Post by tomdurst on Feb 1, 2013 10:31:01 GMT -5
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES TO FIND LIFE
by Thomas E Durst
by Thomas E Durst
John 5:39-40 New Living Translation (NLT)
39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
The Pharisees had served well in preserving the Scriptures during a time in the history of Judaism when their faith could have been well nigh destroyed by the Greeks and pagan culture. However, they became so enmeshed in getting all of the jots and tittles of the written code correct that they thought they would find eternal life by this process. When Jesus, the Living Word of God, came to the earth they felt very threatened and refused to come to Him and find life. The key word here is LIFE. The Scriptures are not to be an end in and of themselves but are a path to finding the life of God and experiencing transformation. We have many "Bible-believing" Christians who are making the very same mistake that the Pharisees did. They often make a god out of the Bible itself and thus end up bringing death instead of life to themselves and others. They are sticklers for what they perceive to be correct doctrines and rules for righteous living and thus turn many away from the Bible and Christianity. Then on the other extreme we have learned scholars who write books and produce videos that totally destroy faith in the reliability of the Bible and in Jesus as Savior. This degenerates into pure intellectualism and is just as devoid of any kind of spiritual life as is making an idol of the Bible. The only hope for any of us to correctly understand the real purpose of the Scriptures and rightly to apply them is to humble ourselves continually and have the Spirit of Inspiration to guide us at every step (1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 2 Corinthians 3:6).
For related thoughts read THE IMPLANTED WORD on the link below:
THE IMPLANTED WORD