This comes from one of Jesus' most discussed statements. In the Gospels, a rich man approaches Jesus and says:
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone."
(Mark 10:18; also Matthew 19:17 and Luke 18:19)
At first glance, this sounds like Jesus is saying no human is good. But in the wider context of the Bible, there are several layers to what "only God is good" means.
1. God is the source and standard of goodness
The Bible presents goodness as something intrinsic to God's nature. God doesn't merely do good things—He is good.
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." (Psalm 136:1)
"The Lord is good to all." (Psalm 145:9)
In this view, goodness isn't an external moral rule that God obeys. Rather, God's character defines what goodness is.
2. Human goodness is real but limited
The Bible does describe people as "good."
Joseph of Arimathea was "a good and righteous man" (Luke 23:50).
Barnabas was "a good man" (Acts 11:24).
So Jesus cannot mean that no human can ever do anything good.
Instead, compared to God's perfect holiness, every human being falls short.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23)
Our goodness is partial, mixed with selfishness, ignorance, weakness, or sin.
3. God alone is perfectly good
This is the key distinction.
His goodness is absolute rather than relative.
4. Jesus may also be challenging the rich ruler
Many scholars think Jesus was asking the man to think carefully about what he had just said.
The conversation goes roughly like this:
"Why do you call me good? Only God is truly good."
It's almost as if Jesus is asking:
"Do you realise what you're implying? If I'm truly good in the fullest sense, then who do you think I am?"
This fits well with the rest of the Gospel of Mark, where people gradually discover Jesus' divine identity.
5. What does this say about humans?
The Bible holds two ideas together:
Humans are created in God's image and therefore capable of genuine goodness.
Humans are fallen and therefore never perfectly good on their own.
This prevents two extremes:
"People are completely worthless." (The Bible rejects this—we bear God's image.)
"People are morally perfect." (The Bible also rejects this because everyone sins.)
A philosophical way of putting it
Think of the sun and mirrors.
The sun produces light by its own nature.
Mirrors reflect that light.
God is like the sun—goodness originates in Him.
Humans are like mirrors—we can reflect goodness, but we don't possess it independently or perfectly.
Different Christian traditions
Most major Christian traditions agree on the central idea but emphasise different aspects:
Catholicism: Humans retain the ability to cooperate with God's grace and genuinely grow in virtue, but perfect goodness belongs to God alone.
Orthodox Christianity: Humans are called to become more like God (theosis), sharing in His life, yet never becoming God by nature.
Most Protestant traditions: Human beings can do genuine good, but because of sin, no one is righteous before God apart from His grace.
So when Jesus says, "No one is good except God alone," the primary point is not that people can never do good deeds. Rather, it is that God alone possesses goodness as His very nature. Human goodness is real, but it is derived, imperfect, and dependent on God.
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