Did Jesus deny He was God in Mark 10:18?

Essential to the Christian faith, a belief 2000 years old is that the Word, who was with God in the begining was God (John 1:1). We understand the Word to be none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour. 

Scripture says "Taste and see that the Lord is Good" (Psalm 34:8), and "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever" (Psalm 107:1), or maybe from David's prayer "You are good and do good, teach me your statutes" (Psalm 119:68). > > Scripture affirms that God is "righteous in all His works" (Psalm 145:17), thus signifying that in God’s very Being and operation there is no imperfection, but only goodness, love, kindness and righteousness. Scripture affirms that God is Love (1 John 4:8), and that God cannot do evil (James 1:13), and that in Him there is light, and no spiritual darkness whatsoever (1 John 1:5), thus signifying absolute perfection in God, being very Light, Love, Goodness and unchanging in these attributes. (Malachi 3:6)

 It is not perplexing then, the response of the Saviour given to the rich man in Mark 10:18 that "No one is Good but God alone". Scripture attests that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), that "there is none good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3). Human goodness is always contingent upon our relationship with God, and it never arises from our own nature, for the Lord claims that only God is good, without darkness, evil, and immutable in His perfect goodness. Only God is immutable and perfect, absolutely good with no taint of evil; this is what the Lord Jesus teaches. Is this a denial on His behalf, that He is not good? Not at all- for He never claims to not be good, on the contrary affirms His own goodness. 

Jesus is the Good Shepard (John 10:11), thus taking for Himself the prerogative that He attributed to the Father, goodness.

> Even the fact He calls Himself "shepard" is quite telling. In Psalm 23, the Lord, YHWH our God, the Almighty is the Shepard who brings the faithful (his sheep) to green pastures, green being a symbol of rich, satisfying kind of food. In our case, as "spiritual sheep" we feed of "spiritual green pastures", which are the divine blessings and the promises of the Covenant. > They are rich and satisfying because they come from their Source and Maker- the Shepard Himself, the Good one. In the gospel of John, Jesus claims that through Him, we have acces to "pastures" (v9). If in the time of David, our attention might be drown to the Father as "our Shepard", now our attention is drown to the Son "as the good shepard" remembering that "No one is Good but God alone". If 1) No one is Good but God alone; and 2) Jesus claims to be The Good Shepard, echoing Psalm 23, it is safe to conclude Jesus claims to be God. If anyone is still in doubt about point 2, we have to first mention that Jesus is as perfect as the Father. It is affirmed in numerous places that in Christ "there is no sin"(1 Peter 2:22), that "He knew no sin"(2 Corinthians 5:21), or that has not committed any sin (1 John 3:5, Hebrews 4:15). Even this information in its own should be sufficient in concluding Jesus is much more than a man, since "all man have sinned", yet Jesus was tempted, but without sin, so perfect in His morality and Being. In order to further emphasize the perfection of Christ we should mention that the attribute of immutability is granted to Him as well. (Hebrews 13:8) Also here, we might mention the perfection of the Son of man, who approaches the Ancient of Days (John 5:37, Daniel 7:13). This is possible only by a perfect one, who knows no sin and thus we can safely call Good. In John 17:5, Jesus claims to have shared glory with God before all worlds existed, while in Isaiah 42:8, it is plainly said that no creature whatsoever may share in the Glory of the Most High God. 

It is essential to confess and believe that Jesus is the eternal God who became flesh, was truly born of the Virgin Mary, who descended from Heaven for our sake and salvation, dying on the cross for our sins, and raising again the third day according to the Scriptures, after which He ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. 

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