Search the Scriptures

“Searchthescriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:

and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39)

Because there is so much confusion and so many voices as to the proper interpretation of Scripture, how careful all of us must be to search them out for ourselves under the Spirit’s direction. The Greek word for ‘search’ means a strict, close, diligent, curious investigation; much like men seeking gold or hunters looking for signs of their game. So many are content with a superficial reading of a verse or chapter here or there but searching the Scriptures must be a regular part of our diet.

Certainly, there is much in the Word of God that can provide solace and consolation through simple reading. There is milk for babies and meat for the strong, 1 Peter 2:2. Yet, babies do not remain so but as they age so grows their need for strong meat! The writer of Hebrews states, “For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14) All that God the Father has chosen and the LORD Jesus Christ has redeemed at Calvary, will in time be drawn by the Spirit of God and brought to see, hear, taste and know more fully the goodness of the LORD in having legally adopted them as sons at the cross, having satisfied law and justice for them in Christ’s obedience unto death. They are not chosen, redeemed, justified nor adopted when they come to see Him but they are brought to see and know Him as He Who saved them by His blood, having already accomplished salvation for them and justified them when He died before He ever drew them.

Just as when a baby is born, there is life, hunger and appetite, so any who are born from above will manifest that Life of the Spirit because of God’s righteousness already established for them by Christ and imputed once-for-all to their account upon completion of His satisfactory death for them, Romans 8:10. That life produced by the Spirit causes them to hunger and thirst after that righteousness, to know more of Him Who is God’s Righteousness and be in subjection to Him as their only righteousness before a Holy God, Romans 10:3. It is just that hunger that causes them to search the Scriptures, as the prophets of old: “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” (1 Peter 1:11)

In searching the Scriptures, one whose eyes are opened will increasingly find Him as the ONE SUBJECT and find in Him that salvation purposed from before the foundation of the world, accomplished at Calvary and now revealed by the Spirit. Christ said, ‘They are they which testify of Me.’