What is the significance of Jesus asking, "Why do you call me good?" (Mark 10:18)?

The one who came running to Jesus exhibited many commendable features. Matthew tells us he was young, and Luke that he was a ruler. 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 the life was to be obtained by human doings, according to the law. Evidently he had no idea of the Deity of Jesus, and hence the Lord's words in verse 18. He repudiated goodness apart from His being God, saying in effect, "If I am not God, I am not good."

In Luke then, we read of this young ruler who was sufficiently interested to come to the Lord, and he was in earnest also, for another Gospel tells us he came "running." He was clearly anxious to embrace the opportunity of an interview with Christ. We are told that he came and knelt to Christ: this attitude showed an absence of pride in him. He had some regard for the "Prophet of Nazareth," and so he did Him reverence by bowing his knee to Him. He then asked Him the question of all questions, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life? This life was something the law could not give him. There was an attraction about Christ Jesus and His teaching that gave the ruler to feel that Jesus could help him to find the treasure he sought. He wanted "life," the life which is the real life. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

And the Lord looking upon him, as we are told. by Mark, "loved him." That great and compassionate heart of divine love was specially moved towards the ruler because he had put the question so many people forget altogether. They pass through the world as though they were on the same level with the beasts that perish, and think nothing of the life that is beyond the grave. They utterly disregard the fact that it is within their power to bow their knees before the Holy God and to seek His face. But here was a man who had thought about the life which was the true and the eternal. He had come to the right person to learn, and the Lord loved to see such a movement in the heart of one of the rulers towards Himself. There were so many of that generation who despised Him. Simon the Pharisee, for instance, invited Jesus into his house just to see what He would do, just to take Him off, as it were, little thinking that the Lord knew all about his motives. We often forget the Lord's omniscience.

But Jesus listened to the young man's question, and answered it in His own way, saying, "Why callest thou Me good?" The term was true, but the question gave the opportunity for the ruler to exercise his faith in the Lord and to confess His name. He was looking upon Him who was a "Man of sorrows," and yet that humble Man was the Man whom God had anointed, who was God's Fellow, the Son of God here below. This Man before 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.

Then Jesus referred the ruler to the commandments, and he said, "All these have I kept from my youth up." Here was the young man's mistake. He had come to Jesus to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. By the law righteousness could never come, nor life either. There was no person ever able to keep the commandments. The young man, however, according to his own estimation, had kept them, but he forgot that it was not a question of what he himself thought and saw, but the important question was what God saw, and God saw that he had failed.

This ruler came to Jesus, apparently in immense earnestness, for he ran, and knelt to Him. Have you ever knelt to Jesus yet? to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? I do not mean as a form, but with a sense in your heart that there was an immense need, which only He could meet. "He kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" It was a most important question. No more important question could fall from his lips, and I am sure the Lord took a deep interest in him, for we read, "Jesus beholding him, loved him" (ver. 21). Beautiful words, "He loved him!" I have no doubt there were moral features, and natural characteristics in this young man, that would make him a most desirable friend, and desirable companion. There was a fervour, an earnestness, a genuineness, and simplicity about him, that was charming, and, looking on his mere natural qualifications, the Lord "loved him."

But, he came with this thought, you see, that he must "do" something. We have all thought similarly. When we think of possessing eternal life, the first thought always is, "What shall I do?" The Lord immediately replies, "Why callest thou me good?" He does not answer his question straight; He puts another question to him, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." That ought to have smitten his conscience at once with the sense, if there be none good but one, I am not that one, and therefore I cannot do any "good thing." Another gospel tells us that he said: "Good Master, what good thing shall I do?" (Matt 19:16.) Do you think you can do any good thing? I sometimes hear men talking about being better; nay, I have even heard them sometimes talk about "doing their best." What folly!

The 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 callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." I think the Lord gave him the opportunity of saying, "But thou art God." Had he really known, and clearly discerned the Person of Jesus, he would immediately have said, "Thou art God." But, I take it, he saw no more in Christ than that He was a teacher of religion, hence when the claims of the Lord on him are presented to him, he does not rise to them. He could not, so he turned away sorrowfully.

