“Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. Why does Jesus rebuke the young man? (Mark 10:18)

Question

Mark 10:17-18 (NASB)

The Rich Young Ruler

17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do so that I may inherit eternal life?” 18 But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

In several instances in the NT, men are called "good" yet Jesus rebukes the young man that called him "good" Why? (Matt 20: 15, 22:15, 1 Peter 2:18)

Acts 11:24 (NASB)

24 For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And considerable numbers were added to the Lord.

Luke 23:50 (NET Bible)

50 Now there was a man named Joseph who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man.

Why did he answer the young man as he did?

Answer 1

Jesus was teaching. This man had called him ‘rabbi’ [teacher]. That is, he had not accepted that this one he was speaking to - was Yeshua, the son of God.

It’s too easy in a quick reading to assume that he did - because he is asking Jesus about ‘being saved’. No, the man thought, or saw Jesus merely as a teacher of the Law. So therefore Jesus took that position... a teacher of the Law. And, the Law clearly states that none is good except God.

That is, Jesus was teaching the Law. He was a rabbi, speaking as a Rabbi, and not speaking as ‘Jesus’. Jesus answered exactly as a Rabbi would have. Hence - ‘none is good except God.’

And the rest of the dialogue that follows clearly reflects this. Jesus answered the question as a Rabbi would of. Exactly as a Rabbi would of. That is, salvation comes by keeping the Law!

Salvation [righteousness] can come by keeping the Law, except man is incapable of keeping it to the required level. And, Jesus proved this to the man by using the full extent of the Law.

And consider this, Jesus speaking about the role of teacher ...

MAT 23:7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.

Answer 2

In order to answer your question, we need to take into account the rest of the conversation between Jesus and the rich young man:

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’ Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Mark 10:17-22)

Jesus is challenging the young man’s concept of “good” because the young man thinks that by obeying the Law he will be good enough to inherit eternal life. Jesus knows better. Jesus knows that good works and good deeds have no bearing on the matter. Check out the lesson he delivers to his own disciples in the following verses of Mark chapter 10.

Although the young man had devoted himself to keeping the commandments, he had failed to keep the first and greatest of the commandments, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Matthew 22:37-38). The man’s riches were of more worth to him than God, and thus he was not "good" in the eyes of God. Jesus’ lesson is that goodness flows not from a man’s deeds, but rather from God Himself.

Unless a person is prepared to give up everything and follow Jesus, no amount of goodness or good deeds will avail. By making a clear distinction between man’s standard of goodness and God’s standard, it becomes clear that following Jesus is good. After all, Jesus himself is “good”:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Jesus rightly condemned the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees because of their false pride. On the other hand, Jesus himself declared

Nor are you to be called 'teacher' for you have one Teacher, the Christ (Matthew23:8-12).

Christ Jesus rightly is our teacher, or Rabbi, and he is good.

For clarification: Only God is good, and no human can claim to be good because no human can perfectly keep God's perfect laws. Only Jesus was able to keep God's laws perfectly because he was God incarnate.

Answer 3

Please note that Jesus did not rebuke that sincere young man for address himself as “Good Teacher”. Jesus rebuked him for allowing his great wealth to hold him back from loving God as fully as he should. Jesus simply asked him a question as to WHY he had used that adjective ‘good’ in his salutation. He did not challenge the young man about it. He simply added a statement about the goodness of God as a precursor to what he would say next. The young man was meant to consider Jesus’ answer in light of the fact of only God being truly good.

