other man,
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a friendless, diseased, half starved popper.
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He has literally nothing to his name.
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He cannot even walk. The text implies he was laid at
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the gate. By others, he is reduced to
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competing with scavengers for crumbs.
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Yet biologically and historically, both of these men
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are children of Adam. Both came from the exact same
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dust. Yeah, both belong to the same
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human family, living in the same land, under the very same
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government and societal laws, yet they are separated by an
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unbridgeable Canyon of physical circumstance.
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This specific observation leads Ryle to take a firm stance that
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is highly unpopular today. He states unequivocally that
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universal equality is an impossible visionary idea.
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Throughout history, in every single era, there are movements
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and philosophies that try to stir up society.
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They preach the popular doctrine that all people ought to be
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equal in their material possessions.
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But Ryle argues that as long as the world is under the present
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order of things, as long as human nature is what it is,
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universal financial equality cannot possibly be attained.
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He does not just make that claim in a vacuum either.
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He roots it in the gritty reality of human existence.
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Yeah, he points to the uncontrollable variables that
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dictate human life. The reality is that humans are
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not manufactured on an assembly line with uniform traits.
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If some individuals possess natural wisdom and foresight,
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while others are inherently foolish or impulsive.
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Some are born with robust physical strength, while others
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battle chronic illness or weakness from birth.
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There are massive differences in diligence, too.
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Some people are relentlessly hardworking, while others lean
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toward laziness or entitlement. Some are incredibly Provident,
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you know, saving for the future, while others are entirely
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improvident, spending whatever they acquire immediately.
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And beyond those internal human traits, Rile lists the external
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factors that are entirely beyond human jurisdiction.
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You cannot legislate the weather.
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Exactly. You cannot pass a law against a
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drought, sun, rain, heat, cold, wind, waves, blight and storms.
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These forces operate with total disregard for political theories
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of equality. A massive storm can wipe out a
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generation of wealth for specific family or town in an
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afternoon. Or a sudden illness can drain a
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lifetime of savings. Because of this chaotic
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combination of differing human traits and uncontrollable
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environmental factors, there will always be a disparity.
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There will always be some who are prosperous and some who are
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destitute. I found Ryall's thought
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experiment on this point incredibly compelling.
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Oh, the reset clock analogy. Yeah, think of it like a massive
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societal reset clock. He suggests imagining a scenario
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where you take all the property, all the wealth, all the assets
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in a nation. He uses England as his example.
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And you take it by force today. Right.
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You liquidate everything and divide it perfectly equally down
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to the penny among every single inhabitant over the age of 20.
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You hit the reset button on the economy.
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Everyone starts at the very same financial starting line.
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The conclusion he draws from that experiment is stark.
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He argues that within 50 years, society would return to the very
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same state of disparity that existed before the reset.
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You would find things just as unequal.
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Why? Because the moment the money is
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distributed, human nature takes over.
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Some individuals would immediately invest their portion
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and work diligently. Others would be idle and consume
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their portion within a year. Some would be careless, falling
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victim to schemes or bad investments, while others would
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be the one scheming. Fast forward half a century and
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some families would be flush with cash living in large
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estates, while others would be entirely impoverished, begging
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at the gates. The root issue here is not
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primarily A flawed political system or lack of economic
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theory. Ryle makes it clear that the
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true root of this massive suffering is sin.
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The fall of man fractured everything.
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Yes, it is the inherent corruption of the human heart
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that causes the heartless selfishness of the highest
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classes who hoard resources while ignoring the suffering at
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their doorstep. And it is often the consequences
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of living in a fallen, fractured world that lead to the helpless
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poverty of the lowest classes. That theological framework is
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vital. If you believe the root of
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poverty and extreme inequality is just a lack of education or a
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poorly designed tax code, you will constantly be frustrated
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when your utopian solutions fail.
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Ryle forces the reader to look at the doctrine of human
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depravity. Sin produces the greed that
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exploits the vulnerable, and sin produces the broken world where
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disease and famine strike indiscriminately.
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Let me try an analogy here to visualize why forcing permanent
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material equality fails. Imagine attempting to perfectly
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balance and distribute the cargo on the deck of a massive ship.
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OK, I can picture. That you use cranes.
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You measure everything, you strap it all down so the weight
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is perfectly distributed across the deck.
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It looks flawless while the ship is sitting in dry dock.
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But then the ship has to actually sail.
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Yeah, the moment that ship hits the open ocean, the environment
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takes over. The ocean itself is churning.
