John 5:39 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 5:39

Comments

‘For in them ye have eternal life.’ You read about the law and the ceremonial, and how through Moses great privileges were given to you. And you think that because that happened that was a mark of God’s approval of you. You never grasped that the law was given to humble you, to make you see that you are sinners in his sight, and you need a free salvation and mercy and forgiveness which would be secured by the Messiah. You have never seen it. You have drawn the wrong conclusion.‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life.’ Why did they think that? They would reply, ‘Because it says that we are Jews, and God is the God of the Jews, and he has given us a ceremonial law; and if we keep it he is going to be especially pleased with us and give us the very highest place in heaven.’ Christ means by this, ‘You think the Old Testament gives you life? Search the scriptures – it doesn’t give you life! It tells you about a Saviour who you need to have life, and if you won’t see him in it, if you won’t see the grace of God in the Old Testament, and the necessity of repentance, and a changed life, you haven’t got life.’ They were being very presumptuous. They thought it gave them life, but, of course, it didn’t. [The Old Testament gave them access to God’s school where wonderful lessons about how he would save individuals were available. But if they did not study in that school and strive to understand their lessons; if they assumed that it was enough simply to be a member of the school, they were deceiving themselves.]

Application

Questions

‘Search the scriptures.’ There is a great debate as to whether this ought to be seen as an instruction, a command, or just an observation – ‘You are constantly searching the scriptures.’ I think our King James translators are right in making it an imperative – ‘Search the scriptures’, a challenge, because it makes better sense that way. It could be either, as far as the translators concerned – but this brings the whole passage to life. [The problem was not that they had searched diligently and failed to find. What they had failed to do was to search the scriptures properly at all, for if they had done so they would have found the answer; they would have come to Christ. The scriptures are a sufficient guide to anyone who comes sincerely to learn from them.]

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Introduction

John 5:39 Commentary and Bible Study