Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 5/23/2005

Question
In the bible ( Matthew 19;17) While Jesus was on his journey a young rich ruler came up to Jesus and called him the Good Master. However, Jesus responded, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God....." It sounds as if Jesus is saying that he is not worthy or as worthy to be called Good, even though he is sinless.  Why would he say something of the sort?

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.

We can look at this verse in different ways.

1.  Notice how this young man approaches the Lord Jesus. He addresses Him as Good Master. He is willing to concede that He is good, and probably the enemies of Jesus would not have gone that far.
“Why callest thou me good?” I am sure you can see what our Lord was after. When He said, “There is none good but one, that is, God,” He was saying in effect, “If you see that I am good, it is because I am God.” He is directing his thinking so that he might accept Him as the Christ, the Son of God. Then the Lord Jesus flashed on this young man's life the commandments that have to do with a man's relationship to his fellowman.

2.  Why do you call Me good may be rephrased as “Why are you asking me concerning what is good?” The only One who can ultimately answer the question about goodness is God. The fact that Jesus went on to answer the question is a quiet claim to deity.

3. Jesus was not denying His own deity, but was providing the man with an opportunity to say, “That's why I call You good—You are God.”