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Rogue waves hit the hull. Gale force winds batter the
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deck. Right, the ship pitches
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violently. The cargo straps snap, the
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weight shifts. Some crates slide to the port
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side, others are swept overboard completely.
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The external chaos of the ocean combined with the structural
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limitations of the ship makes permanent balance impossible.
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You can keep sending crews out in the storm to try and push the
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crates back to the center, but the ocean will always disrupt
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it. But here's the tension I feel
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reading this. If political economy cannot fix
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this inequality, if the ocean is always going to ruin the
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balance, does that mean we just abandoned the effort?
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Do we look at the beggar at the gate and say, well the world is
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falling, nothing I can do and walk away?
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Ryle anticipates that exact fatalistic response, and he
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shuts it down aggressively. Recognizing the limitations of a
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fallen world does not absolve you of the responsibility to
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act. So what does he suggest?
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He gives a strict, uncompromising instruction.
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You must labor with might and main to do good to all men.
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He explicitly tells the reader to pity your poor brethren, and
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to throw your weight behind every reasonable endeavor to
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raise them from their low estate.
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He says you must never slack your hand from endeavors to
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increase knowledge, promote morality and aggressively
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improve the temporal physical condition of the poor, so the
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mandate to help remains completely intact.
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Absolutely. The difference is your
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expectation. We must help.
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We must build hospitals. We must feed the hungry.
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We must advocate for just laws. But we must do so while being
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fully awake to the reality that we live in a fallen world where
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sin permeates everything. We fight the darkness, but we do
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not expect a utopian Millennium to be brought about by any human
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government, political party or economic system.
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We are alleviating suffering in a war zone, not building heaven
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on earth. That sets up a massive shift in
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how we are supposed to view reality.
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Since physical inequality is an inevitable fixture of life on
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earth, how does the Ledger look when God weighs the scales?
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The text forces us to evaluate these two men by an entirely
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different, unseen metric. When you strip away the temporal
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illusion and look at the affluent man through a spiritual
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lens, you see a terrifying paradox.
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By every earthly metric, he was thriving.
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He had massive wealth. He likely had a massive network
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of friends and associates who wanted to be near his influence.
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He wore fine linen. But in the eternal sense, he was
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pitiably, horrifyingly destitute.
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He had everything that money could procure, which is a lot.
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Money can buy comfort, medical care, legal defense and social
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insulation. But Ryle points out his
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staggering lack once you cross the threshold of eternity.
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Take away the good things of this brief earthly life, and he
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had absolutely nothing left for the world to come.
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His bank accounts did not transfer.
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With all his gold and silver he had laid up no heavenly
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treasure. With all his closets full of
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Tyrion purple and fine linen, he had no garment of righteousness
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to cover his sin before a holy God.
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With all his boom companions and dinner guests, he had no friend,
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no mediator, and no advocate at God's right hand to plead his
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case. It is the ultimate picture of
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catastrophic poverty completely disguised as success.
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The man spent his entire life building a sandcastle while
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ignoring a coming tsunami. And then you look at Lazarus,
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the man who had literally nothing.
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No house to protect him from the elements, no money to buy a
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crumb of bread, no physical health, no social standing.
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The world looked at him with disgust or pity, but Ryle points
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out his massive unseen assets. The contrast is absolute.
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Lazarus possessed nothing on earth, but he was an adopted
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heir of the King of Glory. His name was securely written in
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the Book of Life. He possessed durable riches, an
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imputed righteousness that could never be stolen, inflated or
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destroyed. He had God Himself as His
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eternal portion. Ryle uses the biblical phrase
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that he had meat to eat that the world knew nothing about.
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These unseen assets supported him internally during his
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agonizing physical life. They did not abandon him in the
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terror of the hour of death, and they went with him seamlessly
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beyond the grave. Ryle challenges are vocabulary
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Here. He says we should stop referring
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to him as poor Lazarus and start calling him Wealthy Lazarus.
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To prove that this isn't just an isolated parable, but a
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consistent pattern in how God operates, Ryle brings in heavy
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historical case studies. He demonstrates that worldly
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greatness absolutely does not equate to God's favor, and often
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it indicates the complete opposite.
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He starts in the ancient world with the contrast between King
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Ahab and Obadiah from the Book of First.
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Kings. The historical context of Ahab
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is crucial here. King Ahab was the ruler over the
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10 northern tribes of Israel. He possessed massive temporal
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authority, military might and ivory palace, and visible
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success. He had the ability to dictate
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life and death. Obadiah, on the other hand, was
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a servant, the governor of Ahab's house.
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He was an employee under the thumb of a wicked regime.
