John 5:39-47 PODCAST
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. 41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5:39-47
We continue today with the conversation between the Lord Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders, just after He has healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. These religious leaders had spent their whole lives counting every word of the Old Testament and memorizing great sections of it, committing themselves wholly to it, because they thought the knowledge of Scripture would give them life. And, the Lord Jesus Himself declares, "These are the very Scriptures that testify about me."
Jesus is the main subject of the whole Bible, Old and New Testament! If we want to have an exciting experience with that book, start reading it with the object of looking for Jesus. We will find Him on every page because He is there. The whole of the Old Testament is filled with subtle references to the Lord Jesus. This is why the Lord Jesus says in v.39, "These are the very Scriptures that testify about me."
So, we can study the Bible from cover to cover, and never encounter Him. In v.40 the Lord Jesus gets to the crux of the issue, "Yet you will not to come to me." He is saying to these religious leaders, "You choose not to come to me that you may have life."
In v.41-44 we are confronted with stubborn unbelief. These men who were poised to see Him, to encounter the God of the Bible, yet they did not have the love of God in them. His love was first expressed toward us through His creation. The Psalmist rightly asks of God “what are human beings that you are mindful of us, mere mortals that you would care for us?” God created the heavens with so much design that He screams to us His existence. Then He sent His Son to underscore His love for us by hanging on a tree to deal a death blow to our greatest enemy, sin and death.
The Lord Jesus said it best in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." If these religious leaders had the love of God in them, their ambition would have been to bring glory to Him. The hymn writer penned it best, when he wrote, "The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win. His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin."
These religious leaders loved the praise of men so much they were unwilling to set it aside to allow God to define them. The danger of rejecting truth is we open ourselves up to anyone who comes along speaking disguised lies. The opposite is true: when we are defined by the truth, we recognize the false very easily.
When we are looking for our own advancement, we are denying the Father who loves us, and as a result, we will not follow the Lord Jesus. As the Lord Jesus points out in v.46, if we follow Moses, he will lead us to the Christ. And, as the Lord Jesus says in v.45, from this point of view, Moses is our judge, not the Lord Jesus.
These religious leaders had the witness of the Father, the witness of John the Baptist, the witness of centuries of Old Testament believers, yet they chose not to believe in the God of the Bible.
It is amazing that we can get so close to knowing God and yet miss Him. You see, the Bible is like a pane of glass, designed to help us to see God through it. The religious leaders didn't get beyond the printed page.
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