If Jesus was God, why did He say no one is good but God alone?
Two people meet in this scene: a man who wants to know what to do to inherit eternal life, and a Teacher he addresses with a compliment. The reply pushes the compliment back at him — and that reply has been read ever since as either a denial of Christ's deity or a door opened to it.
The Word Is a Question, Not a Denial
The Lord never says "I am not good." He asks why the title is being used, and one writer reads that as an opening deliberately left for the man to walk through.
W. T. P. WolstonThe Lord Jesus Christ says here, "There is none good but one, that is, God." And Scripture says, "There is none that does good, no, not one." Here Christ asks, "Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." I think the Lord gave him the opportunity of saying, "But You are God." Had he really known, and clearly seen the Person of Jesus, he would immediately have said, "You are God." But, I take it, he saw no more in Christ than a teacher of religion.
The same point is put as a test of faith rather than a correction of vocabulary — the word was accurate, but the man had no idea what he was saying.
The Bible TreasuryThe term was true, but the question gave the ruler the opportunity to exercise his faith in the Lord and to confess His name. He was looking at One who was a "Man of sorrows," and yet that humble Man was the Man whom God had anointed, God's Fellow, the Son of God here below. This Man in front of him was God Himself in person — to believe on, if he would. Jesus was good because He was God, and if the young ruler had only believed on Him, his words would have been perfectly true and proper.
The Logic Cuts the Other Way
If goodness belongs to God alone, then the title is either false or it is a confession of deity. One commentator presses that fork all the way.
William KellyHad he really known how good God is, he would soon have seen God in Jesus. He saw nothing of the sort. He knew neither God nor good. He looked on the Lord merely as good after a human fashion. If He was only a man, there was no goodness in Him; goodness is only in God: God alone is good. If Jesus were not God, He was not good. The young ruler had no right, no just title, to say "Good Teacher," unless that teacher were God.
Answered on His Own Ground
The man came to a respected human instructor with a question about what to do. The reply meets him exactly where he stood.
J. N. DarbyThe young man saw the outside of Christ's perfection, and, trusting in the power of man to do what is good, and seeing it actually carried out in Jesus, he applies to Him — humanly speaking, sincerely — to learn from One in whom he saw so much perfection, though seeing Him merely as a Rabbi, the rule of eternal life… The human limit of his ideas of this goodness, and his confidence in the powers of man, come out in the words, "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"
Read that way, the sentence is a verdict on human nature before it is anything else — and it stands without touching who Christ is.
J. N. DarbyCertainly Christ was good, but He was God, although He made Himself man in His perfect love. He was always God, and God became man without ceasing to be, or being able to cease being, God; only He had hidden His divinity in human nature (at least His glory) in order to come near to us… But He establishes this important principle, that no one among the sons of fallen Adam is good.
Where the Stress Falls
The sentence has been quarried for proof that the earliest records knew only a human Jesus. One writer answers that by pointing at which word carries the weight.
William KellyMuch use has been made of this verse by those interested in finding evidence for the notion that, as regards the Deity of the Saviour and much else, there are layers of narrative, and in the earliest of them nothing beyond simple humanity is recognised. Christ here seems to be taking the position predicted of Him in Ps. 16:2. The emphasis is not on "Me," but on "good."
That reference to Psalm 16 — "my goodness extends not to You" — supplies a second layer. As a man among men, He took the place of dependence and refused honour that did not come through the Father.
A. PridhamAs the Son of Man, Jesus refused to be called "good" (Mark 10:18). For He had come into the world to glorify the Father — to be the servant of Jehovah in obedient dependence.
Summary
- Question — He asks why, He does not say no. The reply is aimed at the man's estimate of goodness, not at His own Person.
- Invitation — The word "good" was true. It was left hanging so the man could say what Thomas later said, and he failed to say it.
- Deity — If goodness belongs to God alone, then "Good Teacher" is either wrong or it is worship. Kelly's line settles it: if Jesus were not God, He was not good.
- Verdict — The man wanted a good thing to do. The answer told him there is no good man to do it — a humbling truth about every son of fallen Adam.
- Dependence — In His place as Man, He kept every honour flowing to the Father, taking the servant's position of Psalm 16 rather than a title held on His own account.