"Search The Scriptures"
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One last witness. One final appeal to the jury to believe your claims. Will they be finally be convinced to render a "not guilty" verdict?
"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me ..." (John 5:39).
Jesus has already presented John the Baptist, his miracles, and the powerful words of God himself to verify that he is God's Son. As a final appeal before his closing arguments, he points back to the Scriptures. The Old Law held significant importance for the Jews who accused Jesus. They studied it, taught it, and meticulously copied it. They believed in its power to offer everlasting life, but they were missing the point entirely — that they pointed to Jesus all along.
The focus of the entire Bible is to lead us directly to Jesus. Here are just a few areas the Jews had overlooked:
At The Garden
Following Adam and Eve's sin, God curses humanity with hard labor and pain in childbearing. But before he condemns them, he speaks to the serpent and says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15). God is describing the great battle between God's Son and the devil, where a fatal blow would eventually crush Satan (1 John 3:8). Only conquering slavery to death and sin, can we be delivered into eternal life. And it was Jesus who accomplished that great deliverance (Heb. 2:14-15)!
In Abraham's Promises
When Abraham proved himself faithful by moving from his country to a land where God directed him, the Lord made him three promises. These promises were to him and to "his offspring," which Paul says was referring singularly to Christ (Gal. 3:16). As a descendant of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, Jesus would come to bless "all the families of the earth" (Gen. 12:3). He would extend the good news of salvation beyond the national borders of Israel to the whole world, including us today (Gal. 3:8).
Hope After Israel's Fall
The nation of Judah was taken away into captivity after years of unfaithfulness. In their despair, God's prophets offer them a glimmer of hope to know that brighter days are coming. Zechariah reveals that a man named "Branch" will come to bring peace, sitting on the royal throne and also serving as our priest. No one could have performed these two functions under the Old Law, but Jesus came to hold both offices in his ministry of peace (Heb. 8:1-2)!
Jesus is the main point of the entire Bible. He's there in the beginning and pointed to the whole time as the only source of eternal life. Will you believe that he is the Son of God who came to save the world?
