Mark 10:17-22

¹⁷ As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’^[a]” ²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

After revealing that only God is Good we are quickly confronted with the second truth that:

2. We Are Not Good

Jesus was also clearly communicating the truth that this young man was not good. Only God is good. You see this man’s concept of “good” was mistaken. It clouded his perception of Jesus and it clouded his understanding of himself. Until he could see that Jesus was God incarnate, the only one who was good, and until he recognized his own sinfulness, he could not truly find the eternal life he was searching for. His problem was our problem, he thought too little of Jesus and too much of himself. Like many of us he overestimated his own goodness and grossly underestimated who Jesus was. It was a common belief in that day and age that you had to do something to earn eternal life. Here we are 2000 years later and it’s still a pretty popular belief that plagues and poisons our thinking. Today there are still many who erroneously believe that God will add up their good works and their bad works; and if the good outweighs the bad, then He will let them into heaven. But it’s not based on our goodness but God’s grace. We will never discover eternal life until we see that we fall far short of God’s glorious standard of goodness, and then recognize that Jesus is God Himself, sent to redeem us from our sins by dying as our substitute on the cross. Here was a man who thought that he had kept all of God’s standards for goodness and was able to say that he had not committed adultery or murder, that he had never stolen or lied, and that he honored his father and mother. Surprisingly, Jesus did not argue with him or point out that he couldn’t possibly have kept all these commands. Instead, he looked intently at him with eyes of love and then said, “You still lack one thing.” Jesus lovingly revealed the lie that held this man hostage, by show him the true state of his heart. As Psalm 14:3 says, “there is no one who does good, not even one.” This passage is quoted by Paul in Romans 3:12 and expanded in Romans 3:23 when he writes, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” While this man was trying to justify himself by pointing to his outward obedience to the law, Romans 3:20 makes it very clear that “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” The purpose of the law is to serve like a mirror that reveals how messed up we really are. The law doesn’t save us from our sins it shows us our sin, the muck and the mess. Jesus was revealing that there was no way man can be good enough to get into heaven. And to prove His point He exposed the true heart of the rich young ruler by inviting him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. When the man refused we see him breaking both the first and second commandments by making money his master. His silver was more important that the Savior because gold was his god. Jesus revealed the real hang up of his heart his possessions. This man was living a lie, believing that as long as he outwardly conformed he could be considered good. But Jesus revealed that his actions were tied to his heart attitude. That what he really cared about wasn’t being good it was his gold. He may also have broken the commandment against coveting as exhibited in his unwillingness to give his money to those who really needed it. The sin of covetousness is subtle and difficult to detect, and yet it can cause a person to break all the other commandments. 1 Timothy 6:10 says: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” You see if salvation is based on our goodness then it becomes based on our constant work instead of Christ’s finished work. That means it will be about our relentless work instead of resting in His work. It’s a life of trying instead of trusting. The only way to grow in goodness is to trust in God’s grace. To admit that you are a sinner and trust Jesus as your only Savior from sin. So, what is you solution to sin, are you trusting in the scales hoping that your good outweighs the bad or are you trusting in the sacrifice of the sinless Savior?

Mark 10:17-22

¹⁷ As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’^[a]” ²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

As we continue in our series in Galatians 5, “Cultivating Christ Like Character” we come to the sixth virtue in the fruit of the Spirit, Goodness. Early on at the beginning of our English language, the word “good” carried the same connotation as the name “God.” Goodness may appear to be the most obviously understandable fruit, but it is often misunderstood and even made fun off. While God wants us to grow in goodness, our current culture tends to make fun of those who are “goody-two-shoes” kinds of people. While love, joy, and peace seem to hit home runs, sending the ball out of the park, goodness struggles just to steal a base. Today there are many who don’t consider goodness to be an important or even desirable virtue. Goodness may be the hardest fruit to teach on partly because we have so overused the word good. We say that we had a good vacation, a good cry, or a good meal. But what does it really mean to be good? To answer that question, we are going to turn in our bibles to the book of Mark chapter 10 where we see Jesus revealing several startling truths about Goodness as he encounters a man who considered himself to be very good. It’s here that we see this wealthy man running up to Jesus and falling on his knees before him asking, “Good teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus turned to the inquisitive man and asked, “Why do you call me good? 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, honor your father and mother.’” The man did a quick inventory and said, “I’ve kept all these since I was a boy. There’s got to be more. Is there something that I’m still missing?” Surprisingly, Jesus did not argue with him or point out that he couldn’t possibly have kept all these commands. Instead, he looked intently at him with eyes of love and then said, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, his face fell. He walked away sad because he had a lot of money. It’s here in this passage that Jesus reveals three powerful truths that will serve to guide us toward growing in goodness. First:

1. God is Good

This man was a seeker of truth and from a worldly perspective he had everything anyone could want. He was young, He had power, Luke tells us that he was a ruler, and along with power he had possessions. Not only was he a ruler he was a rich ruler. He had youth, money and power quite a cocktail, it’s what our society says is the secret to success. But do you notice it’s not enough, despite having social status and worldly success he was still not satisfied. That restless caused him to not only search for something more, but to run to and fall at the feet of Jesus. He had worldly treasure but what he really needed and was searching for was truth. Deep down he was not happy with his legalistic, performance driven, graceless religion. He could sense that something was missing. His act of running up to Jesus shows us that he was earnest. Remember rich rulers down run, their servants do the running. For this man to run to Jesus would have been very undignified, but notice he is not concerned with social expectations and peer pressure. It’s not about looking good it’s about running to God so we can live out His goodness. Also, his kneeling demonstrates his sincerity. From a social perspective Jesus was a carpenter turned teacher while he was a king. It’s really quite a picture, the loaded leader kneeling before the peasant preacher. Now somewhere along the way he had picked up the idea that he had to do good things in order to be saved. Maybe it’s something that his parents had taught him, or religion had instilled in him, but that belief had influenced his behavior. So, he starts out by calling Jesus “good.” This is where things get interesting because this is where Jesus stops him and says, “Why do you call me good when only God is intrinsically good?” His answer must have surprised the man because at first glance it had no connection with the man’s question. Instead of answering his inquiry, Jesus makes the man realize the essence of goodness as exhibited in God. As 1 Chronicles 16:34 clearly communicated: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Or as the psalmist declares as he worships God in Psalm 119:68, “You are good, and what you do is good…” Or as many Christians confess, God is good…all the time. Now as the rich young ruler addressed Jesus as “Good Teacher” he may have been trying to compliment or even flatter Him. Whatever his reason he had come seeking truth and so Jesus taught him a foundational truth, that he could not be “good” if He was a mere mortal man. Only God was good and that could only mean one thing. Jesus was revealing that if only God was good then to call Jesus good meant he was calling him God. The first hurdle to salvation is we have to be prepared to acknowledge who Jesus really is. That he is not just a good man he is the God man. So, let me ask you, who is Jesus to you? Was He just a good prophet or the perfect God who laid down His life for us on the cross of Calvary? And if you see God as good, is He only good sometimes or all the time? Gods goodness is not tied to your circumstances but to the cross. So, when your circumstances crumble don’t look for the good in life, look for it in the Lord of life. As Christians we need to stop focusing on our circumstances and start focusing on the cross.