Matthew 19:26
What does Matthew 19:26 mean?
Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The short answer
Matthew 19:26 is Jesus' answer to a stunned question. A wealthy young man has just walked away from following him, unwilling to give up his possessions, and Jesus has told the disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples are astonished. If even the rich—people everyone assumed were blessed by God—can't make it, they ask, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looks straight at them and says, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Notice what Jesus does not say. He doesn't soften the problem or offer a technique. He agrees with the disciples' alarm: on human terms, salvation is not merely difficult. It is impossible. No amount of wealth, effort, moral achievement, or religious credentials can accomplish it. The first half of the verse closes every human door before the second half opens God's.
That's why this verse is not a motivational slogan. Pulled out of context, "all things are possible" can sound like a promise that any dream will come true if you believe hard enough. In its actual setting, it's a statement about who God is when human beings have run out of options. The disciples are standing exactly where the verse means to put us—at the edge of what people cannot fix—and Jesus points them past themselves to God.
The hope here is real, but it's a specific kind of hope. It rests not on human potential but on divine power. What we cannot do for ourselves—make ourselves right with God, remake our own hearts—God can do. The verse asks us to admit the impossibility honestly and then to trust the God for whom it is not impossible.
What scholars say
Ellen Painter Dollar affirms that she believes all things are possible with God—and then tests that belief against genetic disease and children's breaking bodies, naming the painful distance between what God intends for humankind and what people actually live with. Her honesty shows what it costs to hold this verse when the impossible thing hasn't been fixed.
“First, if I believe that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27)—and I do believe that—then it’s a stretch to believe that God would create precise and intricate mechanisms for genetic diversity without also creating precise and intricate mechanisms for ensuring that major mistakes don’t happen. Second, this approach fails to explain or satisfy my gut-level sense that bones breaking when a child sits down on the bathroom floor (or lungs filling up with mucus when they shouldn’t, as in cystic fibrosis; or muscles wasting away, as in muscular dystrophy; or aortas bursting open with no warning, as in Marfan syndrome) are fundamentally bad things. Is “evil” too strong a word? I’m not sure. They are somehow a manifestation of the separation between what God intends and desires for humankind on the one hand, and on the other hand what humankind actually lives with, day after heartbreaking day.”
What it means for you
This verse meets you where your resources end. Most of us live with something we cannot fix—a habit we can't break, a relationship we can't repair, a body or a diagnosis we didn't choose. Matthew 19:26 doesn't promise that believing hard enough will erase those things. It promises that God is not limited by what limits us, beginning with the deepest impossibility of all: our own salvation.
Practicing this verse might look less like optimism and more like honesty—naming what is beyond you, refusing to pretend you can manage it, and entrusting it to the God who can do what you cannot. That kind of trust is harder than positive thinking, and sturdier.
Matthew 19 in context
Matthew 19 finds Jesus teaching in Judea on his way toward Jerusalem. He answers a hard question about divorce, welcomes little children the disciples tried to turn away, and then meets a rich young man who asks what good thing he must do to gain eternal life. When the man leaves grieving, unwilling to part with his wealth, Jesus tells the disciples it's easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom. Verse 26 answers their shocked reply, and Peter's question about reward follows.