No, the guy did NOT have faith in Jesus, hence, that is why he went on his way. The very thought of giving up what was the most important thing to him - his wealth - was unthinkable. Why else would he have refused to follow Jesus? Anyone who values anything in this life over eternity with the Lord is not thinking by faith. So, no, faith IS what is required of us. The kind of faith that trusts Christ so much that all else is loss without him. The kind that rests completely in his sacrifice for us as the only way to God. The kind that sees our own merit as nothing but dirty rags compared to what he did for us.
What I firmly believe has been lost in certain people's idea of salvation is that we are utterly powerless to save ourselves and that if Christ had not come to save us we would all be rightfully condemned to an eternity apart from God. No amount of human effort, work, giving, striving and merit can earn what can only be granted by a sacrifice of blood/life of a perfect, sinless man and that was Christ Jesus. He was obviously more than a mere man, he was God himself in human form, eyeball-to-eyeball, heart-to-heart, mano-y-mano to bring us into fellowship with him. All our good deeds can only be as evidence of our gratitude for his mercy and grace and as expressions of our love for him because he first loved us. When we, by faith, accept his unspeakable gift we are placing our trust in him alone to save us and that is how God intended it to be - we have no right to boast.
But Jesus is asking for this man to merit salvation - to give up his wealth and follow Him. All three Synoptic Gospels are practically identical on this parable and Mark and Luke both expand on this - the young man must give up his wealth first. He already believed in Jesus: Mark explicitly says that the man ran up and fell to his knees before Him. All three tell us that he addressed Jesus as "good Teacher" obviously without sarcasm or reservation. Perhaps I might reword this: the man does not merit salvation on his own, but his salvation, offered by God to all men, can be rejected by each man depending on his deeds.
What I firmly believe has been lost in certain people's idea of salvation is that we are utterly powerless to save ourselves and that if Christ had not come to save us we would all be rightfully condemned to an eternity apart from God. No amount of human effort, work, giving, striving and merit can earn what can only be granted by a sacrifice of blood/life of a perfect, sinless man and that was Christ Jesus.
Without God, we are nothing. We agree on this. We cannot be in Heaven for eternity if God did not offer us His Grace.
All our good deeds can only be as evidence of our gratitude for his mercy and grace and as expressions of our love for him because he first loved us.
That is not what the three Gospels say. For example, we have Luke 18:
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’[a]” 21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
What is stopping the man from salvation? His own actions and attitudes. He obviously believed in Jesus; each Gospel says that. But it also says that he must do more than simply believe.
When we, by faith, accept his unspeakable gift we are placing our trust in him alone to save us and that is how God intended it to be - we have no right to boast.
The Reformed and the OSAS crowds often boast about their own personal salvation and deride Catholics who have no 'assurance' of their own salvation. They do it on FR. They have done it in my own and in my wife's personal life as well. My wife was in an evangelical church's Bible study group back in Indiana and it was unreal the flack that she took because she did not have personal assurance of her own salvation. We traditional Christians only believe that Christ can save us. However, we also believe that we can lose our salvation based upon passages like these.