The Lord had vindicated marriage according to its beginning from God against the Pharisees. He had blessed babes in spite of rebuking, but now rebuked disciples. We have Him next eagerly sought out by the rich young ruler. "And as He went forth into the way, one ran up and kneeled to him, and asked Him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit life eternal?"106 There was no lack of moral integrity here, no failure in reverence to One who was instinctively felt to be superior, no indolence that avoided trouble; but earnestness was there, honest respect for that righteous man, and a sincere desire to learn a new lesson and take a fresh step in well-doing. It was nature doing its best, yet fundamentally at fault; for his question assumed that man was good and could do good — man as he is. His very salutation of honour to Jesus proved that His person was unknown, and therefore the truth unknown both as to God and man. Had the young ruler believed Him to be the Son of the living God, he would not have accosted Him with "Good Teacher" — a style suitable enough to a respected and honoured teacher, but both needless and improper in addressing One who was equal with God and was God. But the evil of man he had never realised — the total, hopeless sin and ruin of the heart in God's sight. Hence the need of such a One as Jesus was unfelt — of One who, God and man, came down to the depths of sin in Divine love, and is raised up to the throne of God in Divine righteousness; who suffered all on earth from God on behalf of guilty man, that He might have man redeemed, reconciled, justified, glorified, by and with Himself in heaven, and in both, as in all things, God glorified through Jesus Christ.

Our Blessed Lord therefore refuses the honour which ignored the only just foundation for it, jealous for the truth as well as for God's glory, as, indeed, it is the only real love to man. If not God, Christ was not good; if good, He is God.107 "And Jesus said to him, Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one [that is], God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said to Him, Teacher, all these have I observed from my youth. And Jesus beholding him loved him." It is striking to observe these two things following — the comparative severity of our Lord's answer, and the express assertion that He looked upon him and loved him. The one showed how He dealt with amiable nature, intruding into what it knows not; the other, how no curtness of rebuke for spiritual blindness, no consciousness that the young man was faithless and would depart sorrowful at His word, hindered the Saviour's love for that which was sweet and attractive in human nature. Our Lord gave its full value to his honouring of the commandments, which He does not contradict; but He meets him on the ground he had chosen, not of a broken-hearted, convicted sinner asking what he must do to be saved, but of a blameless man who was conscious of nothing wrong in his life, but who felt desires after a more excellent way from One so pre-eminently excellent in his eyes as Jesus, who accordingly "said to him, One thing thou lackest: go, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me, [taking up the cross]." Jesus had done infinitely more; for, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich." But this ruler knew not the grace of our Lord, though he could not but see His ineffable moral beauty; he knew not His grace, for His glory was unknown to him. Little did he think even when he kneeled to Jesus that there stood before him One who, "subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a bondman, and was made in the likeness of men; and having been found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." It was not, then, that He who repudiated all good save in One, save God, shrank from that test which He represented to the good-seeking ruler; yet the one thing the young and ardent Jew lacked was, oh! how incomparably short of the path of Jesus both in life and death. Still, it was far too great a demand on the loveliest sample of humanity which, as far as we read, crossed the path of the Lord; and it made plain in his sad, departing footsteps to others, if it did not discover to his own conscience, the covetousness of his heart, the value he set upon his possessions the trust he had in riches, the little heart he had for treasure in heaven, care for himself rather than for others, even for the poor, of whom the Lord ever thought much, and, above all, that so taking up the cross and following Christ was harder measure than he was prepared for. What is man? Wherein is he to be accounted of? Well may we worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. "There is none good but One [that is], God." How true, and how blessed for us that so it is! "Verily every man, [even] the high placed is altogether vanity" (Ps. 39:5). Jesus had but disclosed the shadow, and not the very image, of Divine goodness in Himself; yet did the beauty of the amiable devotee consume away like a moth. "But he, sad at the word, went away grieved: for he had large possessions."108 Surely every man is vanity. The words bracketed are found in A(G)N, etc., 1, 13, 69, and Syrsin pesch Æth., Iren. Edd. omit, after ℵBCDΔ and Old Latin.

Then we have the ruler, to whom our Lord shows that all was wrong where a soul is not brought to know that there is none good but God. Had he really known how good God is he would have soon seen God in Jesus. He saw nothing of the sort. He knew neither God nor good. He looked upon the Lord merely as good after a human fashion. If He was but a man there was no goodness in Him; it 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 Master", unless that master were God. This he saw not; and therefore, the Lord proves him, and searches the ground of his heart, and demonstrates that after all he valued the world more than God and eternal life. This he had never suspected in himself before. He loved his natural position; he loved to be a ruler, though a young one; he loved his possessions; he loved what he had of present advantages in the world. He really clave to all these things without knowing it himself. The Lord, therefore calls upon him to give them up, and follow Him. He thought there was no demand of goodness but what he was able to meet; but the trial was too much for him. Man was not good — God only. Jesus, who was God, had given up beyond all comparison more, yea, infinitely.

