“Now someone came up to Him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Which ones?’ he asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man said to Him, ‘I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
I want to use this opportunity, as we round up this exploration, to talk about the identity of Jesus and look at how He hints at it here.
He said, “There is only One who is good. Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”
We’ve already talked about the fact that it is not so much about what you are doing, but who you are. But let’s now talk about identity. “The One who is good.”
Some people want to come to this passage and say, “Oh, this debunks the idea that Jesus is God.” But Jesus is God. It is obvious. We see it; but He came veiled. He came not making it obvious, not shouting it. That subtleness is what is lost on some people: that God became man, God became “born.”
It is jarring. It was so jarring that John the apostle had to make it plain and say that anyone who says that the Son of God did not come in the flesh is of the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:2–3; 2 John 7). It is not in the realm of what we would naturally think.
Some people say, “It’s just like ancient myths about ‘sons of the gods’,” and so on. It is jarring.
But these people were eyewitnesses of His majesty. They heard the voice from heaven that said, “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him” (Mark 9:7). They said, “We beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Then we go to John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John is saying: “The Person we touched, the Person I, John, leaned on His chest, the Person we ate with, the Person we walked with—He is from eternity. He is not in our class.”
He is not in our class.
Someone might say, “Why can’t God just save people—why must all that happen?” It was necessary because of sin. There has to be Someone who qualifies: Someone who is like us, yet without sin, who can bear our sin and does not have His own sin.
How will God do that? God had to become man. To be like us, but without sin. Because everyone born in the ordinary course of things inherits sin from Adam.
The Bible says all sinned in Adam (Romans 5:12–19). So we begin to learn that there is a spiritual reasoning behind this, even if not exhaustively explained in one place. I believe it is of necessity that God had to become man. And He had to come through a virgin. It was prophesied that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). We know the culmination of that, the fulfillment of that, was on the cross. It is very plain to us.
He is the One who is good.
Here, He is in a public place, so many times He speaks in parables—not being completely clear. But when He is with His disciples, He is very clear. One moment of that clarity is with Philip, who asked Him, “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8).
It was like, “Just do that. Just show us the Father.”
Jesus answers, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He is the full expression of the Father.
But some people still want to argue and say, “Maybe He is a created being. Maybe He was created.” To be created means you are limited. That is the truth. It is a limitation.
But for the sin of man to be fully taken care of, it has to be dealt with limitlessly, because we have sinned against a limitless God. So He has to be God. Jesus has to be God to take away the sin of man. That is what I am saying.
He is the Lamb of God who Himself must be God to be able to take away the sin of man (John 1:29).
Some will say, “It is all made up.” It has not been given for everyone to know. But to those who have been called to salvation, that is the truth birthed in their hearts: that Jesus, who is their Savior, is both God and Lord.
God bless you. See you later.