I say ‘truly good’ because of the obvious fact which you have mentioned, that the Bible uses the adjective ‘good’ several times in conjunction with various humans. But we make a category error if we think we can even begin to compare our goodness with that of God! Relatively speaking, we may observe degrees of goodness with humans, but the Bible shows that “There is no-one who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). That is why, when God caused all his goodness to pass before Moses (Exodus 33:19) verse 18 shows that that equates with God’s glory. That is why God alone can be said to be truly good, while no sinful human can even begin to approach such divine goodness. But Jesus was without sin. Those of us who believe that to be the case can, therefore, view his question to the man from a different perspective from that of people who think Jesus was no more than a good man:

‘Do you realise, young man, that by calling me ‘Good’, you are calling me God?’ That, of course, could never have been the unspoken point of Jesus’ question if he was no more than a man. But it would have been if the sinless man, Jesus, was God incarnate. This is why this section of scripture is so profound and so important. We all need to think about only God being truly and incomparably good, with all sinful humans only being relatively good, from the human point of view. But from God’s point of view, none of us are good as he is good.

Now go back again to the account in Mark 10, and search more carefully for where Jesus’ rebuke lay. I suggest you will find his rebuke in verses 23 to 25, not verse 18. His rebuke is aimed at every single person who allows their love of riches to prevent them from totally loving God, and who won’t dispense with their wealth in order to start following Jesus (should they love their wealth more than they love Jesus). The point of Jesus’ words shows us all what will prevent us from entering into the kingdom of God – love of money. That agrees with a similar warning Jesus gave to religious people who loved money and who despised him. Read Luke 16:13-31 about a rich man there.

In summary, Jesus answered that man as he did to stop him in his tracks. The young man was going along the lines of legalism in order to inherit eternal life (as if doing A, B, and C would entitle him to inherit). Of course Jesus knew, as the Psalmist said, “The law of God is perfect” (19:7) and that was why he loved that man, who genuinely strove to keep all of that law. But by not admitting that he was imperfect, and that his failure to totally keep that law showed him to be a sinner who could never merit eternal life by perfectly keeping that law, he had (up till then) missed the point of the law of God. Jesus was helping him see the point. If only God was good, no human could claim to be good at keeping the law (Jesus’ exempted of course). And, Jesus being the exception to that fact, should cause us to consider how he was the only human to fulfil the law, therefore Jesus WAS truly good. Finally, by telling the man to sell up, give to the poor and then to follow him, Jesus was showing up one of the biggest barriers to entering into the kingdom of God – love of money.

Answer 4

Overview
Jesus' statement is a response to what the man said:

¹⁷ And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. (Mark 10 ESV)

¹⁷ καὶ ἐκπορευομένου αὐτοῦ εἰς ὁδὸν προσδραμὼν εἷς καὶ γονυπετήσας αὐτὸν ἐπηρώτα αὐτόν διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ τί ποιήσω ἵνα ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσω ¹⁸ ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός

In terms of the Gospel, Mark gave the answer before the question was asked:

¹³ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (Mark 10)

One must come to Jesus and receive the kingdom of God like a little child to have eternal life.

Had the man been present when Jesus taught, the "rebuke" is because he wants something more to inherit eternal life: "Good teacher what [more] must I do to inherit eternal life?" In this sense the literary effect is for the benefit of the reader who might question whether entrance to the kingdom of God can really be that simple. If the man had been present, a more reasonable question might be, "Good teacher, how can I [a grown man] come to you like a child?"

"Good"
Good is ἀγαθός, which, as the OP notes, is used to describe others who are not God. The simple way to reconcile what Jesus said with the use elsewhere, is to preserve the character of the word, which is an adjective, not a noun. In other words, "Why do you call me good [teacher]. No one is good [teacher] except God alone."

Even if the implied sense of "teacher" is discounted, the adjective lacks a noun or pronoun and in that way what Jesus said cannot be used to claim an exclusive application of "good" to God: as the other uses in Scripture show. "No one is good except God" is not an exact equivalent to "God is a good God."

If the implied "teacher" is presumed, then the sense of what Jesus says takes on additional significance. Again, had the man been present for the earlier message, Jesus rebuke is not about the word "good" but in the application of the word to teacher. That is, if the use of adjective means only God is a good teacher why do you call me "good teacher?" Notice how the man responds to the rebuke:

And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” (Mark 10:20)

He no longer calls Jesus "good" and while the pericope ends with the man leaving because of his unwillingness to sell his possessions, the overarching issue is his unwillingness to insist Jesus is in fact "good" and come to Him as a child.