458 Luke 18:19. — The emphasis is on "good," not on "Me." Cf. Ullmann, "Sinlessness of Jesus," p. 148 ff. and note 107 on Mark, which deals with the point raised in such popular books as Schmiedel, "Jesus in Modern Criticism," p. 23. The limitations of the Lord's humanity we cannot determine outside Scripture (John 5:19, etc.), they were incidental to His self-imposed humiliation. There is here no more avowal of imperfection than in 20:41-44 a repudiation of his Davidic Sonship. It is noticeable that the Koran, whilst more than once recording Mohammed's sense of need of forgiveness of sins, nowhere attributes to Aissa any such confession, although apocryphal gospels, from which "the Prophet" received his information, are not free from insinuations of the kind.

Let us examine what the Lord here says about the state of man. The young man addressed the Lord not as Son of God, but as a rabbi, that is, as a teacher in Israel: he calls Him "Good Master." The Lord will not admit that man is good; not one righteous man can be found amongst men - no, not one. He says, "Why callest thou 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, 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 nigh unto us; for by faith, divine power and love are more clearly manifested than ever. But here the young man comes as to a human teacher, a rabbi; and the Lord answers him in the same manner as he asks; but He establishes this important principle, that no one amongst the sons of fallen Adam is good. It is a humiliating truth, but one of immense weight. We cannot now find a man who is good by nature. We have seen that certain qualities remain of the first creation; but that which God had created good, and declared to be good, has been corrupted by the Fall. Man goes in quest of his own pleasures, of his own interests, and not of God and His glory; he may set these things honestly or dishonestly in the quagmire of sin; but he always seeks to satisfy his own will. He has lost God, and looks after himself.

There is no doubt of the earnestness of the man who came to the Lord, for his running and kneeling bear witness of this. He addressed the Lord as "Good Teacher," asking what he should do in order to inherit eternal life. He did not realize that the One he was addressing was infinitely more than a good teacher. For this reason the Lord asked him why he called Him good, for only God is good. If only he could have given the proper answer that Jesus is God, how much would have been solved for him! But he did not think of Jesus as One who could satisfy the depths of his soul's need, but only as a teacher who could give him good instruction as to what he should do.

Next comes the case of the rich young man who claimed to have kept the law, as regards the commandments relating to one's duty towards one's neighbour. The Lord did not deny his claim, so apparently he had been blameless as far as outward observance was concerned. He was much mistaken however in thinking that by doing some good thing he could have eternal life. Coming on that ground, Jesus at once tested him, and under the test he utterly failed. "What lack I yet?" was his question, and the answer was designed to show him that he lacked the faith which discerned the glory of Jesus, and which consequently would have moved him to give up everything in order to follow Him. He approached Jesus as "Good Master," and the Lord would not accept the epithet "good," unless it were given Him as the fruit of acknowledging His Deity. "There is none good but one — God," so that if Jesus was not God He was not good. If the young man had recognized the Deity of the One who said to him, "Follow Me," his "great possessions" would have been as nothing to him, and he would gladly have followed Jesus. Have we each so recognized the glory of Jesus as to be lifted clean out of the love of mere earthly things?

In the early period of the Lord's ministry people marvelled at the gracious words He spoke, and even the officers could say, "Never man spoke like this man." But the Lord revealed Himself to the conscience. This young man accosted the Lord on the level of human opinion. He had read of eternal life and he came to the Lord as one who could give him a right answer. If that teacher was only a human teacher he would be only a blind leader of the blind. So His words imply, Am I not more than good? Am I not God? If He were not God, He was (I say it with all reverence) the basest of impostors. The Lord knew what the effect of His words would be; He tests the conscience. There is no one good but God. We come as a receiver, not as an earner. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The Pharisees by some means had found out there was such a thing as eternal life. It is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament. The life generally referred to there is temporal, not eternal. The law proposed life, "This do and thou shalt live." So the Lord took the young man up on his own ground. He addresses him on the ground of his responsibility to his fellow creatures. If you are on the ground of doing, it is all up with you. It is not what we give up, nor yet what we bring to God but what we receive. If he had only done what was right between man and man it would have been something. Are you not richer than your neighbour? Sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow Me. If I am good, follow the good.