Christ’s Witnesses, P4: Scripture

“You search and keep on searching and examining the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is those[very Scriptures] that testify about Me; and still you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40, AMP)

In John 5, Jesus calls upon one more witness to His Godship and His deity. After using a physical testimony like John the Baptist, the miraculous testimony of the works in His ministry, and the spiritual testimony of God the Father, Jesus finally calls upon the scriptural testimony of God’s Word.

Of course, at that time, He would have been talking about the Old Testament. But this Jewish law is something that the religious leaders were well versed in. The Old Testament was something that they knew backwards and forwards; knowledge that they used on a daily basis.

And yet, somehow, these rabbis and pharisees were completely blind to the witness they gave in pointing to Jesus the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy constantly. He was always proving who He was, in both word and deed. But because Jesus did not come in the way they expected, they rejected Him.

The Pharisees believed Jesus was going to come as a mighty military leader and a formidable king. They believed that He was going to abolish Rome and establish Israel over their enemies. They thought He was going to come with flash and power and might. So they had trouble reconciling that their Messiah was a humble-born, poor carpenter’s son who was followed by a rag-tag group of disciples on foot. 

The evidence to His Godship was there in the encounters He had with people, in the wonderful healings and miracles He worked, in the confirmation of John the Baptist, and the supernatural display of God the Father at His baptism. It was just unconventional and undistinguished. And it was not in this ultra-convenient and validating way for the religious leaders that had preached and taught for decades that Jesus was coming in this magnificent display. What Jesus came in reality to do was no confirmation to what the religious leaders staked their entire ministries on. 

Jesus did not come in the way they expected and built up and counted on. But rather than adapting their ideas and their expectations– rather than letting go of what they thought and wanted– they dug their heels in ever more obstinately. Rather than embracing the Savior and Messiah as God had always ordained for Him to arrive and operate, they rejected Him because it didn’t suit their agenda and their motives.

It’s a wonder that they could deny Him in the flesh, standing before them with all the signs, wonders, and confirmations anyone could ever need; how they could turn their back on Him with all this evidence laid at their feet. These were educated, scholarly men. They should have been able to see these findings and changed their directions in light of this irrefutable proof. 

But are we the same? Do we turn our backs just as obstinately because to take Jesus as He is would mean that we have to admit we were wrong on any number of things?

The fact is, we might not have Jesus in the flesh. We might not have Him preaching in our local churches and healing the sick in the middle of the grocery store, but we have the full counsel of His Bible. We have the Old Testament readily available to the Pharisees and the New Testament which is the detailed witness of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

We should be all the more able to embrace Him and reject those beliefs that are not found in God’s Word. But how do we do this? How to we make a distinction?

We treat scripture like the witness it is. We interrogate the witness. We study it and question it and learn it through and through. We believe its testimony and if we hold beliefs that cannot be backed up by scripture, we cast them aside so our beliefs align with it.

To hold so tightly to our preconceived notions that we miss out on Jesus the Messiah is a costly mistake to make. It is one that withholds us from His presence and cheapens our faith. We must believe and subscribe to the full counsel of the Word, Jesus’ witness to His Godship that speaks to us today and shows us the straight and narrow road of faith we are to walk on.