September 16

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” —JOHN 5:39-40

The letter to the Hebrews is believed to have been written to a group of Jewish converts who were tempted to either revert to Judaism or Judaize the Gospel. They were so wrapped up in all the true things God had revealed through Old Testament Scripture that they had missed the truth to which it all pointed and centered on.

The popular world view today is that there is no absolute truth; there are only opinions. If there are only opinions, then one person’s opinion is no more valid than another person’s. Most discussions about Christ will simply be an exchange of opinions. The idea that there is truth has become alien to much of our thinking with the criteria being if it seems to be good for me, then it must be true. And whether it is true or not, we then measure the benefit of a religion by the good it does its followers.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ is superior to all that preceded Him, not because what He said was better or more complete, though it was, but because He is Himself the message and has absolute unmatched supremacy in God’s revelation. 

When Jesus criticized the Jews for studying the Scriptures, He was not undermining the authority, inspiration or integrity of Scripture, but explaining that it was not the truth; that it points to the truth, which is who He is. That is why the writer of Hebrews says, “Fix your thoughts on Jesus,” (3:1) and “fix our eyes on Jesus” (12:2). Truth is decapitated when we sever it from Christ, which is what the Pharisees did, and consequently, knew nothing of spiritual life.

We can know the Scriptures inside out, but detached from Christ, and it becomes a dead book. It would be like having a manual on a new car we have bought. We do not read the manual for the sake of reading. Rather, we want to get to know the car and be able to use it to its full potential. We are given the Bible so that we can know Christ and all that is made available to us in Him. There is an old hymn, ‘Break Thou the Bread of Life’, which has the great line, “Beyond the sacred page, I seek thee, Lord.” From Genesis to Revelation, every verse ultimately leads to Christ, and it is knowing Him that matters.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the wonderful revelation You give us of your Son, but most of all, thank You for allowing the written word to become the Living Word within me. 

TO REFLECT UPON: Has the truth of Scripture become the living, active Truth within me?