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Yet during a massive famine and persecution of God's prophets by
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Queen Jezebel, it was the servant Obadiah who secretly hid
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100 prophets in caves. And he fed them with his own
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limited rations of bread and water.
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When God weighs the scales of that era, there is no doubt who
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was precious in his sight. The servant acting in faith held
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infinitely more weight in the divine Ledger than the king
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sitting on the throne. Ryle then moves to a historical
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example that would have resonated heavily with his 19th
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century English audience, and it requires us to understand the
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brutal history of the English Reformation.
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He contrasts Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer with their
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persecutors Edmund Bonner and Stephen Gardner.
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The Marian persecutions during the reign of Queen Mary provide
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one of the starkest examples of this inverted Ledger.
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Ridley and Latimer were prominent Protestant bishops,
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brilliant theologians, men who had sought to reform the Church
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according to Scripture. But when the political wind
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shifted, they were deposed from all their dignities, stripped of
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their titles and cast into prison as state malefactors.
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Eventually, they were tied to a wooden stake in Oxford and
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burned alive. They suffered the most horrific,
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agonizing temporal defeat imaginable.
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They lost their reputations, their freedom and their lives in
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the most painful way possible. And meanwhile the men who
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condemned them seem to win every earthly prize.
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Bonner and Gardner were raised to the highest pitch of
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ecclesiastical and political greatness.
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They enjoyed massive incomes, immense influence over the
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state, and the favor of the Queen.
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They lived out their days in luxury and died completely
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unmolested in their own beds. If you only look at the worldly
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Ledger, Bonner and Gardner were the undisputed victors.
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They crushed their enemies and kept their wealth.
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But in God's balances, the men burning in the flames were the
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heirs of glory, and the men sleeping in their feather beds
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were heaping up wrath for the day of judgement.
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Rile gives a third historical example from the 17th century,
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the Puritan minister Richard Baxter versus Lord Chief Justice
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Jeffries. Baxter was an incredibly
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faithful, prolific pastor and theologian, yet because he
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refused to conform to the state mandated religion, he was
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persecuted with savage malignity.
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He was dragged into court as an old sick man and condemned to a
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long imprisonment by a highly unjust, politically motivated
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judgement. The man who screamed at him from
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the bench and handed down that sentence was Lord Chief Justice
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George Jeffries, a man infamous in history for his brutality,
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drunkenness and complete lack of morality.
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Jeffries presided over the bloodiest sizes, executing
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hundreds. Baxter went to a cold jail cell
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while Jeffries was loaded with earthly honors and titles by the
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king. Again, the temporal reality is
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completely inverted from the spiritual reality.
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The historical reality of these men's suffering while the wicked
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prosper highlights a theological principle that Ryle hammers home
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the snare of prosperity. Ryle details the repeated did
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biblical warnings about the toxic nature of wealth.
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He points to Solomon, the wealthiest man of the ancient
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world, who explicitly wrote labor not to be rich.
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Well, labor not to be wealthy. He points to the apostle Paul,
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who warned Timothy that those who desire to be affluent fall
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into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
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lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
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The biblical text literally describes money as a trap that
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drowns the soul. Conversely, poverty, physical
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sickness and severe trial are often described as blessings in
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disguise. They are severe mercies sent in
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love to aggressively wean a person's affections away from
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this temporary. World.
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But I have a fundamental question about this mechanism.
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If wealth is such a severe, soul ruining snare, if it petrifies
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the inward man as Ryle says, why are we culturally and
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biologically wired to pursue it so relentlessly?
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The pursuit of wealth is deeply embedded in the human condition
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because we are fragile creatures living in a hostile, fallen
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world. We are wired for self
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preservation. Exactly.
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We desperately seek security, physical comfort and visible
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markers of safety. The physical world we inhabit is
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incredibly loud and its demands are immediate.
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Physical hunger does not wait. The cold winter does not wait.
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The threat of disease is constant.
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So we logically pursue the physical resources necessary to
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buffer ourselves against those harsh realities.
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We want a strong roof, a full pantry and enough savings to
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guarantee we won't freeze or starve.
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The buffer makes sense, but at what point does the buffer
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become the poison? The poison seeps in when the
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pursuit of that buffer morphs into idolatry, and it happens
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almost invisibly. You start out wanting enough
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money to buy firewood to stay warm.
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But eventually you acquire so much money, so much insulation,
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that you forget what the cold feels like.
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The wealth chills the soul because it creates a false
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localized heaven on earth. It closes the eye to the things
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of faith because you start trusting the buffer itself
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instead of trusting the God who provides.
