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Luke 18:18–19
“Jesus said to [the ruler], ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (v. 19).
Young children are helpless and wholly dependent on others for their survival. They lack the ability to do much, if anything, for others. So Jesus points to them as models of how one receives the kingdom of God. To receive the kingdom and thus eternal life, we must recognize our utter dependence on the Lord for all things, including the righteous status we need to stand before Him unafraid. We must confess our sin and put our hope only in His mercy (Luke 18:15–17; see vv. 9–14; Rom. 4).
Today’s passage begins Luke’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler, who serves as an interesting contrast with the children whom Jesus blessed. Unlike the infants and young boys and girls, the ruler was far from helpless. Luke 18:23 explains that he was “extremely rich,” with all the advantages that wealth brings and the ability to do much for the extension of the kingdom of God. Coming to Jesus, the ruler asked our Lord what he needed to do to “inherit eternal life” (v. 18). Would his path to salvation involve anything more than the faith of a child that Jesus had already commended?
We will consider that question more fully in our next study. Today we will look at the significance of Jesus’ initial response. The ruler called Jesus “Good Teacher,” and Christ replied by asking why the man called Him “good,” noting that only God is good (v. 19). Some have argued that Jesus denied His own goodness in this response, but that cannot be, given what the New Testament tells us about Jesus. Moreover, Jesus did not actually claim that He was not good.
Our Lord’s question was designed to get the rich young ruler to think more deeply about what he had said. Jesus made the plain point that God is good. Scripture testifies abundantly to God’s perfection as the source of all goodness (Ps. 100:5; James 1:16–18). Cyril of Alexandria comments, “In the nature that transcends all, God alone is found to be good by nature, that is, unchangeably good.”
God’s goodness was a standard belief of first-century Jews, so it was not news to the ruler that God is good. Jesus’ response instead implies that there was something about the man in relation to God and His goodness that he did not realize. In calling Jesus “good,” he spoke better than he knew at the time. To truly recognize the full goodness of Jesus requires recognizing that He is God in the flesh. Jesus meant that the ruler did not truly know what he was saying. Yes, Jesus is good, but that is because He is very God of very God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Augustine of Hippo comments on today’s passage that Jesus said “God is good” instead of “The Father is good” because He was pointing to goodness as the common property of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in terms of Their goodness and every other divine attribute.
for further study
- 1 Kings 8:66
- Psalm 73:1
- Jeremiah 31:14
- Titus 3:4–7
the bible in a year
- Proverbs 9–10
- 1 Corinthians 15:1–34