In Them Ye Think Ye Have Eternal Life

There is a very interesting statement from the Savior when He stood before the Jews who “sought to slay him” because of what He did on the Sabbath Day.  He spoke of the witnesses that testified of Him, and then He said this, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).  This verse is frequently quoted in general conference because of its message about reading the scriptures.  For example, Elder Hales said, “With softened hearts we are prepared to heed the Savior’s call to ‘search the scriptures’ and to humbly learn from them.”  Elder Ballard quoted the verse this way, “Jesus taught that we should ‘search the scriptures; for … they are they which testify of me.’ These words provide insight and inspiration to all who sincerely seek to know and understand the truth about Jesus Christ.”  President Monson quoted the verse as he encouraged us to “study diligently” the scriptures.  A quick search on the LDS Scripture Citation Index shows over seventy references to the verse—clearly it is a widely quoted verse and very important in its message to us. 

                And yet, it seems that this verse is not a whole hearted recommendation of the scriptures.  The Savior was speaking to Jewish leaders who had the scriptures, memorized them, and placed great value on them.  But despite that, they still did not recognize the Savior for who He was or accept Him who gave them the scriptures in the first place.  Jesus told them that in the scriptures “ye think ye have eternal life,” which seems to be a statement that we don’t have eternal life in the scriptures.  He was it seems criticizing the Jewish leaders who had become blind to spiritual matters.  Many of the Jews in his day were so focused on the scriptures and following the law exactly that they missed the whole point of the scriptures: to testify of the Savior.  He said on another occasion that “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”—eternal life isn’t in the scriptures; it is in Jesus Christ.  But the Jews of His day for the most part couldn’t accept that.  They declared at one point, “We are Moses’ disciples” (John 9:28).  In other words, it was in the scriptures that they gave their allegiance as they claimed to follow the prophet Moses who gave then a large portion of the scriptures.  But as important as they are, the scriptures are not an end unto themselves.  The major purpose of the scriptures is as Jesus told them, “to testify” of the Savior, and so all the scripture study in the world was useless to these contemporaries of the Savior who refused to recognize the Man that the scriptures testify of.  We have to remember in our day that scripture study should lead us to the Savior and to know Him.  The goal of the Savior for us is not that we know the scriptures, but the goal of the scriptures is that we come to know the Savior.