And lo, one coming up said to him, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have life eternal?
This man arrives immediately after Jesus has blessed the little children, and the contrast is the whole point of the scene: one comes running with a serious question about eternal life, yet asks it in a way that assumes the answer lies in his own hands. Everything turns on two small words in his question — "good" and "do."
The placement of this incident is deliberate. The kingdom had just been given to those who receive it like children; now a very different kind of person steps forward.
Verse 16 speaks of one who comes to the Lord, but not as a little child. He is in earnest, no doubt, but his words show confidence in his own ability to do something to earn eternal life. This is not the simplicity of a little child. The Lord asks him why he brings up good at all, for only one is good, that is, God. Since the man is not good in himself, how can he expect to do a good thing?
Notice what he leaves out. He asks about having life; he never asks about being saved.
The young man in Matthew 19:16 did not say, "What shall I do to be saved?" but "to have eternal life." The Lord's answer does not deal with being saved but with living: "Do this and live." The young man said, "This I have done. What do I still lack?" The Lord answered, "Sell all, and come follow me." This tested him, for his heart was set on his possessions, and he went away from grace.
Jesus does not begin by correcting him. He starts where the man already stands.
The young man neither knew himself, nor the state in which man really was before God. He was under the law; and Jesus sets forth the law first as the rule of life, given by God as the measure of righteousness for the sons of Adam. The Lord does not speak of eternal life, but takes up the young man at the point where he places himself; the law said, "Do these things, and you shall live."
He feels a lack, but he has no sense of guilt. He simply wants the right task pointed out to him — and he is confident he can perform it.
It is "what good thing": he does not doubt at all that some good thing is what is needed. Too many are on that road to allow him to doubt its being the right one. At the same time he feels a lack. He is not self-satisfied, and yet, as we shall soon see, he has no conviction of sin. He has no thought that he might be unable to reach his goal, if only someone would point out the means to him... He confesses himself ignorant of the way of life, and has confidence, as it seems, that Christ can teach him. All this is encouraging. Yet he is still on the broad way with the crowd — no good sign, that — and he expects God to give eternal life to the doer of "some good thing."
The Lord's reply passes over the task the man asked about. It stops at the word "good."
By a change of reading the answer of the Lord here is, "Why do you ask me concerning goodness? One there is who is good." There was no use in speaking of God's goodness until the idea of his own goodness was dealt with. So the Lord is only meeting him on his own ground. He points him to the law, which shows what God required of anyone who would stand before Him on the principle of man's goodness.
There is a second edge to the reply. The man addressed Jesus as a fine teacher and nothing more.
He was earnest and reverent and recognized in Him a great Rabbi, who could direct men to eternal life. He took it for granted that a man gets this life by his own doing, according to the law. Clearly he had no idea of the Deity of Jesus... The Lord refused to be called good apart from His being God, saying in effect, "If I am not God, I am not good."
He is not an unusual case.
The young man is a typical religious, moral and natural man... He is in ignorance about eternal life. Despite all his religious observances, his position and his good moral qualities, he had no certainty, no assurance of eternal life. Though he belongs to the professing people of God, he gropes in the dark... He wants to earn eternal life, "do and live," as the law demands. He does not know the basic fact: with all his religiousness and good moral qualities, he is a guilty and lost sinner.
- Doing. He asks what good thing he must do, expecting eternal life as the reward of a task, not as a gift received like a child.
- Good. Jesus stops at that word first: only One is good, so a man not good in himself cannot produce a good thing.
- Ignorance. He is sincere, moral and religious, yet has no assurance of life and no sense that he is lost.
- Ground. The Lord meets him where he stands and points him to the law, because his idea of his own goodness had to be dealt with first.
- Test. The call to sell all and follow Him showed where his heart really was — and he went away from grace.
And he said to him, What askest thou me concerning goodness? one is good. But if thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments.
A young man has just asked what good thing he must do to get eternal life. The answer does not tell him what to do. It questions the assumption hidden in his question. Before naming any commandment, the Lord points to who alone is good.
A different reading of the Greek text lies behind the question as we have it. It asks about goodness itself, not about the title "Good Teacher." One writer traces the change, and what the man's request revealed about him:
The young ruler was satisfied with his position under the law. The letter of the law deceived his conscience, so he was not awake to sin. He wanted to know what extra good deeds would gain him eternal life. By a change of reading the answer of the Lord here is, "Why do you ask me concerning goodness? There is One who is good." It was no use speaking of God's goodness while the man still clung to the idea of his own.
Some writers quote the older wording of the verse, "Why do you call me good?" Either way, the reply aims at the conscience, not at curiosity. If the man had followed its logic, he would have measured himself by it:
That ought to have struck his conscience at once. If only One is good, I am not that one. So I cannot do any "good thing." Another Gospel tells us that he said, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do?" Do you think you can do any good thing? I sometimes hear men talk about being better. I have even heard them talk about "doing their best." What folly!
The Lord's answer reaches past one man. It lays down a principle about the whole human race:
The Lord will not admit that man is good; not one righteous man can be found among men — no, not one. He says, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except One: that is God." Certainly Christ was good, but He was God, although He made Himself man in His perfect love. He was always God. God became man without ceasing to be God, and He could not cease to be God. He had only hidden His divinity in human nature — at least His glory — to come near to us... He establishes this important principle, that no one among the sons of fallen Adam is good. It is a humiliating truth, but one of immense weight.
One writer reads the Lord's question as an opening the young man never took:
I think the Lord gave him the opportunity of saying, "But you are God." If he had known and clearly seen who Jesus is, he would have said at once, "You are God." But I take it he saw no more in Christ than a teacher of religion. So when the Lord presses His claims on him, he does not rise to them. He could not, so he turned away sorrowfully.
The Lord does not answer him with the gospel. One writer explains why the law comes first:
So the Lord meets him where he is. He does not begin, perhaps as we might have expected, with the gospel and the declaration of His grace, for as yet he has no need of grace. Law must do its work with him, for "through the law comes knowledge of sin."
Commentators differ on what "enter life" means here. One reads it as "life on earth, not eternal life." He notes that the commandments the Lord then lists all concern duty to other people, because "the man was not thinking of God, but of goodness in himself" (Leslie M. Grant).
The young man will claim he has kept it all. The verdict does not rest with him:
By the law righteousness could never come, nor life either. There was no person ever able to keep the commandments. In his own estimation, the young man had kept them. But he forgot one thing. The question was not what he himself thought and saw. The important question was what God saw, and God saw that he had failed.
- One is good. Goodness belongs to God alone. Man cannot produce it, and no son of fallen Adam escapes that verdict.
- One was standing there. Jesus was good, because He was God — always God, and made man without ceasing to be God. His question was not a denial but an opening.
- One confession missed. The young man saw only a respected teacher, so the claims of Christ found nothing in him to answer them.
- One method. He asked about doing, so the Lord hands him the law — not as the gospel, but so that the law can teach him what sin is.
- One outcome. The law could never give righteousness or life. What counts is not what a man sees in himself, but what God sees.