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You no longer pray. Give us this day Our Daily Bread
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with any actual desperation because you know you have 10
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years worth of bread sitting in a high yield investment account.
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Wealth insensibly produces a tendency to forget God because
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your physical needs are so thoroughly insulated from the
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realities of human fragility. That false sense of security is
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terrifying because it works so well right up until the very
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last second. Regardless of how thick that
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buffer is, regardless of how different those bank ledgers
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look during life, both the affluent man and the starving
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beggar face the very same unavoidable brick wall at the
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end of the road. And that introduces the theme of
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death as the great unconquerable Leveller.
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Weil points to what might be the most humbling, devastating
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phrase in the entire text, and perhaps in all of human history.
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He died. 2 words that dismantle every human empire.
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Ryle notes how universally this applies.
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He directs the reader back to Genesis chapter 5, which records
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the genealogies of the ancient figures who lived incredibly
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long lives. You read about men living 809
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hundred years. Methuselah lives 969 years.
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But the rhythm of that chapter is like a relentless drum beat.
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It lists their long lives, their children, their centuries of
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existence. And then every single biography
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ends with the very same refrain. And he died.
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And he died. The length of the life did not
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change the final destination. Ryle applies that same drum beat
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to the historical giants of the modern era, the men who shaped
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the map of the world. He fleshes out the concept with
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specific names of vast influence.
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John Churchill, the Duke of Marlboro, who never lost a
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battle. George Washington.
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Napoleon Bonaparte, who conquered Europe and reshaped
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nations. The Duke of Wellington, who
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finally defeated Napoleon. These were men of vast military
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conquests, massive geopolitical strategies, possessing immense
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world shaking authority. Millions of people trembled at
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their orders. But you read their sprawling
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biographies and the final chapter always ends with those
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very same 2 words. Death is a mighty undefeated
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leveller. He spares no one, he waits for
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no one, and he stands on absolutely no ceremony.
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There's an incredible anecdote Rile includes about an Austrian
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nobleman that perfectly captures the absolute futility of trying
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to evade this reality. It is a stunning example of
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human delusion. This Austrian nobleman was so
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terrified of his own mortality that he literally forbade the
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mention of the word death or the word smallpox in his presence.
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He constructed an environment where the vocabulary of
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mortality was outlawed. He thought that by insulating
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his ears from the words, he could somehow keep the reality
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at Bay. But Ryle points out the brutal
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truth. Named or not named, ignored or
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obsessed over, it matters little.
22:13
Death cannot be kept out by moats, heavy oak doors, iron
22:16
bars or security details. One man travel through life in a
22:20
handsome climate controlled carriage, surrounded by guards.
22:23
The other man toils on foot, barefoot in the mud.
22:27
But both of them meet at the very same physical home.
22:29
One man possesses half a county, thousands of acres of rolling
22:33
hills. The other man lacks even a tiny
22:35
garden of herbs to his name. But at the end of it all, 2
22:38
paces of the vilest, dirtiest earth are amply sufficient to
22:41
cover both of them. Let me frame it like a massive
22:44
theatrical production. You have a sprawling play with
22:46
hundreds of actors. One actor is cast as the mighty
22:49
King, wearing a velvet crown, barking orders and standing in
22:52
the spotlight. Another actor is cast as the
22:55
miserable peasant groveling in the shadows of the stage.
22:58
For three hours, their lives are vastly different.
23:01
But the moment the final curtain drops, the play is over.
23:05
The king takes off the velvet crown, the peasant washes the
23:08
dirt off his face, they both clock out, and they walk out the
23:11
back door of the theater into the very same cold alley as
23:14
equals. The roles they played on stage
23:17
mean nothing once the curtain falls.
23:19
That captures the sudden, absolute stripping away of
23:22
earthly status that Ryle is describing.
23:24
Because this reality is so unavoidable, and because the
23:27
curtain could drop at any second, Ryle explains why
23:30
ministers of the gospel are required to use bold,
23:33
uncompromising language. There is no time for
23:35
philosophical musings or gentle suggestions.
23:38
He cites a famous rule from the Puritan Richard Baxter, who said
23:41
I'll preach as though I never should preach again and as a
23:44
dying man to dying men. When a minister looks out at a
23:47
congregation, he's looking at a room full of people who are
23:50
marching toward a Cliff. The reality of death, constantly
23:53
thinning out the pews, forbids ministers from using soft,
23:56
comfortable, ambiguous language. They must preach with urgency
24:00
because eternity is at stake every time they speak.
24:03
The physical grave is identical for both men.
