<p>10:18<i> And Jesus said to him: Why do you call me good? None is good save one- God</i>-The extent to which this man from Nazareth, who sneezed and slept and thirsted as we do, was really God manifest in the flesh... this needs sustained personal meditation. That from the larynx of a Palestinian Jew really came forth the words of Almighty God; to the extent that it had to be said that never man spake like this man; and He Himself could assure us that heaven and earth would pass, but not His words (note the links with Ps. 102:25-27; Heb. 1:10-12)... that this man died for us... rose again, ascended... and now works His saving work for us, hour by hour. Mark records how a man once in an offhand way addressed the Lord Jesus as &ldquo;good master&quot;. The Lord&rsquo;s response was to say that if the man <i>really</i> accepted Him as &lsquo;good&rsquo; he ought to share His cross, and sell what he had and give to the poor. The real extent of Jesus&rsquo; goodness will move us to deep personal response, if we truly perceive it. <br />10:20 &quot;From my youth&quot;- but he was a &quot;young man&quot; (Mt. 19:20). Note the Lord's grace- instead of being turned away by the man's youthful arrogance, instead the Lord perceives the positive in him and loves him for it (:21). See on Mk. 10:40.</p><p>The Greek of the subsequent sentence may not mean that the Lord was implying &lsquo;Only God is good- I am not good&rsquo;. Translators have added a number of words to try to flesh out the meaning of the words. The sense could just as well be &lsquo;None is as good as the one God&rsquo;- and therefore, we should keep&nbsp;<i>His</i>&nbsp;commandments. In other words, the Lord is not so much saying that He Himself is not &lsquo;good&rsquo; but rather refocusing the man&rsquo;s direction away from Himself towards the Father. For the man had come running to Him asking what he should do in order to inherit or rightfully have eternal life. And the Lord is refocusing the man upon the Father and the Father&rsquo;s commandments. The Lord may therefore have a rhetorical sense in His question &lsquo;<i>why</i>&nbsp;do you call Me good?&rsquo;. His sense would have been: &lsquo;Why are you so keen to call me &ldquo;good&rdquo;, setting me on a level with God? Instead, focus on obeying God&rsquo;s commandments and tackle your hardest challenge- to give away your wealth, and then follow Me in the itinerant life towards the cross&rsquo;. The man&rsquo;s overly high and unrealistic view of Jesus, as if He were God Himself, was really an excuse for his own refusal to face the challenge of living the Christian life. Every false doctrine has a psychological basis, and the idea that Jesus is God and the Trinity are no different. To accept Jesus as less than God, as totally human, is a far deeper challenge to our living than accepting Jesus as being God Himself. If Jesus was human, sharing our own flesh, in which there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18), and yet was able to be perfect- this lays down a huge challenge to each of us. It&rsquo;s far less challenging to accept Jesus as God and therefore good and perfect by nature. This is why I suggest the Lord is probing&nbsp;<i>why</i>&nbsp;the man called Him &ldquo;good&rdquo;- and redirected him towards the need for keeping the commandments and living the committed life in practice. So we have here a passage of deep significance for discussions about the Trinity. The Lord cites the unity of God as meaning that He alone is ultimately &lsquo;good&rsquo;, and challenges the man who wanted to treat Him as God as to whether this was not just an excuse for not doing the hard work of following Him in practice.</p>