“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The answer Jesus gave will probably surprise you.  He replied,

“What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

That's right.  When asked about the path to eternal life, Jesus referred the questioner to Father's Law.  He didn't say anything about a sinner's prayer or going to church, etc.  Jesus clearly refers the man to God's Law.  Let's have a look in the context of Luke 10:

25 Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.[a]

28 “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”

Notice the [a] footnote at the end of the man's answer.  If you click on it you'll see that he is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

Jesus clearly acknowledges that these two passages are the correct answer.  If one practices these two commandments they will have eternal life.

The man asks for clarification on who he should consider his neighbor.  This is important to him because the religious Jews of the day believed they shouldn't associate with foreigners.  (This is discussed briefly in a previous blog post here.)   Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan:

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (Notice that the Priest and the Levite avoid the man completely.) 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

So here you have it from the Master himself.  To inherit eternal life, practice Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18 and show mercy to those in need!  Don't listen to those who would tell you otherwise!

It should also be discussed that it is not up to man to decide what it looks like to love God with all of our heart and our neighbors as ourselves.  To learn this we need to study the two verses above in their contexts.  We cannot decide for ourselves.