Reading for July 30: John 5:37-40

37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Comments:

At the end of last week, in verses 31 – 36, Jesus tells the Jews that they don't have to just take His word for it that He is who He says He is, there are witnesses to back up His claim. First, He mentions John the Baptist and his teachings. Then He points out that the works that He has done proves He is sent by the Father. In today's verses, Jesus tells the Jews that there is another witness for His case – the Scriptures.

The Jews had a proud heritage of being God's chosen and because of this they thought that any time God spoke to man He spoke to them only. Jesus here in verses 37 and 38 is saying that in fact they have not heard from God and even with Jesus, God Himself, standing right before them, they could not take in God's message because they would not believe.

Instead, in their ignorance they studied the scripture with a blind eye denying the truth that was looking right at them. They were looking at the scriptures as a step by step instruction manual on how to earn a ticket in heaven, instead of seeing the scriptures as they are: a revelation of God. If they would have read the scriptures with an intent of seeing God instead of seeing themselves, they would have recognized Jesus for who He was without question.

Just like today, the Jews had it all wrong, they thought they could do enough good to work their way in God's Kingdom, but they could never do enough good. What Jesus was trying to tell them, as we should be trying to tell the lost today, the focus has to be on God and God's perfect plan for salvation. The Jews knew the scriptures but on an intellectual level only, they spent a great deal of time in the Temple but for selfish reasons only and because of this they missed the way, the only way, to salvation, Jesus.