What is the meaning of Luke 18:19? Why do you call Me good? • The rich ruler greets Jesus as “Good Teacher” (Luke 18:18). Jesus repeats the word to make him think about what “good” actually means, since Psalm 100:5 says, “For the LORD is good.” • By letting the man’s own words hang in the air, Christ invites him to consider whether he is ready to recognize Jesus as more than a rabbi (John 10:11, 14). • The question also exposes shallow flattery (Matthew 15:8) and pushes the ruler toward a heart examination before God (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus replied • Jesus answers with a probing question rather than a lecture, the same method He used with Nicodemus (John 3:3) and the Samaritan woman (John 4:7–10). • His response shows patience and love (Mark 10:21) while steering the conversation from external performance to internal reality (Luke 18:21-22). • Christ is not denying His own goodness; He is challenging the ruler’s assumptions so the man will see that goodness can’t be defined—or achieved—on human terms (Isaiah 55:8-9). No one is good • Scripture is emphatic: “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). • Human goodness is always compromised by sin (Psalm 51:5; Ecclesiastes 7:20), leaving all of us spiritually bankrupt (Ephesians 2:1). • This truth dismantles every works-based hope of earning eternal life and prepares the sinner to embrace grace (Titus 3:5). Except God alone • Absolute moral purity belongs solely to God (1 John 1:5; James 1:17). • By tying perfect goodness to God, Jesus points the ruler toward the only true source of salvation—God Himself (Psalm 34:8). • At the same time, Jesus quietly affirms His own deity: He later calls Himself “the good shepherd” (John 10:11) and is declared “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The implication is clear—if only God is good and Jesus is good, then Jesus is God (John 14:9; Colossians 2:9). summary Luke 18:19 is not Jesus distancing Himself from divinity; it is Jesus revealing that genuine goodness is exclusively divine. By questioning the ruler’s use of “good,” He exposes human sinfulness, redirects the man from self-righteousness to God’s perfect standard, and implicitly identifies Himself as the only One who meets that standard. The verse therefore calls every reader to abandon confidence in personal merit and to trust the perfectly good God who stands before us in Jesus Christ. |
    |