The young ruler who talked to Jesus wanted something to DO to save himself, so Jesus gave him something impossible to do.
But AFTER the Crucifixion St Luke writes..
ACTS 16
28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
32And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
34And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
***
This goes back to Abraham, who believed GOD, and it was imputed to him for righteousness.
[[The young ruler who talked to Jesus wanted something to DO to save himself, so Jesus gave him something impossible to do.]]
Exactly, and the reason it was impossible for this young man was because he trusted in his riches- Jesus knew his heart- and knew the man wouldn’t give all- The man claimed he was ‘good’, but Jesus knew he wasn’t truly and perfectly good- and pointed it out dramatically by telling him he must sell everything and give to the poor if he is going to claim to be fully good
“This verse, like others in the passage, is routinely torn from its context and abused by critics and well-meaning Christians alike. This is not a blanket command given to all believers. Nor is it even implying that shedding wealth is, itself, a necessary or pious thing. This is a specific remark given to a specific person, and for a specific reason. That reason was set up by everything which came before this part of the conversation....
The purpose of this comment is to expose the blindness of this wealthy young man, and his ultimate lack of sincerity. The man believed—or wanted to believe—that he had already loved his neighbor as himself. Jesus showed that was not true because the man still had great wealth, and his neighbors were still poor. The young man was not perfectly good, after all.”
https://www.bibleref.com/Matthew/19/Matthew-19-21.html