24:05
In the biblical story, both bodies are placed in the dirt,
24:09
but the very second after death presents the most extreme,
24:13
horrifying contrast possible. The excellent man died, was
24:17
buried, and immediately woke up in conscious torments.
24:19
In Hades, Lazarus died, and the text says he was carried by
24:24
angels in the Abraham's bosom, a place of profound comfort and
24:28
rest. This transition introduces us to
24:30
the King's care for the lowest. Ryle unpacks the staggering
24:34
theological weight of this specific detail about the
24:36
angels. Think about who Lazarus was.
24:39
A diseased beggar, ignored by everyone, yet the poorest, most
24:43
physically destitute believer on earth is personally attended by
24:46
the angelic host. Angels rejoice in heaven the
24:49
moment that beggar is born again.
24:51
They are assigned as ministering spirits to him throughout his
24:53
agonizing life. They encamp around him in the
24:56
wilderness of this hostile world, protecting him from
24:59
unseen spiritual dangers. And the moment his heart stops
25:02
beating, those same angels take charge of his soul to bear it
25:05
safely and securely home to the presence of God.
25:08
Ryle describes the spiritual reality of a believer as a
25:11
covenant ordered in all things ensure.
25:14
He lists the specific promises attached to this covenant and
25:18
they are incredibly comprehensive.
25:19
They cover every possible angle of human frailty and guilt.
25:22
The promises are vast because human need is vast.
25:26
Ryle outlines that if a believer is laden with a lifetime of
25:30
sins, sins as glaring and obvious as scarlet, the blood of
25:34
Christ ensures they shall be made as white as snow.
25:37
If the believers heart is stubborn and hard, God promises
25:40
to remove the heart of stone and give a new responsive heart of
25:43
flesh. If the believers, naturally weak
25:45
and cowardly, terrified of public opinion, the very same
25:48
God who enabled the apostle Peter to boldly confess Christ
25:51
before the hostile Sanhedrin will replace that cowardice with
25:55
supernatural boldness. When the believer faces
25:57
situations of deep ignorance, not knowing what to do, they are
26:00
met with the divine and. When they face intense
26:03
isolation, when standing for the truth means standing completely
26:06
alone, they are met with God's manifest presence, just as the
26:11
apostle Paul testified that the Lord stood by him and
26:14
strengthened him when all other men had forsaken him at his
26:17
trial. Rile also uses this beautiful
26:20
agricultural metaphor, referring to God as the master of the
26:23
harvest who intimately controls the specific elements of a
26:26
believer's life. This touches on the Reformed
26:29
doctrine of Providence. God is not a distant watchmaker
26:33
who wound up the universe and walked away.
26:35
He is intimately involved in the details of suffering.
26:38
Ryle says the believer steps are all ordered by the Lord from the
26:41
moment of grace to the moment of glory.
26:43
Just as a master farmer controls the conditions for his crops,
26:47
God controls the exact proportion of sun, wind, cold,
26:51
heat, rain and storm for the believer spiritual harvest.
26:54
He measures out the exact amount of suffering necessary to
26:57
sanctify. Them.
26:58
He keeps them on this earth only until they are fully ripe for
27:01
heaven, and not one single moment longer.
27:03
When the sanctification work is complete, the angels are
27:06
dispatched. Reading that section, I was hit
27:09
by the intense irony of how the world operates.
27:12
The culture constantly mocks and dismisses believers, especially
27:16
those who do not have wealth, Polish degrees or cultural
27:20
influence. The world looks down on the
27:21
destitute, the marginalized, the people who literally look like
27:24
Lazarus sitting on the sidewalk. But Ryle points out the massive
27:28
blind spot of the secular world. They are mocking the very people
27:32
whose fervent prayers carry more actual weight in national
27:35
affairs than hosts of armed men or rooms full of politicians.
27:39
When you realize that the most physically destitute ignored
27:43
believer has royal angelic attendance constantly
27:46
surrounding them, it shatters the worldly Ledger completely.
27:49
Think about the marginalized people you might walk past every
27:52
day on a city street. It forces a total paradigm shift
27:56
if you view people through the lens of Luke 16 the person's
27:59
society deems entirely worthless.
28:01
The person sleeping on a park bench might be the very person
28:04
whom angels are actively in camping around.
28:06
It forces you to admit that you have absolutely no idea who you
28:09
were looking at based on their clothes or their bank account.
28:12
The person with 0 temporal influence who cannot even afford
28:15
a cup of coffee might be the very person holding back divine
28:18
judgment on a corrupt nation through their daily unseen
28:22
prayers. If believers, regardless of
28:25
their earthly status, are so highly valued by heaven, what
28:29
caused the affluent man to face such a horrifying eternal fate?
