Part One: The Possible Impossible

I was recently asked what it meant when Jesus said that "with God all things are possible."  The question is a lot easier to ask than it is to answer, so I will be breaking up this blog into three parts.

This question refers to a statement made by Jesus in Matthew 19:26 and its counterpart Mark 10:27.  The totality of His statement was, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”   The question is best answered by looking at the context of the statement, which, beginning in Matthew 19:16, consists of a conversation between Jesus and a young rich ruler.  The keys to purely understanding the statement hinge first on what Jesus meant by “this,” and second, what He meant by “all.”  Whatever “this” was is impossible with man, but with God, “all” is possible.

The scene opens up with a rich young man coming to Jesus asking Him “what good things he should do to inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:16).  Jesus’ response is important because He begins to attack the young man’s understanding of “goodness.”  Jesus declares that only the Father in heaven is good.  This of course was not a disclaimer of His own deity, but a lesson to His special audience that no one is good except for God.  Continuing His discourse with the young man, Jesus then said, “but if you wish to enter eternal life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

Because he still did not understand, the young man’s response to Jesus was to receive a “laundry list” of commandments that he needed to follow in order to receive eternal life.  Jesus replied by listing five commandments that all deal with human relationships (Matthew 19:18-19).  This is important because He was making a distinction between having faith in the law (or in his own abilities) and having faith in God; that is, the difference between the law and grace.  The young man thought that the law could save him, but Jesus knew that that was impossible. As John MacArthur has written, “Jesus was trying to impress on the young man both the high standard required by God and the absolute futility of seeking salvation by his own merit.  This should have elicited a response about the impossibility of keeping the law perfectly but instead the young man confidently declared that he qualified for heaven under those terms.”  “All these things I have kept,” said the young ruler (Matthew 19:20).

Continued in Part Two.