And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” Luke 18:19 ESV
There are two instances in the book of Luke of people walking up to Jesus to ask Him what they must do to inherit eternal life. In chapter 10 a lawyer asks Jesus this question and after an exchange we are told the lawyer wanted to justify himself in Jesus’ eyes by questioning Him more. It is here we get the parable of the Good Samaritan. 1
A Samaritan being the hero of the story would have been offensive to the Jewish people of Jesus’ day, but His point was made. We need to love everybody and to help anybody who needs it. Anybody in need is our neighbor.
Today it is probably the second confrontation that causes more debate because it is used by skeptics to claim Jesus was denying His deity and so I want to focus on that one.
A young ruler walks up to Jesus and asks Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”2 Jesus responds, “why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” On the surface it would appear as if Jesus is denying He is God, but is that what Jesus is saying?
Was Jesus denying His deity? We’ve already discussed the many times Jesus claimed to be God in this article, so why this puzzling question? As always when reading the Bible we have to dig deeper. We cannot just take a random Bible verse and use it to fit our agenda, we have to look at the context.
Jesus was a master at peering into a man’s heart, staring into his soul, remember man judges by appearances but God looks at the heart.3 I believe that is what Jesus is doing with this question. He wants to see what is motivating this person. He was probing deeper into this man’s mind to see where his heart was.
Jesus begins to turn the tables on the ruler by asking him about the commandments. His spirits must have lifted as he said “all of these I have kept since my youth”4 now thinking that Jesus was about to confirm his righteousness.
But Jesus was not done yet. He went on to tell the ruler he must sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. If he did this he would be trading his worldly possessions for treasure in Heaven. But the man walked away sad because he was extremely rich, he chose his temporary earthly possessions over an eternity of treasure in Heaven.5 He did not have the heart to follow Jesus.
This was a time when wealth was thought to be a sign of favor with God. We don’t know if this rich young ruler heard the exchange Jesus had with the lawyer who was looking to justify himself. Perhaps in his arrogance he thought that, unlike in the case of the lawyer, Jesus would acknowledge his righteousness because of his wealth, but I feel as if there was much the same sentiment behind the rich ruler’s question. He wanted to be justified.
At this point Jesus turned to the crowd and said:
“How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”6
Those who heard the exchange were equally shocked, after all if wealth is a sign of favor with God, and it is difficult for the rich to enter Heaven who can get into Heaven? So they asked “then who can be saved?”7 Jesus answered “what is impossible with man is possible with God.”8
Nobody was expecting this turn of events, a rich man came to Jesus seeking justification and instead Jesus used this opportunity as a teachable moment. Man cannot work his way into Heaven, that is impossible, it takes a heart set on God and then it will be possible. This was not an example of Jesus denying His deity, it was Jesus using the opportunity put in front of him to show us the path to eternal life. And that’s what the question was in the first place…
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”9
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