“Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.’” Mark 10:17-18.

Many have seized on Jesus’ statement in this last sentence, “No one is good but One, that is God.” to mean that He is telling this young man that He (Jesus) is not God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are questions as to what this young man meant when he called Jesus, “good Teacher”. But it is more important to examine the Lord’s reply to the young man, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.”

Jesus’ words might be clarified by putting them this way, “By calling Me good, are you saying that you believe that I am the promised Messiah (the Christ) God incarnate?”

Who men believe Jesus was, and is, is the difference between salvation and eternal loss.

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He [the Christ, God incarnate], you will die in your sins.” John 8:24.

This was the deadly error of the Jews; they rejected and killed, by the hand of the Gentiles, their Messiah.

Jesus showed His credentials proving that He was both the Christ and God the Son in unmistakable ways through miracles, the prophecies He fulfilled, and the things He said.

Getting back to the rich young ruler (as he is referred to in Luke 18:18) who came running up to Jesus and kneeling at His feet; such an undignified thing for a rich ruler to do.

Can you see that this man is sincere in his quest for eternal life, running and kneeling instead of summoning Jesus or meeting Him at night; no wonder the Lord loved him.

But his theology is all wrong; “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” In Matthew 19:16 the question is:

“Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Matthew 19:16b.

What shall I do, what good thing shall I do to have eternal life? If this young man did not see Jesus as the Messiah, he had to have seen Him as a teacher (which he addressed Him as), prophet or even the Prophet which Moses referred to in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear…” Deuteronomy 18:15.

This Prophet was actually a reference to the promised Christ/Messiah who was to come, but the Jews mistakenly thought that the Prophet was going to be just a great man a prophet like Moses to guide the people. Read the whole passage, there is a lot to learn from it.

If you read that, you may also like to look up; John 1:19-28, also see John 6:14, and 7:40 quoted below. The book of Acts expands on this a little in Acts 3:12-26, and all of chapter 7, specifically Acts 7:37.

“Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did [the feeding of the 5000], said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” John 6:14.

“Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, ‘Truly this is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ,’ but some said, ‘Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?’ So there was a division among the people because of Him.” John 7:40-43.

Getting back to the rich young ruler; whomever he thought Jesus was he thought that He was good, and like the Pharisees, he thought that a person got to heaven by being good.

Understand this, and let me make it very clear, there will be many, many good people in hell.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10.

Who can know our heart, even we do not know what we are capable of or why we do evil things; it is God who weighs the heart. It is God who decides what is good. And just what are God’s standards?

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

You can find these enumerated in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy chapter 5. I suggest you read all of chapter 5 because there is much more information than just the Ten Commandments.

Well shucks, this is easy, I’ve always believed in the Christian God, certainly I’ve never worshipped idols, and I would never dream of using God’s name in vain. By the Sabbath, I suppose you mean Sunday, I have rarely missed a day at church, in fact I sing in the choir.

I love my mom and dad so that one is an easy one. Never murdered anyone, and in three years of marriage I’ve never even looked at another woman.

I believe in working for my stuff, I would never steal. My neighbors are good folk, I would never tell a lie about them. I’m not too sure about this coveting thing, I am happy with what I’ve got.

“All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits [the seat of moral character].” Proverbs 16:2.

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12.

God who weighs the spirits, tests the mind, and searches the heart of all mankind (men and women) gives us His own findings.

“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18.

Pretty harsh is it not? I think so, until I examine my life; particularly before I accepted Christ as my Savior, just after and even now over fifty years later.

“There is none righteous”; even as a child I remember telling lies, not doing chores that I was told to do, stealing (junk, twice, less than a dollar).

But Adam and Eve brought sin into the world by eating a piece of fruit. Please believe this though as a child, I was a pretty good kid, at least in my own estimation.

“There is none who understands”; again, in my youth, I believed in God, but all these other religions along with evolution were right too for some unexamined reason.

Naturally you believe these things because intelligent men who would not lie say they are so. Everywhere there is confusion; ask anyone on the street what they believe in.

“There is none who seeks after God”; when I was thirteen my father died so I told God I have no father, You will have to be my Father. You know something? He was a great Father.

God kept me out of trouble numerous times, even gave me a best friend in junior high who was more mature than me (emotionally I was about 2 years behind). My friend gave me an example of how a good and mature teenager should act all the way through high school. Few folks are blessed like that.

Though God was officially my Father, I was a pitiful son, not even as good as I was for my dead father. Prone to wander, desirous to sin, did not go to church, or read my Bible, but I prayed for what I needed at times.

God is good, but no, I was not seeking after God, I just needed someone to meet my needs on my terms.

“They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” All of these things I have kept through my youth.

Must I answer to, feet “…swift to shed blood [not literally, but does it have to be to devastate]; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.”

The more we honestly consider these things, the more we realize how pitifully we have treated God’s creatures, those whom He loves far more than we are capable of.

Truly, “There is no fear of God before their [our] eyes.” You see, even the aged Christian can see where they have trampled the delicate flowers in God’s Garden before accepting Christ, after accepting Christ, and even, too often, today.

Even today we can join hands and say along with the Apostle Paul:

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15.

“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration [salvation] and [continual] renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior…” Titus 3:3-6.

Good Teacher, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-16-14, updated on 2-21-24 ck.
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.