28:33
The transition Ryle makes here is chilling because he does not
28:36
accuse the prosperous man of massive, scandalous crimes.
28:39
He examines the man's specific, surprisingly mundane sin.
28:43
This is where the text gets terrifying for the average law
28:46
abiding citizen. The prosperous man in the
28:49
narrative was not necessarily a murderer.
28:51
He wasn't a thief who stole his wealth.
28:54
There is no evidence he was an adulterer, a liar or a violent
28:57
oppressor. There is no indication he was a
28:59
vocal atheist or a blasphemer who mocked religion.
29:02
For all we know, and for all his neighbors knew, he lived a
29:04
highly respectable, morally correct outward life.
29:07
He likely. Attended the synagogue and
29:09
observed religious ordinances. He dressed beautifully, gave
29:12
splendid, tasteful feasts for his peers, and paid his taxes.
29:15
By every standard of polite society, he was a success story.
29:19
Yet Jesus says he was lost forever in torments.
29:22
He wasn't condemned for the terrible things he actively did,
29:25
he was condemned for what he comfortably left undone.
29:28
Sins of omission. This is a silent destroyer of
29:31
souls. Ryle connects the prosperous
29:33
man's condemnation directly to the terrifying judgement scene
29:36
described in Matthew chapter 25. When the king separates the
29:40
sheep from the goats, the charge against the condemned is not
29:43
about sins of Commission. The king does not say you
29:46
murdered, you stole, you blasphemed.
29:48
The charge is entirely about omission.
29:51
I was a hungered and you gave me no meat.
29:53
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
29:56
I was a stranger and you took me not in.
29:58
Leaving Lazarus alone at the gate, stepping over his diseased
30:01
body every day without offering a single crumb of help from a
30:04
table overflowing with excess, was the fatal error.
30:07
The prosperous man lived entirely exclusively for his own
30:10
comfort. And Ryle argues that his immense
30:12
wealth accelerated and insulated this disease of selfishness.
30:16
The text asserts that money actively chills and freezes the
30:19
human soul. To prove that this isn't an
30:21
exaggeration, Ryle walks through a rapid fire list of specific
30:25
biblical examples showing how money functions as a destructive
30:29
catalyst in the human heart. Let's look at the mechanics of
30:32
how wealth ruined these specific individuals.
30:34
The biblical pattern is undeniable.
30:36
He starts in the book of Joshua with HN.
30:39
HN saw a beautiful Babylonian garment and some silver and gold
30:43
in Jericho, coveted them, and stole them against God's direct
30:46
command. For the sake of that money, he
30:48
brought catastrophic military defeat on the armies of Israel
30:52
and execution upon himself and his family.
30:54
Then you have Balaam, a man who actually heard from God, but who
30:58
sinned against the clear light of revelation and tried to curse
31:01
God's own people simply because a foreign king offered him a
31:04
massive financial reward. Delilah betrayed Sampson,
31:07
handing him over to have his eyes gouged out by the
31:10
Philistines entirely for a payout of silver.
31:12
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, watched his master heal Naman of
31:16
leprosy for free, but Gehazi's greed drove him to chase Naman
31:20
down and lie to get money in clothes.
31:23
The result? He was struck with the very
31:25
leprosy name and was cured of. In the New Testament, Ananias
31:28
and Sapphira wanted the social cloud of being generous, so they
31:31
sold real estate but lied to the Holy Spirit about the financial
31:35
details to keep some cash secretly for themselves.
31:38
They became the 1st hypocrites in the early church and
31:41
instantly lost their lives. And the ultimate example, Judas
31:45
Iscariot, who walked with the Incarnate Son of God for three
31:48
years, saw the miracles, heard the sermons, but allowed his
31:52
love for money to turn him into a traitor.
31:54
He sold the Savior of the world for 30 pieces of silver and
31:57
ruined himself for all eternity. In every case, the desire for
32:01
wealth acted as a blinding poison.
32:03
Those historical facts speak incredibly loudly, and alongside
32:07
the massive spiritual danger of eternal ruin, there is the sheer
32:11
exhausting burden of affluence in the temporal sense.
32:14
Rile lists the massive anxieties that accompany the hoarding of
32:18
wealth. We look at the wealthy and
32:19
assume they have peace, but Rile dismantles that.
32:23
He points out the grueling trouble in getting the money in
32:25
the first place. Once you have it, there is
32:27
constant gnawing anxiety and keeping it safe from markets,
32:30
thieves and inflation. There are massive daily
32:33
temptations in the use of it. What to buy?
