Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal, and they it is which bear witness concerning me;
Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath and called God His own Father, and now men want Him dead. He answers by calling witnesses, and the last is the book His accusers trusted most — so how could they read it and still miss the life it points to?
The verse does not stand alone. It closes a list of witnesses the Lord builds through this chapter.
In this chapter the Lord brings forward four witnesses to Himself, and it is very important that you and I pay attention to what Jesus says. (1) John the Baptist bore witness of Him. (2) The works the Father gave Him to finish bear witness of Him — a greater witness than John's. (3) And then again, the Father Himself, who sent Him, has borne witness of Him. (4) And last of all, the Scriptures bear witness of Him.
Some translations read "Search the Scriptures" as a command. The same words can also describe what these men already did. One commentator says the difference matters little.
It makes little practical difference whether we read it as "you search the Scriptures" or as "search the Scriptures." The context decides that it is an appeal, as others have well said, rather than a command. They were not so foolish as to think they had eternal life in themselves. They looked for it in the Scriptures, and so they were in the habit of searching them, as they do, more or less, to this day.
The witness Jesus points to covers the whole Old Testament, not a few scattered predictions. Later in the same conversation He names Moses in particular.
Verse 39 applies to all the Old Testament Scriptures: they bear witness about Christ. Verse 46 points to the early books written by Moses, and he wrote of Christ. This, then, is the key that unlocks the whole Old Testament. Its main theme is the Christ who was to come.
These men were not wrong to look for life in the Bible. Their mistake was narrower than that.
The Scriptures, as the Jews judged, were the storehouse of life; and in this they judged rightly. Their error was that they mistook where in the Scriptures the life lay. They thought it lay in the law God had given them, so that life belonged to them alone. But we know it really lay in "the testimony of Jesus," who is the Life.
The verse settles what Bible study is for. Reading that ends anywhere but Christ has failed, however thorough it was.
They thought they had eternal life in the Scriptures, but Christ is the Giver of it, and to Him they would not come. If searching the Scriptures brings men to Christ, then they do have eternal life through the Scriptures. If not, they only gain knowledge of a technical, theological sort and remain in spiritual death.
Another writer points to the motive behind their search.
They did search the Scriptures, but not to honestly seek the mind of God. They searched only because they wanted eternal life without truly submitting to God. So men may know a great deal about the truth of the Bible and still be complete strangers to the word of God.
The next verse names the real obstacle: they refuse to come to Him. One writer weighs an older translation's wording, "you will not come."
The Lord does not say, "You cannot come," but "You will not come." It is true that man is dead in trespasses and sins and cannot come. It is just as true that he is alive in sins and will not come.
For a reader today, the verse turns from rebuke into invitation. It names the one place where we still meet Christ.
The only place where we can come into contact with Christ is in the written word of God... In the Scriptures we find Christ in every aspect, position, character, and office: Christ in humiliation and rejection, and Christ in exaltation and glory. So the more I read and think about God's word, the more I will learn of Christ.
- Witness. Scripture is the fourth and final witness Jesus calls, after John the Baptist, His works, and the Father.
- Witness to whom. Its testimony has one subject. The whole Old Testament points to Christ, and Moses wrote of Him.
- Witness misread. They were right to look for life in the Bible. But they looked for it in the law, not in the One the law announced.
- Witness refused. The barrier was not inability but unwillingness. The Lord said they will not come, not that they cannot.
- Witness received. Study that leads to Christ gives life. Study that stops at facts leaves a person expert in the Bible and a stranger to God's word.
and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.
Jesus has just named four witnesses to who He is: John the Baptist, His own works, the Father, and the Scriptures. This verse is His verdict on the men listening. Life itself was standing in front of them, and the one thing lacking was not evidence but willingness.
(The ESV says "you refuse to come to me." The commentators quote an older wording, "you will not come to me," and their comments turn on that "will not.")
The verse lands at the end of a legal case. Christ had produced every witness, and the refusal still stood.
The Son gives life to whom He will, but when you come to the end of the chapter, you get the side of man's responsibility. You have the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of My Father, the testimony of My works, and the testimony of your own Scriptures (where you think you have eternal life), which testify of Me. And yet you will not come to Me that you might have life. I have four witnesses that there is eternal life here for you, and you will not have it. It was the rejection of the One in whom life was present from God.
These men were Bible students. The verse shows what Bible study is for, and what it becomes when it stops short of the Person it describes.
They thought they had eternal life in the Scriptures, but Christ is the Giver of it, and to Him they would not come. If searching the Scriptures leads men to Christ, then they really do have eternal life through the Scriptures. If it does not, they only gain knowledge of a technical, theological sort and remain in spiritual death. These words are most illuminating as to what the true function of Scripture is.
The exact wording matters. Jesus points at their desire, not their ability.
The Lord does not say, "You cannot come," but "You will not come." It is true that man is dead in trespasses and sins and cannot come. It is just as true that he is alive in sins and will not come.
Verse 39 can be read as a statement or as a command.
Whether the words are a statement or a command makes little practical difference. The context decides that it is an appeal, as others have well noted, rather than a command. They were not so foolish as to suppose that they had eternal life in themselves. They looked for it in the Scriptures, and so were in the habit of searching them, as they do, more or less, to this day. But though the Scriptures testify about the Lord Jesus, they are not willing to come to Him for the life He alone can give. For the Scriptures cannot give life apart from Him, nor will the Father.
Nothing on God's side blocks anyone. Something on man's side does.
As far as God is concerned, man is completely free to come now. He is invited to come — yes, begged. The precious blood of Christ is there on the mercy seat, so God's own grace has removed the moral difficulty in the holy One receiving a sinner. But then there is the other side, man's own will and state. There is no will to come, but the opposite. Life was there in Christ. "You will not come to me that you might have life."
A heart closed to Christ is not closed to everything. It will open — to someone else.
What a testimony against man!
Refusal does not stop Christ. What follows their no is more grace.
Here (chapter 5:40) He says, "I have eternal life for you, and a fourfold testimony to the truth, and you will not come!" What comes out next? ... Do you not feel our need of the Holy Spirit? We need Him to lead our souls into a full appreciation of a grace that yields to no rejection, until everything has been tried in vain.
- Witnesses. Jesus named four witnesses — John, the works, the Father, the Scriptures — and the answer was still no.
- Where life is. Life is not stored in the letter of Scripture; the Scriptures testify of Christ, and He is the Giver of it.
- Will, not power. Jesus said "you will not," not "you cannot" — the block is in the desire, not the door.
- Both sides. God leaves the way open and sends the invitation. The obstacle lies in man's own will and state.
- The alternative. A heart that refuses Christ, who came in the Father's name, will receive another who comes in his own. Yet grace keeps offering until everything has been tried.