Read: John 5:39-44
Devotion: There are many zealous people in the world. People can be zealous for their favorite sports team or their favorite band. They can be zealous about their family or their faith. In Jesus’ day, the Jews were zealous for God and for the Scriptures. And many Jews are still zealous for God and the Old Testament today. However, as Jesus points out in John 5:39-44 (and Paul in Romans 10:2-3), zeal is not enough to save someone. With that zeal must come faith in Christ, for he is the only one who can save.
Consider the Jewish people in Jesus’ day, especially the religious leaders. As Jesus points out, they knew their Bibles (John 5:39). Or at least they knew what it said. They could quote it extensively and even appeared zealous to follow it. They oriented everything they did around their attempts at obeying God’s Word. Their zeal for God and His word determined what they ate, who they talked to, where they went, what they did during the day, and what they said. The Word shaped their lives.
As Christians, shouldn’t we want to be known as those whose lives are shaped by the Word?
This makes what Jesus says to the Jewish leaders all the more shocking. He tells them that in the final judgment, he won’t have to testify against their rejection of him because their own Scriptures will testify against them (v. 45). Despite their knowledge of God’s Word, Jesus tells them plainly that they had been reading their Bibles wrong (v. 39).
But they had a zeal for God! How could they be reading the Bible wrongly? Again, just because someone has a zeal for something does not mean that their zeal is right. It may be a misplaced zeal, or an ignorant zeal. In the case of the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day, they viewed their Bible as an instruction manual on how to be saved. They pursued righteousness as though they could attain it by obedience to the law (Rom 9:30-31; cf. Rom 10:1-4).
Of course, the way of salvation is revealed in the Scriptures, and salvation can only come by the Spirit working through the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17). But as the Bible itself clearly reveals, salvation does not come by works (Rom 4:5; Gal. 2:16).
The Jewish people of Jesus’ time were interpreting their Bibles this way (the same way many people interpret their Bibles today): “This is telling me how I must live in order to earn my righteousness. I must do these things and avoid these other things. If I obey in this way, God will accept me.” In other words, they were attempting to gain eternal life through their zeal and obedience. They were thinking,
When I die and I am before God’s judgement throne and He asks me to lay out my case as to why I should be declared innocent, I’m going to hold up my Bible and say, ‘I followed your law to the best of my ability. And where I failed to obey I performed the necessary sacrifices. That’s why I deserve to be counted innocent.’ And the Judge, Christ, is going to tell them, ‘The very Bible you are holding up, my Word, testifies against you. You are guilty!'”
The religious leaders were reading and interpreting their Bibles incorrectly, which is why Jesus said that Moses would accuse them on the last day. Moses did not write a moral checklist that a person needed to complete before they died. He wasn’t writing religious platitudes on how to live a good life. Moses wrote an objective word that said plainly that perfect obedience to the law was impossible (Lev 18:5; Neh 9:29; Ezek 20:11; cf. Gal 3:12-14). He also testified of Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb (Ex. 12:21-28), the Prophet who was going to come after him (Deut. 18:15), and the true seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Moses wrote of Christ, and of all the people on the planet, the Jewish people should have recognized him as their Savior and Messiah.
Jesus appealed to the the religions leaders by saying that if they didn’t believe John’s testimony, they should have believed Jesus’ works (John 5:33-36). If they didn’t believe Jesus’ works, they should have believed Moses (vv. 39-40). And yet they rejected the testimony of Christ that they had received from each of these sources.
We must take care not to fall into the same error. What is the purpose of Scripture? What do we come away with when we read our Bibles? If all we come away with from our Bible reading are better morals or the conclusion that salvation is secured by our obedience, then we are reading our Bibles dangerously wrong, for they testify to us of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Are there instructions to obey? Yes, but obedience is the fruit of salvation, not the cause of it.
Ponder and Pray: How can we know whether we’re reading our Bibles correctly or incorrectly? What gifts has God given his people to help them understand the Scripture? Finish your devotional time by praying to God to reveal more of Christ to you (Ps 119:18; Eph 1:16-23).
