Matthew 19:17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

Mark 10:18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus ed. "No one is good-except God alone.

Jehovahs witnesses and others who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ would have us believe that these passages confirm that Jesus is claiming not to be God. However nothing is farther from the truth.

One of the clues comes from the context of the passages (something that JWs often fail to appreciate) - especially in Mark's account - and another from the Greek inflexions of the words used in the original documents. Earlier in that chapter we are told that this conversation was a part of a scene between Jesus and some Pharisees. The Pharisees were always out to trip Jesus up and on this occasion we are told they were out to 'test' him once again (v.1). We are then told that jesus explained the Law to the Pharisees, then, in a house, to his disciples, and then, outside he is tested again, where a rich man calles him 'good'.

Then he utters the words above - why do you call me good as there is only one who is good - God himself! If I was a doctor, but someone didn't believe me but then asked me a medical question about their health I could ask them - 'why are you asking me a medical question - only doctors can that sort of question', as if to say, you deny my medical training but you still want medical help. In the same way, the rich man tests Jesus and calls him 'good' but jesus, by stating that only God is good, is actually saying to the man - you have called me God and yet you deny my divinity. In a way, jesus trips up the rich man by playing his own game. In a way, here Jesus is actually claiming to be God, not by actually stating as such, but by doing something even more powerful - accepting as truth the 'Freudian slip' of a rich man out to trip him up, and actually calling him God.

There is no doubt that Jesus on many occasions claimed his own divinity. For just a few instances the references are:

Mark 2:1-12--Jesus heals a paralytic. He had authority to forgive sins, which is something, in the Jewish religion, only God Himself could do. Then, to authenticate His claim, He demonstrated His power by healing the paralytic.
The miracles Jesus performed are a very strong indication of His divinity (because no mere human can work actual miracles by his own power). Jesus referred to the miracles in John 10:24-39 as proof that he was telling the truth. This passage is Christ's own response to the unbelieving Jews' charge of blasphemy (dishonoring God by claiming to be God).
Jesus says in John 10:11-18 that he is the Good Shepherd. When you read this passage along with Ezekiel 34:1-16, you can see that Jesus was identifying Himself with God, who pronounced Himself Shepherd over Israel. The Jewish people, being an agrarian and shepherding society, knew and dearly loved this section of the Old Testament because God was using a metaphor they lived every day. So when Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd," and that whole John passage so clearly parallels the Ezekiel passage, there was no doubt that He was claiming to be God.
John 4:25-26. This is where the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus went to meet at the well, gets into a discussion of "living water" with Jesus. He admits that He is the long-awaited Messiah: "I who speak to you am He."
John 16:28. "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." What Christ is saying here is that he existed along with the Father before being born.
In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that he is the one He has chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses says to God Who shall I tell them sent me" God replies to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God has said that His own name, His personal name, is "I AM." In John 8:56-58 Jesus is talking to the unbelieving Jews. " "before Abraham was, I AM!" Jesus claimed to be the great I AM from before the beginning of time; He existed before Abraham ever was. He is claiming here to be the I AM of the Old Testament. Verse 59 says the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but the Lord Jesus slipped away.
In John 10:31-33 we hear of another incidence of the Jews trying to trip up Jesus: "Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

These are not exhaustive of the times when Jesus claimed to be divine. There are several hundred different references in the Old Testament, the Gospels and the letters of Paul which allude either directly or indirectly to Jesus' divinity. In the event outlined in the references in the question, Jesus states exactly the same thing.

Resources

Top Categories

Product

Company