Short answer: In Mark 10:27 Jesus answers a question about salvation, not about achievement. The disciples had just asked who could possibly be saved; His reply is that no one can save themselves, but God can save anyone. The verse promises divine capability in rescuing people, not a guarantee that our own plans will succeed.
The context: a man who did everything right
Mark 10:17–22 records a man running up to Jesus and asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. He has kept the commandments Jesus lists. Then comes the pivot: "Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me" (v. 21, KJV). The man leaves grieved, "for he had great possessions."
Jesus then tells the disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom, and adds the famous line: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (v. 25, KJV).
The disciples are stunned — verse 26 has them "astonished out of measure" and asking, "Who then can be saved?" That question is the setup, and it defines what verse 27 answers.
What the verse means, phrase by phrase
"And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27, KJV).
"With men it is impossible" — Jesus does not soften the camel image. He confirms it. Human beings cannot accomplish their own salvation, and wealth in particular creates a self-sufficiency that works against entering the kingdom. In the disciples' world, prosperity was often read as a sign of God's favor, which is exactly why they were astonished: if the blessed can't get in, who can?
"but not with God" — The impossibility is relocated. It is a statement about the limits of human capacity, not about the limits of reality.
"for with God all things are possible" — Read inside its paragraph, "all things" means what has just been under discussion: saving people who cannot save themselves. Jesus is not making a general pronouncement that anything a person wants is achievable through God. Elsewhere He prays "all things are possible unto thee" in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36, KJV) and then submits to the Father's will rather than the outcome He asked for — the clearest illustration that divine capability and human wish are not the same thing.
Verses 28–31 continue the thread: Peter points out that the disciples have left everything, and Jesus promises a hundredfold return "with persecutions" — a phrase that keeps the promise from becoming a prosperity claim.
Cross-references
- Matthew 19:16–26 and Luke 18:18–27 — the parallel accounts of the same conversation.
- Luke 1:37 — "with God nothing shall be impossible" (KJV), spoken to Mary about a birth God was accomplishing.
- Genesis 18:14 — "Is any thing too hard for the LORD?" (KJV).
- Jeremiah 32:17, 27 — nothing is too hard for God.
- Mark 14:36 — Jesus affirms all things are possible for the Father, then defers to His will.
- Ephesians 2:8–9 — salvation as a gift, not of works.
- Philippians 4:13 — often quoted alongside this verse; note its own context is contentment in plenty and want.
How to apply it today
The verse is most often cited as motivational fuel: with God, any goal is attainable. The context points somewhere better. Jesus is telling people who just watched a good, religious, wealthy man walk away that no human résumé gets anyone into the kingdom — and that God can nonetheless save the person you had written off, including yourself.
That is the honest application, and it cuts in two directions. It removes any grounds for confidence in your own performance, and it removes any grounds for despair about anyone's case. The hardest person you can think of is not beyond God.
There is real disagreement among Christians about what Jesus's instruction in verse 21 requires of everyone. Some read the command to sell everything as specific to this man, whose possessions were his particular obstacle; others read it as a standing call to radical dispossession that most Christians have quietly ignored. Mark does not generalize the command explicitly, and both readings have long histories. What the passage plainly refuses is the idea that wealth is spiritually neutral.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does "all things are possible with God" mean God will do whatever I ask? No. In context Jesus is answering "who then can be saved?" — the "all things" concerns God's ability to save people who cannot save themselves. Mark 14:36 shows Jesus affirming God's unlimited capability and then submitting to a different answer than the one He requested.
What does the camel and the eye of a needle mean? It is a deliberately impossible image describing how hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom. A popular claim that "the needle's eye" was a small gate in Jerusalem has no early evidence behind it, and the disciples' shocked reaction in verse 26 makes better sense if Jesus meant the comparison to be absurd.
Did the rich young ruler have to sell everything to be saved? Mark records the command to this man and does not extend it to everyone. Christians differ over whether it was a diagnosis of his particular attachment or a general call. Either way the passage treats his possessions as the thing standing between him and following Jesus.
Why were the disciples so astonished? Because in their setting, wealth was often taken as evidence of God's blessing. If the apparently blessed could not enter the kingdom, the disciples could see no one who qualified — which is precisely the question Jesus's answer addresses.