What Mark 10:27 Means

Mark 10:27

What Mark 10:27 means

With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Jesus draws a line between what people can manage and what God can do, and places our impossibilities firmly on his side. What looks like a closed door to us is nothing to the God for whom nothing is impossible.

Jesus is teaching that salvation is not something anyone can achieve by his own effort, wealth, or goodness; it is God's work from start to finish. He says these words right after a rich man walks away sorrowful and the disciples ask, in astonishment, who then can be saved. The answer is bracing and freeing at once: no one can save himself, but God can save anyone. When Jesus says, "With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible," he lifts the whole weight off human shoulders and places it on divine grace. This is not a promise that God will do anything we wish; it is the promise that the one thing we most need, a changed heart and a saved soul, is fully within his power. For anyone who feels too far gone, too bound, or too weak, this verse is a door of hope. What you cannot do, God can.

Mark 10:27 in different translations

Understanding Mark 10:27

Jesus is speaking to his disciples on the road, just after his encounter with a wealthy man who kept the commandments outwardly yet could not let go of his possessions to follow Christ (Mark 10:17-22). When the man goes away grieved, Jesus tells his followers how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God, and he uses the image of a camel and a needle's eye (Mark 10:23-25). The disciples are "astonished out of measure" and ask among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Verse 27 is his direct answer, and the surrounding passage continues with Peter noting that they have left all to follow him, and Jesus promising reward and eternal life. The setting is Mark's Gospel, a fast-moving account of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem and the cross.

This verse does not mean that God will grant every human wish, or that "all things are possible" is a blank check for our plans; the "all things" in context is about salvation, the impossible rescue of a soul that cannot save itself. It is also not a scolding of the rich alone, for the disciples' shock shows that if the outwardly blessed cannot be saved by their own merit, no one can. The point lands on grace: entry into the kingdom is God's gift, not our achievement. This leads straight to Christ, who is himself the way God makes the impossible possible. On the cross and in the empty tomb, Jesus does for us what we could never do for ourselves, so that the sinner who despairs of self can hope wholly in him.

Mark 10:27 in context

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