Golden Nugget - Jesus said no one is good

And as He was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:17-18).

Have you also found these words of Jesus intriguing?  Here sat a man who left the glory of heaven to serve mankind, who has only ever been unselfish by sacrificing His own comfort, pleasures, and desires to exert Himself in doing good to others.  Even when He wanted to get away to have a little alone time and the people selfishly demanded His attention, did He not refrain from serving them wholeheartedly (e.g. Matthew 14:13-21). 

Would you say He was a good man?  If you compared yourself to Him, would He appear to have been better than you?  In my case, He was definitely better than I could dream to be.  We so easily call people good - "John is a good man", "Cynthia is a good woman". 

But Jesus, even though He was the Son of God and the perfect man, did not consider Himself good compared to God the Father.

We have nothing good in us!  Jeremiah 17:9 states:  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17).  In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

We are not good.  We are desperately dependent on the only One who is good and this we have through His Son, Jesus Christ, who provided the way by means of His death and resurrection. 

In Luke 18:10-14 Jesus told of two approaches we may have:  “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Where do you stand?  Which prayer will you pray?