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John 5:39,40 - Bible Study Leads To A Relationship With Jesus?

You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life.
But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can
give you this eternal life.
John 5:39,40 (NLT)

It is possible for men to be very studious in the letter of the scripture,
and yet to be strangers to the power and influence of it. [Matthew Henry
Commentary]

The religious leaders knew what the Bible said but failed to apply its
words to their lives. They knew the teachings of the Scriptures but failed
to see the Messiah to whom the Scriptures pointed. They knew the rules but
missed the Savior. Entrenched in their own religious system, they refused
to let the Son of God change their lives. Don't become so involved in
"religion" that you miss Christ. [Life Application SB]

Study of Scripture does not lead to eternal life unless it leads to Jesus.
. . .Jesus is the greatest revelation of God, revealed in Scripture and
manifested in the flesh (Jn 1). Some who claimed to seek and follow God
refused to see and believe Jesus. Diligent study of Scripture is fruitless
if it does not lead to faith in Christ. Faith, not facts, is the ultimate
purpose of Scripture study. [Disciple SB]

Studying the Bible or knowing its contents backward and forward does not
earn anyone eternal life. What the Scriptures do is point individuals to
Jesus. [Victor Teacher's Commentary]

The Jew searched the Law and yet faded to recognize Christ when he came.
What was wrong? The best Bible students in the world, people who
meticulously and continuously read scripture, rejected Jesus.  How could
that happen?  One thing is clear--they read scripture in the wrong way.
 They read it with a shut mind. They read it not to search for God but to
find arguments to support their own positions. They did not really love
God; they loved their own ideas about him. Water has as much chance of
getting into concrete as the word of God had of getting into their minds.
They did not humbly learn a theology from scripture; they used scripture to
defend a theology which they themselves had produced. There is still danger
that we should use the Bible to prove our beliefs and not to test them. . .
The function of the scriptures is not to give life, but to point to him who
can. [Barclay Commentary]

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme
of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him. At the crea
tion we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a
glimpse of him in the promise of the woman's seed; we see him typified in
the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day; we dwell
in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear
the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the
law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings,
priests and preachers, all look one way-they all stand as the cherubs did
over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the mystery of God's
great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find our
Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust
of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold;
for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even
its closing sentence is bejewelled with the Redeemer's name. We should
always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a
mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into
it, see his face reflected as in a glass-darkly, it is true, but still in
such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing him as we shall see
him face to face. This volume contains Jesus Christ's letters to us,
perfumed by his love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they
all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot
in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of
Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus;
unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God
is Christ. [Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Christ is the treasure hid in the field of the scriptures, the water in
those wells, the milk in those breasts. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Jesus said of the Old Testament Scriptures,--and how much more is it true
of the New,--"They are they which testify of Me," the Redeemer, Him in whom
our hopes of eternal life are centered. John 5:39. Yes, the whole Bible
tells of Christ. From the first record of creation--for "without Him was
not anything made that was made"--to the closing promise, "Behold, I come
quickly," we are reading of His works and listening to His voice. John 1:3;
Revelation 22:12. If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study
the Holy Scriptures.
Fill the whole heart with the words of God. They are the living water,
quenching your burning thirst. They are the living bread from heaven. Jesus
declares, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you." And He explains Himself by saying, "The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:53, 63. Our
bodies are built up from what we eat and drink; and as in the natural
economy, so in the spiritual economy: it is what we meditate upon that will
give tone and strength to our spiritual nature. SC88