32:36
How to display it? There is heavy guilt in the
32:38
abuse of it. There is crushing sorrow and
32:41
despair and losing it, and even at the end of life there is
32:44
perplexity and disposing of it, writing wills that often tear
32:47
families apart. Ryle states a tragic fact. 2/3
32:51
of all the strifes, quarrels and lawsuits in the world arise from
32:54
one simple pathetic cause, Money.
32:58
It seems like the ultimate prize from a distance, but it
33:01
frequently proves to be a toxic substance once it is actually in
33:04
our hands. I want to focus on a specific
33:07
phrase Weil uses regarding the charity of his own era.
33:10
He wrote with great frustration about the miserable One Guinea
33:13
subscriptions and the glaring lack of actual sacrificial
33:16
charitable giving. For context, in 19th century
33:19
Britain, a Guinea was a coin worth 1 LB and one shilling.
33:23
It was considered the currency of gentleman, used for paying
33:25
professionals or making social donations, whereas regular
33:28
pounds were used for common trade.
33:30
A1 Guinea subscription to a charity was essentially A token
33:33
donation. It was enough to get your name
33:35
printed on the charities respectable donor list, ensuring
33:38
your social standing, but it required absolutely zero
33:41
lifestyle change or actual sacrifice from the wealthy
33:44
giver. Ryle noticed people had massive
33:47
comforts, fine houses, carriages, expensive wine, but
33:51
their outlay on works of mercy was a token Guinea, totally
33:55
disproportionate to their lavish expenditure on themselves.
33:58
Given the enormous, unprecedented comforts of our
34:00
current era, where we can order food to our door with a
34:03
thumbprint, have we become entirely blind to this disease
34:07
of selfishness simply because it looks so socially acceptable to
34:10
live in a comfortable bubble? The danger Ryle identifies is
34:13
infinitely worse today because our bubbles are so much more
34:16
sophisticated. The disease of selfishness
34:18
thrives because it hides perfectly behind a mask of civic
34:21
respectability. You can pay your mortgage, fund
34:23
your retirement accounts, obey traffic laws, and never directly
34:26
physically assault anyone. Society will not just accept
34:29
you, it will applaud you as a model citizen.
34:32
But if the fundamental aim of your existence is solely your
34:35
own comfort, your own entertainment and your your own
34:38
security, while your resources never flow outward to the
34:42
Lazarus freezing at your gate, Ryle says you are the mirror
34:45
image of the damned man in the parable.
34:48
You might toss a digital $5 donation to a charity at the
34:51
grocery store checkout while spending $500 on a dinner and
34:55
feel like you have done your part, but that is the modern
34:58
one. Guinea subscription.
35:00
The cultural acceptability of living entirely for oneself
35:04
while tossing scraps to the suffering is precisely what
35:07
makes this sin so lethal. It doesn't look like rebellion.
35:10
It looks like the American Dream.
35:12
If this selfishness is a fatal disease inherent to our fallen
35:15
nature, and money only acts as an excellent to the fire, how do
35:18
we find a cure? Rael rejects a lot of the common
35:22
religious solutions here. He says relying on the fear of
35:25
hell will not cure a selfish heart.
35:27
Relying on the hope of heaven will not cure it either.
35:29
A mere stoic sense of moral duty will not work.
35:33
Even possessing a naturally easy temper, a desire for societal
35:36
praise, or engaging in extreme self-righteous asceticism like
35:41
giving away all your money just to prove how whole you are.
35:43
None of these things cure the disease.
35:46
They only hide the deformity, they manage the symptoms, but
35:49
they do not remove the cancer. Those are all secondary motives,
35:52
and Ryle is emphatic that the disease of human selfishness is
35:55
far too deeply rooted in our DNA to yield to secondary motives.
35:59
Fear of hell just makes you a terrified slave trying to avoid
36:02
the whip. Hope of Heaven just makes you a
36:04
mercenary working for a paycheck.
36:06
Duty makes you an exhausted employee.
36:08
None of those motivations change what you actually love.
36:10
The only working antidote, the only real remedy that reaches
36:13
the root of the heart is an experimental personal knowledge
36:16
of Christ's redeeming love. Let's look closely at the
36:19
mechanics of this cure. How does the text describe this
36:22
transformation actually happening in a human being?
36:25
It is a specific sequence of spiritual realization.
36:28
It has to start with experiencing the sheer misery of
36:31
your own estate by nature. You have to look at the law of
36:34
God and realize your own absolute spiritual bankruptcy.
