“Why callest thou Me good?” (Matthew 19:17).

1)            Is it not interesting to hear Jesus the Christ trying not to own up to the “good” appellation? Can one say that Jesus should not be accorded the sobriquet of “Good”? Did He truly decline being ‘good’? Read the verses well and it will dawn on your intellect that Jesus did not shy away from being called ‘good’. Matthew 19:16-21 ¹⁶ “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? ¹⁷ And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”

                One thing God does very well is to hide Himself. He is too good to be true. What did Cain do when God tried to make him see reasons, when He showed up before an errant first to open the matrix of the first woman in creation? Cain shunned God. So, maybe, God not wanting to be disbelieved, has been taught a lesson, so to speak. If Cain, the third of humanity, would shun the Almighty, what do we expect from generations of humanity? Cain was tutored to play the Antichrist, who happens to be the third man. As we have the first man, Adam, and the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 15:47) so is a subtle pointer to a third man (not third Adam) evident. There can never be a third Adam simply because Jesus checkmated that by assuming the role of the Last Adam. Allowing the Antichrist to bear theological aberration of the ‘third Adam’ vitiates the true mind of the Divinity. Adamic reality is an evocation of soteriological facticity. The antichrist, a non-partaker of soteriological phenomenality, is biblically the third man.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd

                Jesus asked, “Why callest thou me good?” then He concluded by pointing out the “Good One”, the Father, whose dwelling is an unapproachable light. Subtlety of Divinity, when you study those words carefully, did not deny the fact that Jesus is, no doubt, good!

                In the Book of John 10:11, Jesus made a categorical statement of His Divinity: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” The word ‘good’ is kalos (kal-os’): ‘Beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable.’

Let me show you a little bit of difference between the ‘good’ found in Matthew 19:16 & 17 on one hand and that of John 10:11. The ‘good’ of Matthew 19:16, 17 is agathos (ag-ath-os’): ‘of good constitution or nature, salutary, pleasant, agreeable, excellent, distinguished, upright, honourable.’ Now, the ‘good’ of John 10:11 looks just the same but there is something at play here, which makes it grammatically different.

“Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden”

                The ‘goodness’ of agathos is an intrinsic virtue. If the young man had employed the use of the Latinistic pulcher, the root of kalos, which is ‘outward form of good or beauty’, the King of glory, Jesus, would probably not have declined the complement. But the utilization of an intrinsic agathos, has, no doubt, given the rich man in question an unexpected insight into the Divinity of Jesus, not having been tutored, as Peter was, by His Father in heaven, when by Divine revelation, Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Hide Himself, Jesus must, from unnecessary minds of intrusion.            The kalos stance of His goodness exhibits itself as He went about in looking for and spiritually herding the sheep for the Kingdom of Jehovah. If Jesus is not good a Master, why would He use these two words: ‘come’ and ‘follow’ of the twenty-first verse of Matthew 19? Deuro (dyoo’-ro), the Greek for ‘come’ is: ‘an imperative hither!’ And akoloutheō (ak-ol-oo-theh’-o), the Greek for ‘follow’, is defined as: ‘join him as his attendant, join one (specifically) as a disciple.’ A studious look at akoloutheō is a word originating from ‘a’ (as a particle of union) and keleuthos (a road). “Come follow me” are words of command to follow the Lord, Whose path is the only route to heaven: for without Him was not anything made that is in existence.

                Is Jesus good? Many are the scriptural relevance of His inherent and outward goodness. The first verse of Psalms 23 reads, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In this verse the Hebraic Yahweh is the ‘LORD’, which gives credence to the fact that the Speaker of the John 10:11 is the same Person as the Shepherd of Psalm 23: because the direct speech has definite article ‘the’ before ‘Good Shepherd’. Psalms 80:1 “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.” There is only one Shepherd of Israel: He is Jehovah Jesus. Amen.

“Sell that thou hast…and come and follow me”

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 2 here

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