Answer 5

‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy. - Mark 10:20

I suggest that this is the key to the passage. This would not be the first time that Jesus knew the heart of a person before they began a discourse and not the first time that Jesus deflected the entrance to the conversation and went straight to the heart of the matter. Here follow a few examples of many:

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? - Matthew 9:4

But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? - Luke 5:22

But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. - Luke 6:8

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" is the question the man has, but he comes with the belief that he has been doing all of the necessary things since he was a boy and Jesus knows that. It is likely that he considers his material blessings as a reward (as written in the law); as confirmation of his righteousness before God. He has been seeking life through the law and yet, feeling the deficit therein, asks what else might be done: "Good teacher, what must I do...".

Jesus here does neither directly affirm nor deny His deity with his answer, "Why callest thou me good, there is none good but God." He rarely does. He is asking the man a pointed question very similar to this question:

And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? - Mark 8:29

and the answer to this question is not revealed by flesh and blood. It is not meant to be revealed to a person from without but within a person. Do we call Jesus good because we believe in our hearts that he is God manifest in flesh or is he just an excellent teacher pointing to something extrinsic to himself?

It is important that the man shrinks the appellation from "good teacher" to "teacher", as Jesus suggested he should do if he was not acknowledging him as God, right at the place where he claims to have kept the law, v.20.

Jesus wants to reveal to this man what his own heart contains; that he is willing to honor the law without honoring the law giver...that he is striving to establish his own righteousness through that which was given to demonstrate God's righteousness.

Essentially Jesus is calling this guy out; "You're calling me good (and only God is that) and you are living as though goodness comes through the law...you cannot have one without the other." The man is living as though the law is good/God but the law is only good because of the goodness of the author.

"You know the commandments", Jesus affirms and does not deny the man's claim that he has kept all these yet Jesus says, "you lack something. Turn away from what you treasure (repent) and follow me."

The man comes to Jesus, inquiring about law keeping and entrance into eternal life. God, the only good one, has authored the law. Jesus (God's Word made flesh) says, "Just keeping the law is not enough. Follow me."

Shall we follow Jesus (just a man) as he follows the law or shall we follow Him as author of the law? "Why callest thou me good?". This is a question for everyone.

Answer 6

There is no reason to think Jesus' reply was a rebuke. It was simply a rhetorical question drawing his attention or focus to God alone, the source of goodness. The rich man really lacked goodness, as he proved to be a lover of wealth. To draw people to God is the work of a prophet.

Jesus did not actually deny being good. It was a rhetorical answer, showing the goodness of God, in front of whom no mortal goodness is comparable; it merely emphasizes the goodness of God. It simply draws the focus to the ultimate divine goodness of God, which all must seek to imitate to receive life or to live. "No one is good" is like the phrase "no one does good, not even one." Rom 3:12 exaggerates the sin of mankind, it is hyperbole in comparison of the ideal goodness required. John 1:47 Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!, shows Nathaniel as the only honest man; here the expression exaggerates Nathaniel's righteousness and Israel's sinfulness; it compares Nathaniel and the general population.

Answer 7

Why did Jesus say - No one is good—except God alone?

Jesus was reaffirming that every things belongs to God. Everything comes from God. Jesus only taught what God had ordered / given him to teach, being the slave of God. Confirming what had gone before and that it would continue. Everything was in the hands of God.

Mark 10: 18-19 - 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’

Mentioned again in Luke 18:19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone."

Exodus 20:12-16 - 12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Deuteronomy 5:16-20 - 16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 17 “You shall not murder. 18 “You shall not commit adultery. 19 “You shall not steal. 20 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

This confirms that he is under God Almighty and not equal/equivalent to him and has come to remind - “ I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matt 15:24

This does not mean that Jesus is not good, he is a chosen one by God, sent to give Gods message, how can he not be good. Otherwise, how can anyone else be Good.

