But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
- KJV And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
- BSB Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
- NASB Looking at them, Jesus *said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
- NLT Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus says salvation is impossible for people but possible with God, for whom all things are possible. Salvation is entirely a work of God's grace.
Overview
This is the heart of the passage and of the gospel: no one saves himself, but God can save anyone. Human inability gives way to divine power and grace. The verse anchors Christian hope not in human effort or worthiness but in the saving might of God, who alone makes the impossible possible.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jer 32:27“Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?
- Matt 19:26Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
- Job 42:2“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
- Jer 32:17“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
- Gen 18:13–14Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?’
- Luke 1:37For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
- Luke 18:27But he said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
- Num 11:21–23Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’
- Heb 11:19concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
- Phil 3:21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
- 2 Kgs 7:2Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.”
- Zech 8:6Yahweh of Armies says: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Heb 7:25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 10:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.