"Who then can be saved?" exclaim the disciples in Mark 10:26. Many people believe that it is easy to obtain salvation, while others consider it difficult. The disciples at least imply that, based on what they have just heard from their teacher, not just anyone can attain it. Jesus does not only say that salvation is difficult to obtain – he says, "with man this is impossible" (v. 27). In another place he says, "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:14).
But let us start from the beginning of the passage: "As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. 'Good teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" (Mark 10:17). Characteristic of the Gospel of Mark, the verse maintains a sense of urgency and activity as the man ran to Christ, and then fell on his knees. Whatever is on his mind is a perturbing issue to him. He wants his answer desperately, and he knows from whom he should seek it.
His question is indeed important, and pertinent to everyone: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" The question as stated does not have to imply an assumption of salvation by works on the part of the inquirer, since even to believe in Christ is something that a person does. What we deny is meritorious good deeds as the ground of one's salvation, and even if faith is in a sense meritorious – contrasting with the evil of unbelief – it is doubtful that the man includes believing Christ as a possible good work in his question.
Nevertheless, from the context of the passage and the possible background of the man as a synagogue ruler, it is likely that he indeed has good works in mind. In any case, contrary to the doctrine of justification by faith, he assumes that there is something he can do to achieve or earn eternal life.
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good – except God alone" (Mark 10:18-19). Such a reply perplexes many readers. The man holds Jesus in high regard as a Jewish teacher, even kneeling before him as he approaches, not as an act of worship, but a display of the utmost respect.
Yet while Jesus would accept worship from others (Matthew 14:33), here he appears to deny even goodness as applied to himself. It cannot be that Jesus would admit to being sinful, or that he is no more than a human being. He says in one place, "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?" (John 8:46), and Hebrews 4:15 teaches that although he has been tempted in every way, he was without sin.
Instead of being a rather direct statement of self-abasement, the reply among other things may be an indirect claim to deity. The reasoning is not that since only God is good, Jesus is not good; rather, since only God is good, Jesus is God. Only God is good; any goodness attributable to human beings is at best relative and derived. In what sense is the man applying goodness to Christ? As we shall see, Jesus' reply also exposes the man's superficial idea of goodness, which in turn proves to be crucial to answering his question.
Verse 19 says, "You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" Given the subsequent content of the passage, some believe that Jesus deliberately omits "You shall not covet" from the list of commandments in anticipation of exposing the man's spiritual defect in verse 22.
However, such an interpretation is implausible since Jesus includes "Do not defraud" in his recitation of the commandments, probably derived from Leviticus 19:13. The statement also leaves out a number of other commandments. Therefore, the exclusion of certain commandments does not necessarily imply that those are the ones the man fails to keep, but Jesus is only providing a summary of the commandments. To paraphrase, "Why do you call me good? Only God is good. Besides, you know the commandments of God already, do you not?"
The man answers, "All these I have kept since I was a boy" (v. 20). He says that he has kept all the commandments of God. "That man possesses the ability to fulfill the commandments of God perfectly was so firmly believed by the rabbis that they spoke in all seriousness of people who has kept the whole Law from A to Z."1 Do we really believe that this man has kept the whole law perfectly?
On another occasion "an expert in the law" asks Jesus the same question as the man in our passage: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). When Jesus asks him to state his own interpretation of Scripture on the subject, he answers, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind," and, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 27). These are the two commandments with which Jesus himself summarizes the Old Testament precepts, and so he approves of this answer.
However, no one can fulfill such a requirement. The only way is for one "to limit the extent of the law's demand and consequently limit his own responsibility."2 For one's conduct to measure up to the commandments of God, one must distort them to conform to his own limitations; otherwise, it would be impossible to keep them perfectly. Therefore, wanting "to justify himself," the expert in the law asks, "And who is my neighbor?" (v. 29). If he can restrict the definition of neighbor, perhaps it is possible to fulfill the scriptural requirement. Jesus accuses the Pharisees, saying, "You nullify the word of God by your tradition" (Mark 7:13).
The man who approaches Jesus has a warped sense of goodness. Based on this distorted principle, he calls Jesus good and affirms that he has been obeying the commandments of God. Therefore, Jesus questions the designation the man assigns to him, not that he denies the attribute of goodness, but that he realizes the man does not understand what he is saying when he calls him "good teacher." By it, the man means little more than that Jesus is one of the better rabbis, or perhaps even the best one, but he is nevertheless human.
This view of Jesus is common today. Jesus was a good man, they say, but he was nothing more than that. Our reply is, "Do you know what you are saying? Only God is good." Their standard of goodness is so superficial and inadequate that they judge themselves to be good and decent, and attribute the same type of goodness to Christ. But if only God is good, then his is the only standard of goodness, and one must make all moral judgments in light of this absolute standard. When we do this, we find that far from being justified, humanity is condemned, and their "righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).
As long as man holds to an inadequate concept of goodness, he may continue to think that humanity is good at the core. This permits him to attempt to attain salvation – if he even needs salvation – by his good works. Failing to obey God's law by his own corrupted moral power, and when his depraved nature begins to come crashing through, he distorts the law of God to make room for abortion, homosexuality, perjury, divination, and a myriad of other evils. If the law of God accuses him of sin, he will alter his concept of sin to escape the charge. It is redemption by redefinition.
