Friday 10th February
Read John 5:36-40
““I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (NIVUK)
How great a warning this is for us! It was not just the religious leaders of Jesus’ day that place great faith in the study of Scripture as a means of obtaining life. It is just as great a risk for us. Jesus does not condemn diligent study of Scripture here. Jesus condemns the study of Scripture for its own sake – as if the Bible itself is what one needs to understand and grasp in order to have life. The error is in studying it so closely one fails to see that to which it points. Scripture is not an end in itself – it is a signpost pointing us to Jesus. Just like John the Baptist.
Paul came to this realisation late in life. After much persecution of Jesus, He intervened and deliberately blinded him so that he could see Jesus. He wrote to the Roman believers that “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” (Romans 7:10) (NIVUK). He had missed that to which all of Scripture pointed. Life is not found in much study (cf Ecclesiastes 1:17-18), life is found only in Jesus.
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it…26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:21, 26) (NIVUK)
Where do you seek life?
