(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better — and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Conversation Starter:
Did Jesus say He wasn’t good?
Intro:
In today’s reading, Jesus responds to the wealthy young ruler, “Why do you call me good?” Wait, what? Did Jesus say He wasn’t good?
Hey Hopeful, welcome to another chance to, together, walk through Scripture together in a keepin-it-real kinda way. And one quick reminder…if you haven’t subscribed to the weekly email, go to forthehope.ME and do so at the bottom of any page. You’ll get notified when the new website goes live, which is a big deal because there will be a new resources section there, and more importantly, there are carefully curated links in each one that will both inform and amuse.
NEW TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
Today our NT segment comes on the heels of chapter 17 closing out with a stern discourse from Jesus saying that there will be people going “Yo! Look over here?” and what to watch for in terms of His return.
Passage: Luke 18
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 43
Words: ~919
There you go…a contrast of pride and humility, a demonstration of God’s openness to all, and an example of the narrow door of giving everything over to service for God.(1)
And in our Bottom Line segment we’ll look a little more closely at that perplexing statement about Jesus saying he wasn’t good.
ORIGINAL TESTAMENT SEGMENT:
As we roll into our OT segment today, there’s one question I didn’t ask yesterday that came to mind as I was reading. If the OT law prohibited taking a census, and David even got his bum kicked for that, whattup with all the lists of names, offices, and stuff we’re reading now? The answer? It’s not a census in the sense of seeing how many people are in your country and therefore how big your army is…these are like org charts — descriptions of how he managed. And we’ll see the context of why in today’s reading.
Passage: 1 Chronicles 27-28
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 55
Words: ~1081
Wisdom SEGMENT:
Passage: Proverbs 13:10
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 1
Words: ~16
THE BOTTOM LINE:
So did Jesus say He wasn’t good?
It’s useful to look at the context. Let’s take it apart.
Here’s this guy who asks about eternal life. There’s a key…eternal life. Jesus’ response wasn’t that He wasn’t good…he was using a rhetorical device to probe into the guy’s motivation.
“Good teacher, what do I do to get eternal life?”
Jesus didn’t answer the question…he reflected back to the guy what the guy already thought…keep all the rules, and you’ll get there. “Why do you call me good? Nobody’s good but God.”
And this guy, overconfident in his rule keeping, took the bait (so to speak). He the HE was good…like a Pharisee, and neither saw his own need for repentance nor the need for a Savior (in which case He might have seen that Jesus was right…nobody’s good but God, but Jesus, the Messiah, is God come to earth).
Then when the guy says he’s kept all the rules, Jesus said you only need to do one thing more…another action which ironically, would have required recognizing Jesus as Savior and Lord… Follow me. And we know from the surrounding stories, Jesus is really clear… “follow me” doesn’t mean “by walking” in a literal sense, it means a believe and repent of your junk.
It’s pervasive even in today’s culture that has an upside down anthropology…are human beings basically good? Hear me correctly…I’m not saying “are human beings incapable of doing good things?” Are they, at their very spiritual essence, good? The Bible says, obviously we were until the Fall. Now we need a Savior to reconcile us back to God. And the rich young ruler couldn’t, or wouldn’t, accept that.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Lk 18:9–30.
(2) David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 273.