The Son - Good

Mark 10:17-22 (ESV) 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. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” ²⁰ And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” ²¹ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

I have a close friend who is atheistic, who considers himself a “good man.” This friend truly is a downright good dude. He is generous, kind, gentle, hardworking, and compassionate. He has worked so incredibly hard to “make it” in this world. He does not love Jesus, yet we see things in his person that reflect Jesus.

As we have mentioned before, God will show aspects of His character through the actions of people. We do not innately possess these “good things”. Rather, God exists as Good, so as a result, “goodness exists.” This attribute of God that we call “Good”, if we recall, is defined as being perfect and sinless.

Just as is the case with all of the attributes of God, this applies to all three of the persons of the Trinity. The Son, Christ, is unique yet aligned with The Father in this attribute in a very profound way.

In the Father, infinite goodness is decreed. Yet, in the Son, infinite goodness is given flesh. The Father said what is Good, and The Son came to earth as the literal flesh and blood incarnation of goodness itself. Through this, He demonstrated what it looks like to be TRULY good. TRULY perfect. In the Scripture for today we see the interaction between a wealthy young man and Jesus.

In this interaction you see this back and forth almost like a game of chess. The young man calls Christ simply a good Teacher. Christ then responds with a statement that seems contradictory. “Nobody is good except for God.” Now let’s take a deep breath for a moment. It is not that Christ is distancing Himself from God or even saying that Jesus is not God. Rather, He is addressing that this young man has misunderstood whom He is. This young man approached the Lord of Creation, the one who sculpted existence out of the dust, the one who can tell the stars to move…and called Him merely a teacher.

This young man then responds, almost seeming pleased with himself, that he followed all of the commandments of God since His youth! Christ’s response is filled and overflowing with compassion. He LOVED the young man and then responded for the young man to give up all that he held so dearly. Clearly the young man held these things more dearly than the one he thought he wanted to follow. Checkmate.

How many times have we put ourselves in this young man’s shoes? How many times have we looked upon ourselves as good? I say this in love, you’re wrong.

Jesus alone is Good, and you are nowhere near His level. The best part? You weren’t meant to be :)

Soli Deo Gloria!!!!