John 5:39-41

³⁹You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. ⁴¹"I do not accept praise from men.

Jesus is found through diligent study of the Scriptures, yet some refuse to come to Him. V39 can be viewed differently. Imperative or not? First, as the NIV translates, Jesus appears to say that the Jews do indeed diligently study the Scriptures to gain eternal life. And this is commendable. Jesus is saying, “Good! You diligently study the Scriptures, because you think that by them you possess eternal life. And you’re right, because these Scriptures testify about Me, the Author and source of life. I am the giver of life, as I’ve been saying.” Second, viewed without the “You” as the Greek actually reads, we see Jesus commanding the Jews to study the Scriptures diligently, because they will lead them to eternal life in Christ. Either way, Jesus is correcting their fault in this endeavor. However diligent they were with Scriptures, it wasn’t enough, because they weren’t getting it. V40b says that they refused to come to Jesus, the source of life to which the Scriptures point, as Jesus declared in v40a. The Scriptures offer additional divine testimony to His Person, and the Jews didn’t grasp that in their efforts.

A lesson for us here is that if we wish to know Christ, we must seek Him in the Scriptures. Any attempt to define Him apart from the Word of God will lead to speculative falsehood. We have these bracelets that remind us to ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” And shame on us when we try to answer that question in our circumstance without seeking what Scripture has to say. The Word – all of which points to Christ and teaches us about Him – is our guide, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

The Jews refuse to come to Jesus, in v40, because they don’t want to come to Him. Their own malice hinders them from becoming partakers of the life offered in the Scriptures. Jesus admonishes them harshly; for when He says that they “will not,” He imputes the cause of their ignorance and blindness to wickedness and obstinacy. They are blinded by their own pride and hardness of heart, and so they cannot believe. The problem, again, is willingness and ability. I’ve offered an analogy in the past: I am – by the grace of God – willing and able to read the Bible. I am willing to run a mile in less than a minute, but I am physically unable. I am able to jump from a cliff to my likely demise, but I am unwilling. I am both unwilling and unable to touch the core of the earth. These are all physical things. And a summary might be, “I would if I could; but I can’t, so I won’t.” And it’s similar spiritually, but the summary is a little different. “I could if I would; but I won’t, so I can’t.” That’s the Jews predicament. And it was ours too, until we were made, by the grace of God through regeneration, willing and able to come to Jesus.

Jesus accepts no praise from men. Jesus gives us an example to follow here. In case the Jews were to accuse Him of saying all this so that He might deceive men into worshipping Him, Jesus says He doesn’t accept praise from men. He doesn’t need it, nor does He say these things to earn it. Jesus is about the Father’s business and longs only to receive praise from Him. We should exhibit a holy jealousy for the name and glory of God when men do not render to God the honor due Him. It should pain us to see the world reject Jesus Christ.