In Them Ye Think Ye Have Eternal Life

We often quote this exhortation from the Savior as a motivation to read the scriptures more diligently: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).  Surely that injunction is just as valid today as it was 2000 years ago, but I believe it is instructive to understand the context and what He was actually telling them.  This was a critique as much as an invitation to his audience.  He was speaking to those who did not believe in Him; in fact, they sought to kill him (see verse 18).  His criticism of them was that they read the scriptures but thought that in them they had eternal life.  They saw the scriptures as the end unto themselves, not as a means to come to know their Lord.  These Jews of His day knew the scriptures and technically understood what was written very well—probably much better than most Latter-day Saints know our scriptures today—but they completely missed the real purpose of the scriptures.  If the word of God does not lead us to Christ, then it is of no lasting value to us.  If we think that in them alone we "have eternal life," then we have become blind and looked beyond the mark (Jacob 4:14).  In the law we are encouraged to incorporate the words of the scriptures into everything we do—"talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up”—but that instruction is prefaced by this more important goal of that effort: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).  Mastering the scriptures without ever coming to love the Lord and to know Him is incomplete at best—it is Him that we should find in the scriptures.  When we quote John 5:39 as a testament that we need to search more diligently the scriptures, we should remember that we in fact do not "have eternal life in the scriptures"—eternal life is in Christ alone.

               The Book of Mormon writers in particular highlighted the fact that the purpose of scriptures is to bring people unto Christ.  In its Title Page, Moroni emphasized that the book’s purpose is "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations," and in the final verses he similarly invited us, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness" (Moroni 10:32).  Nephi wrote, "the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved" (1 Nephi 6:4).  The purpose of the scriptures is to lead us to salvation, but salvation does not come by a book—it comes by Christ.  This is why Nephi also explained his purpose in these words, "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins" (2 Nephi 25:26).  Abinadi spoke of the words of the prophets in this way: "For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem his people? Yea, and even all the prophets who have prophesied ever since the world began—have they not spoken more or less concerning these things?" (Mosiah 13:33)  All prophets in the scriptures have spoken of the Savior, and He is the end to which the scriptures should lead us.  When He visited the Nephites, the Savior described Himself this way: "Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.  Behold, I have given unto you the commandments; therefore keep my commandments. And this is the law and the prophets, for they truly testified of me" (3 Nephi 15:9-10).  He is the law and the source of light that the words of the scriptures point us to, and if we miss Him we have indeed looked beyond the mark.