“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them
you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you
refuse to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from
people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come
in my Father’s name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own
name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from
one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not
think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you:
Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would
believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how
will you believe My words?”” (John 5:39–47, ESV) (Caps added to pronouns
referring to Christ.)
Jesus just told them that they did not have the word of God
abiding in them, yet here He tells them that they have searched the Scriptures.
There is obviously a difference between the two. In their searching the
Scriptures to find eternal life they missed what the Scriptures really had to
say concerning it. They had built up a system of do’s and don’ts as a means of “pleasing
God” and missed the point that what God desires of man is their wholehearted
belief in Him and faith in His plan for deliverance. The end was never to be
found in making sacrifices and keeping the commandments because the sacrifices
were inadequate and the commands themselves demanded perfection that none could
meet. Rather it was about believing in Him and then in response performing
these other things as acts of obedient worship.
These Jews had become harsh and legalistic, not having the
love of God in them. This is evidenced by them looking to the man carrying his
bed rather than seeing that he was healed. Were their hearts filled with the
love of God then they surely would have rejoiced with the man in his healing by
God. But no, they would rather attack him for breaking one of their added rules
which were put in place to establish how man could prove his obedience.
Jesus came in the Father’s name and He spoke of the great
things of the God while He performed many signs that could only have come
through power of God, and they did not receive Him. Jesus sought no glory for
himself saying, “Look what I can do!” And for that they rejected Him. But
should He have come in His own name and pointed to His own good works then
these performance based people would have accepted Him gladly as one of the
club. They were all about the pats on the back and they could relate to others
who did the same, and none of them were seeking after the glory that would come
only from God. In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke at great length about the
distinctions between those who He called hypocrites who were all about the show
and the immediate recognition as opposed to those who are humble and who are
storing up their treasures in heaven.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where
thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21, ESV)
Jesus separated any judgment that He might make of them
before the Father and took them straight to one who they did recognize in
Moses. Moses had given the law upon which they built their religious system,
but in doing this they missed totally what Moses had said. If they had really
believed the words of Moses then they surely would have accepted Him because
Moses had written of Him. Jesus does not quote anything of Moses, but a search
of the five books of Moses will show that he clearly spoke of Christ.
“The Lord your
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it
is to Him you shall listen—” (Deuteronomy 18:15, ESV) Moses said these words
and the Jews to whom Jesus was speaking did not accept these words nor did they
listen to the One sent by God. And it was not just Moses who they did not
listen to. God sent numerous prophets to call them to repentance. One of them
was Ezekiel who is given a description of the people to whom he was being sent.
“And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations
of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have
transgressed against Me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and
stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to
hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been
among them.” (Ezekiel 2:3–5, ESV)
How much different is it today when people pick and choose
what they want to believe? Rather than seeking after God with their whole
hearts they grasp on to what they want to find and ignore the rest. Psalm 139
is an incredible declaration of how awesome our God is and how well He knows
us. At the end of the psalm David cried out, “Search me, O God, and know my
heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24, ESV)
The words are there. They’ve always been there. But a hard
heart does not see them. Jesus told His disciples that the world would know
that they are His disciples by their love for one another (John 13:34-35). The
apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “Are we beginning to commend
ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you,
or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our
hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from
Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living
God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians
3:1–3, ESV) He did not need their letters of commendation because their changed
lives spoke loudly of Christ and the power of the Spirit of God to change
hearts.
Today we who are saved continue to be a living testimony of
this truth as we are daily being changed
more and more into the likeness of Christ. Though words are important in order
to share the message our lives serve as the living proof that Jesus truly is
the Christ who came to give life. We have a firm foundation of faith based on
fact that undergirds that which we know and desire for others. I love Paul’s
prayer request at the end of Ephesians. “praying at all times in the Spirit,
with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance,
making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be
given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I
ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:18–20, ESV)
An ambassador is one sent by an authority who knows the
authority well and has been given power to represent that authority. The Bible
declares that we are ambassadors for Christ, and in that we can go out not in
our own power and authority but with the power and authority of the Spirit of
God working in us as we proclaim Christ and call people to reconciliation to God.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We
implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20,
ESV)
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