Mark 1:24 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Some passages that help to clarify this;

Isaiah 11:1-3

1. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him (Jesus)-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
3. and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;

Clearly everything will be given to him by God, Gods spirit, wisdom, counsel, power, knowledge and fear of the Lord. Everything is from God and Gods will - "and he will delight in the fear of the LORD".

This IMO clearly proves that Jesus is under GOD Almighty and cannot be equivalent to Him or part of Him, because GOD Almighty has no fear in Him.

Jesus only to provide Gods message, he is not the judge "He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;..."

John 5:30 "By myself I can do nothing".... He cannot do anything without God.

Answer 8

I would argue that the flattery or coaxing behavior of the young man (kneeling down before Jesus in Mar 10:17 as Jesus distributing a piece of the Heaven!) is the KEY to the ‘understanding’. Disappointed Jesus is telling the young man: first of all nobody is good enough, secondly you do know the commandments! Then when Jesus realizes he is a good guy, likes him: “Then Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21, which is missing in Matthew and Luke).

Answer 9

At Mark 10:17 the man first addresses Jesus as "Good Teacher, and ask, "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

The man's understanding of "good" was achievement, but Jesus turned his attention toward God, the author and true standard of all that is morally good. How do I know this? By reading Matthew 16-22. At verse 18-19 Jesus explains to the man which commandments should he keep?

At verse 20 the man said all of them. At verse 21 Jesus says if you want to be complete sell your possessions and give them to the poor etc. Now comes the "heart" (pun intended) of the matter. The man was unwilling to part with his "stuff" and was grieved about it.

The man had asked the question on the basis of works, "What must I do?" So as I said, Jesus was turning his attention toward God. By the way, Jesus was "NOT" denying His own inherent goodness and thus His deity.

Answer 10

Mark 10:

17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do so that I may inherit eternal life?” 18 But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Let's analyze this according to first-order logic. The following is Jesus logical process:

If you are not God, then you are not good. By contrapositive,
⇒ If you are good, then you are God. —P1

Jesus declares in John 10:

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Jesus says that he was good. —P2

P1: If you are good, then you are God.
P2: Jesus is good

Therefore, Jesus is God. At least that was Jesus' implication in Mark 10:18.

Answer 11

My answer was taken from http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.com/2009/10/phil-26-pt-2-notes.html with some omissions.

The answer lies in the distinction between the greek words kalos and agathos. Both mean “good.” Kalos is never used for God but agathos can be used for God and his creations.

The man addressed Jesus as “Good [agathos] Teacher.” Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good [agathos]? No one is good [agathos] except one, God.” - Mark 10:17,18. According to Jesus, only God should be called agathos, and by that he clearly specified that it was not him, but his God.

John 10:11. shows that Jesus was called the (kalos) good Sheperd, but note that this does not use the word agathos. True Christians are also “good” [kalos] as - 1 Tim. 4:6, ASV, - 1 Peter 4:10, ASV shows.

John 10:11 ASV I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.

1 Tim. 4:6, ASV If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now

1 Peter 4:10, ASV according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God;

In fact, God Himself is described as “good” with agathos, but never with kalos in all the Greek Scriptures. The reason kalos is never (in its hundreds of uses in OT and NT) used for the person of God may be explained by the use of kalos at Gen. 1:4-31 in the Septuagint where each of God’s creations is called “good” [kalos]. Paul reinforces this usage at 1 Tim. 4:4 - “For every creature of God is good [kalos]”, ASV.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology also admits that in the OT “kalos, as opposed to agathos, is what is pleasing to Yahweh, what he likes or what gives him joy, whereas agathos suggests more the application of an ethical standard.” - p. 103, vol. 2, Zondervan, 1986. And Thayer writes, “Thus even in the usage of the O.T. we are reminded of Christ’s words, Mk. x. 18, [‘no one is agathos except one, God’].” - p. 3, #18, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Baker Book House, 1984 printing.