“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).
Mat 19:23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The modern day is a day where it appears that the vast majority of people are taught that if they will simply do an act of their own will and believe or perhaps say a prayer that they will be saved. When some harder teachings of Jesus are brought up, for example, the one above, it is said that Jesus was speaking Law here and not Gospel. There are other ways to get around the text if one tries hard enough, for example, Jesus lived under the Old Testament times and He was not speaking in a period or time of grace. Perhaps the real problem is that we don’t like what Jesus said and our proud hearts refuse to believe the real God-centered message that Jesus spoke.
It is true that Luther thundered forth the great teaching of justification by faith alone during the Reformation, but that message in its own context does not contradict what Jesus taught in the contexts He spoke in. It was true in the time of Jesus and it was true in the time of Luther that a person that truly believed was a person that was truly converted. But if we take the Bible as a whole in its own context, we have to ask what it means to truly believe and then what it takes for a person to truly believe. Jesus did not teach what people want Him to have taught in our day and Luther did not teach what people are trying to say he taught in his day. What we do see, however, is that in all ages there are proud people who don’t want to receive the true teachings of Christ.
The passage in Matthew 19, while not popular in our day or any day, is quite clear. Jesus had told the rich young rule to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, but the rich young ruler went away sad. Jesus turns to His disciples and tells them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But again, there are many explanations of this text for a proud heart to wrest the plain teaching of Jesus, but He clearly and specifically says these words and He says them in a context that leaves no real question as to the meaning. His disciples responded by asking with astonishment as to who could then be saved? Jesus told them that with people this was impossible.
I would argue that if we can read those words without some inner consternation we have not read those words with much attention. Read these words of the Lord of the entire universe again. When Jesus was asked, “then who can be saved?”, He told His disciples that “with people this is impossible.” It is impossible for men to save themselves. It is impossible for men to do what is necessary to be saved. As impossible as it is for a real camel to go through the eye of a real needle, it is that impossible for men to be saved by anything they can do. It is God alone who can save sinners.
Of the many things we should notice, we must notice that Jesus did not just tell the disciples that any one could be saved if they would just pray a prayer or if they would just make themselves believe. He told them that salvation was impossible with people. But He did not leave them there in utter despair, but instead He told them that it is possible with God. All the things that we are told that men must do in order to be saved are impossible for men to do. We are told that men must be born again. We are told that men must believe. We are told that men must be holy. We are told that men must persevere. We are told that men must love God. All of those things are impossible with people, but they are only possible with God. Each soul must see how impossible salvation is by his own faith and his own works and his own belief so that each soul can see the absolute glory of grace that it takes for the soul to be saved. Until a man reaches the point of seeing and bowing to the impossibility of salvation in his own strength, he will not see his absolute and utter need of grace. Oh how awful pride is that it would blind us to our own utter insufficiency and the utter sufficiency of grace alone. Pride will indeed keep a person from the presence of God no matter how hard it tries to do what God alone can do. With people this is impossible.
God Loves... Himself 
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