36:38
You have to see that you are actually Lazarus, covered in the
36:42
sores of your own sin, with nothing to offer God.
36:45
Once you are crushed by that reality, you must feel the
36:48
atoning blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience.
36:51
You realize that the Son of God stepped into the crosshairs of
36:54
divine justice to absorb the wrath you deserved.
36:58
He paid the impossible debt. Finally, you taste the profound
37:02
sweetness of peace with God through Jesus acting as your
37:05
mediator. You feel the love of a fully
37:07
reconciled Father shed abroad in your heart.
37:10
This entirely shifts the motivation for how a person
37:12
lives and gives security becomes the starting line rather than
37:16
the finish line. This is perhaps the most
37:18
critical theological distinction in the entire text.
37:21
Once a person grasps this penal substitutionary atonement, that
37:24
Christ took my punishment and gave me his righteousness, they
37:27
will live for Christ, not in order to be secure, but because
37:30
they are already secure. They do not feed the poor or
37:33
fight their own selfishness to gain life and peace, but because
37:36
life and peace are already their permanent possession.
37:38
The mainspring of selfishness is shattered because they realize
37:42
the staggering immensity of their debt.
37:44
Christ. Feeling they have freely,
37:46
undeservedly received countless mercies, they naturally think it
37:50
is a joyous privilege to give everything in return.
37:53
Think of it like a man who owes a billion dollar debt to a king.
37:57
If you tell that man it is his duty to pay it off, he might try
38:00
to hand over a few pennies a day.
38:02
But he will do it with bitterness, exhaustion and fear,
38:05
knowing he will never succeed. That is religion based on duty
38:09
or? Fear.
38:09
But if the king brings the man into the throne room, pulls out
38:12
the Ledger, and stamps billion dollar debt as paid in full
38:15
using his own wealth, the man's heart is completely changed.
38:19
He doesn't go work in the King's fields to pay off the debt.
38:22
The debt is gone. He works in the fields from dawn
38:24
to dusk out of sheer, overwhelming gratitude to the
38:27
benefactor who saved his life. You cannot cure selfishness with
38:31
a threat. You can only cure it by grasping
38:34
the staggering, bloody sacrifice of Christ.
38:37
That captures the essence of Raul's argument perfectly.
38:40
Other religious or philosophical remedies might palliate the
38:43
disease. They might make you act nicer in
38:45
public. But the cross of Christ alone
38:47
heals the fracture at the root. As we wrap up this deep dive
38:51
into Luke 16, let's synthesize the heavy reality as we've
38:54
uncovered from Ryall's analysis. We have examined the absolute
38:58
inevitability of physical inequality in a falling,
39:01
uncontrollable world. We have seen the total shocking
39:05
worthlessness of the world's financial Ledger when it is
39:07
finally weighed in God's eternal balances.
39:10
We face the unavoidable approaching reality of death as
39:14
the great leveller that strips kings and peasants naked alike.
39:17
We discussed the immense unseen value God places on a believer
39:20
soul surrounded by angelic attendance, even in the gutter.
39:24
We uncovered the silent, respectable soul ruining danger
39:27
of sins of omission and living only for self.
39:30
And we finished with the singular historical cure found
39:33
only in Christ's atoning blood. Ryle concludes his work with
39:37
direct, penetrating questions for the reader, and we are
39:40
obligated to pass those on to you, the listener, right now.
39:43
What are you doing with your life and your resources?
39:46
What is likely to be your condition the second after your
39:48
heart stops beating? Are you living quietly and
39:50
comfortably to yourself, or are you living to Christ?
39:54
This text does not allow you to remain a neutral observer.
39:57
It demands aggressive self inquiry.
39:59
And I want to leave you as a final lingering thought to Mull
40:02
over on your own as you process all of this.
40:05
Look very closely at the actual biblical text of the parable in
40:09
Luke 16. The narrative never gives the
40:11
affluent man a name. He is entirely anonymous.
40:14
He is just a certain prosperous man.
40:16
But it clearly and specifically names Lazarus.
40:19
In the temporal physical world, the prosperous man was famous.
40:23
His name was likely on buildings.
40:25
He was known by everyone in high society, while the disease
40:27
beggar was a nobody and eyesore to be ignored.
40:31
But the moment they step into eternity, the beggar has a name,
40:34
and the prosperous man is completely, permanently
40:37
forgotten. What does that subtle detail
40:39
reveal about whose names are actually recorded in the Book of
40:42
Life and whose names will blow away like dust?
40:45
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.