However, good and evil are not up to man to define. God is the judge of all, and it is to him that we must give account. It is his standard of righteousness that we must satisfy. This being so, the Scripture declares that, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). John the apostle affirms over the denial of even some professing Christians, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). Sin is a fair master, who always pays his wages, only that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
It is a gross misunderstanding of Christianity to say that grace excludes the preaching of God's law. "Through the law we become conscious of sin," Paul explains (Romans 3:20). At a time in which sin is assumed to be nothing more than an imaginary religious construction, that only psychological illnesses exist due to a dysfunctional society, believers must make clear the moral requirements of God that humanity has transgressed. Man is a sinner, and he is so helpless that a power other than himself must rescue him from destruction.
Machen wrote decades ago: "The true schoolmaster to bring men to Christ is found, therefore, now and always in the law of God – the law of God that gives to men the consciousness of sin. A new and more powerful proclamation of that law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour…a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace."3 Contemporary Christians have it reversed: they think that a low view of law makes room for grace, while a high view of law is the basis of legalism. However, it is a low view of law that deceives man into thinking that he can meet its requirements, but a high view of law drives him to seek God's mercy in desperation.
Lacking a consciousness of sin, one finds it impossible to understand substitutionary atonement as the means of redemption, for being sinless he needs no atonement. The man says to Jesus, "Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy" (Mark 10:20). Jesus wishes to answer his question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" However, at this point the man's thinking does not appear favorable to the doctrine of justification by faith.
The greatest commandment and a summary of the law of God is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). One who obeys the law therefore should acknowledge the total ownership of God over his life and being. Let us see, then, if the man will respond accordingly when he faces the demand to carry out this implicit commitment.
Jesus says to him, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21). Is Jesus a "good teacher" or not? It is the man who asks Jesus to tell him what to do. Now that Jesus tells him to sell everything and follow him, can he act in a consistent manner with the commandments of God, and acknowledge God's claim to all that he has? Instead of following Jesus' instruction, his expression changed. "He went away sad, because he had great wealth" (v. 22). But Jesus taught that we cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Jesus responds, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" (v. 23). The disciples are amazed at this statement; their Jewish background has conditioned them to consider the rich as occupying a privileged position, that God has especially blessed them. It is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, since their wealth has a strong grip around their thinking and devotion. Their money is their source of pride and security. For the less disciplined, the lure of wealth causes them to do all sorts of immoral deeds; God becomes far from their thoughts. Luke 12:15 says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
Since I am not only addressing those who trust in riches, I will not elaborate on the particular weakness that this man exhibits, Jesus' response, or the disciples' misunderstanding regarding the relationship between wealth and spirituality. Rather, we shall proceed to the next statement, since Jesus adds, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!" (v. 24). Although the rich experience specific difficulties when striving to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus is now saying that "what holds for the rich is true with respect to all, namely, that it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God."4
Verse 25 says, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples understand the implication, and now even more amazed than before, ask, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus answers, "With man this is impossible." A necessary element to understanding the biblical gospel is to realize that perfect righteousness is impossible for man to achieve, whether rich or poor, and thus salvation is impossible to attain.
The Westminster Confession of Faith states, "Man, by his Fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto" (IX, 3). Note: he cannot even "prepare himself thereunto." In his unregenerate condition, man is spiritually impotent and hostile, unable and unwilling to even cooperate in his salvation.
However, not all are doomed to perdition. Herein is the good news: "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God" (v. 27). In salvation, it is all up to God, and not man, since the latter is incapable of entering the kingdom of God by his own power. Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). Thayer defines "draws" as "to draw by inward power, lead, impel," or even "to drag off."5 God extends his grace to his elect by dragging them to Christ by an irresistible inward summon. Therefore, a person's coming to Christ for salvation – his faith in Christ – originates from the will of God and not his own will. That is, God changes the will of his chosen ones so that they may accept Christ; therefore, salvation is all of grace and there is no room for boasting (Ephesians 2:9).
Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation; there are no alternatives. Finding such exclusivism too repugnant for their taste, some dismiss Christianity for this reason. If we claim that only we are right, then we must be wrong. Democracy has been smuggled into the discussion to stand as judge over truth.
Then there are others who do not denounce Christ outright, but acknowledge him as a "good teacher." But certainly, they say, he cannot be God or the only hope of mankind. Lest Christians think that these who say good things about him are closer to Christ than those who abhor the very sound of his name, Jesus says, "He who is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30). Rather than sympathizing with the Christian faith, this view subverts its very foundation. With Christ, it is either all or nothing. Either one acknowledges him as the Son of God or he does not, but Christ is not merely a good moral teacher.
C. S. Lewis wrote:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.6
One must either denounce Christianity as false, in which case his worldview clashes with ours, and he must face our arguments, or he must confess with his heart that "Jesus is Lord," which no one can do but by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:3). Any middle position is nothing more than "patronising nonsense."
"Who then can be saved?" The answer is that no one can attain salvation apart from the grace and power of God. Salvation comes from God alone, the Bible says. It does not depend on the will or effort of man, but on the election and mercy of God. It depends on the redemptive work of Christ, and the sufficiency of such work in turn depends on the deity of Christ. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good? No one is good – except God alone." We must either deny the goodness of Christ to the damnation of our soul, or affirm his deity and be saved from our many sins. There is no middle place; there are no alternatives.
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