Jesus, being challenged about healing a man on the Sabbath used the opportunity, as He so often did, to instruct and direct those involved. In John 5 Jesus responds to His challengers by revealing who He is, and His relationship to the Father. In verses 39-40 Jesus tells His them, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you will possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." In all their diligent study they missed knowing the author.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." It would do us well to study it far more diligently than we do. But in all our study, we must be careful that the Bible does not become simply a textbook on living. We must guard against it being merely a governing document. We must not allow it to be reduced to a theological or ethical question and answer book. I am not suggesting that the Bible is not these things. It is and more. The issue here is about how we approach, read, and study Scripture. Too often we are like the very people Jesus is addressing. We study the Scriptures for all kind of reasons and miss the One they reveal. We jump into the Bible with vigor to find answers to the latest social issue, and miss the Lord over all whom they make known. We search the Scripture to find answers to our problems, and do not see the Healer which they point to. We study God's Word to find the reason for human suffering and bondage, and do not recognize the Liberator which they testify to.
"You diligently study Scripture... yet you refuse to come to me." Above all else the Word of God is His self-revelation. We need to approach that Word with an openness that allows us to see and know Him. What we believe isn't worth a thing until we know Whom we believe. Paul told young Timothy "from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ." The Scriptures reveal and draw us to Him. They testify about Him. Our faith is in Him. Our life is in Him. We must know Him. Paul prayed that God would give the Ephesian Christians "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation," so that they would "know Him better." That pray is for us too. We need to know Him - better.
Though He used many writers, God is the Author. The Bible has been and is the object of debate, ridicule, question, and opposition, but it ever remains His living and active Word. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word stands forever! With all the things the Bible is and must be for us, we must never lose sight that in it God reveals Himself so that we may know Him. In all of our diligent study, let us approach, study, and read Scripture, "searching for the One who wrote it."
Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry