In the Gospel of John chapter five our Lord is having a verbal interchange with the Jewish leaders.  Though they were as religiously zealous as any people could be, they refused to recognize or consider Jesus as their Messiah. Our Lord had just healed a man, yet they were condemning the healing since it was done on the Sabbath. Our Lord had told them “The works that I do testify about Me” (John 5:36). Then He makes the most amazing statement for our insight, He says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me” (John 5:39). This should be a sobering verse for any Christian. Here are Jews, not carelessly living in the world as if there is no God as many are today, and are even committed to the Scriptures and, yet, blind to the focus of all Scripture which is Jesus Christ. The phrase, “You search,” is a present indicative in the Greek which means they did not just look once, but they continue an action of investigation. Not only this, but Christ says they have a high regard for the Scriptures, for He states, “Because you think that in them you have eternal life.” These are people who had firm convictions that the Scriptures hold the key to eternal life with God. Yet, even with this, they are blind to the reality that the central Person of the Scriptures is Jesus Christ the only Messiah. They are so steeped in their blindness that not only do they not see that He is the Messiah, but they will maliciously and unjustly take Him and crucify Him.  To hold even a high degree of zealous religion with regard to the Scripture itself, and yet, disregard the substance of Christ and His exaltation is not being a Christian.

We know there are those who claim and interpret Scripture according to their own agenda. Of course there is only one true way, but the numbers of false ways are plentiful by people with a false, foolish, and blind agenda. In the 1970’s a writer named Erich Daniken investigated the writing in Genesis 6, Isaiah 6, and Ezekiel 8 and wrote a best-selling book claiming that the Bible says planet earth was visited by aliens from outer space. The cults: Christian Scientist, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hari Krishnas, Mormons, and Unitarians all claim the Bible as their source for the practice of their false religious systems and ideas.  The Jewish leaders of Christ’s day not only ignored the supernatural works of Christ and His speaking like no other man, but also all the Scriptures defining His Person and the need of Him.  They prided themselves concerning their knowledge of Scripture and obstinately rejected the obvious, perfect, and unique descriptions of Christ. Instead, they had their own agenda whereby they went mechanically to the Scriptures and extracted laws and rules.

Biblical commands were designed to show mankind the need of a Savior, but they instead made their own rules believing by them they would have righteousness before God. They not only missed all the glorious descriptions of Christ, but also what the Scripture said of sinful man. “All our righteousness is but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), or “The heart is deceitful above all else, who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). They ignored these and many other verses describing their desperate need for a Savior. Jesus Christ is the only Person fitting Isaiah’s description, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him” (Isaiah 53:4-5). The Jews were invested in Scripture but only according to their own notions. They came to the Word of God with their own agenda.

The life of the Scripture is more than words, or the mechanics of what someone wants to make of it. We know that Scripture is living and active (Heb. 4:12), and has a goal of renewal that is based upon the work of Christ Himself. This is important for us to understand, just as the religious of Christ day and the cults of our day misuse God’s Word, it therefore has no value for them no matter their zeal. Our Lord goes on to say in John 5:40, “And you are unwilling to come to Me that you might have life.” When God’s Word is abused, it will not bring forth life. Unless Christ is at the center of our thinking, we are yet blind and lost. A Christless religion, at whatever level, has no value. Our coming to Him must be a coming in belief of who He is and what He has done. It is a belief that cannot be misguided away from Him, even to good things, but a faith that is squarely and uncompromisingly focused exclusively on Him as our Lord and our God.

Just as the religiously lost of Christ’s day, so are the religiously lost of our day if their attention and commitment by faith is not fixed upon Christ. It is never religion that saves, but a relationship with the true God of our salvation. All glory belongs to Him! So, this means that when we search the Scriptures, as we surely should, our attention is drawn to Christ, while our heart is continually renewed in thankfulness. We love Him and depend upon Him for our understanding, for our daily walk, and for our future in eternity. As Paul says, “So that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:18).  My prayer for all who read this is that we can say in all sincerity, He has first place, not only in the Scripture for us, but in our life!