Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.  

I John 5:1 

What is the evidence that we are the children of God? According to John it is that we believe that Jesus is the Christ. By using that terminology, John is focusing on what it means to be ‘the Christ.’ Christ is not Jesus’ name, but rather the title He bears as the Anointed One of God. This is inextricably connected to Him being the Messiah. This sets Him apart from all others. We find in Scripture a host of references, all of which lead us to the inevitable conclusion, ‘neither is there salvation in any other….’ Whether we speak of Him as Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Root and Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star or any other of the many titles we use, we are stating our belief that He is the Christ. This is how we know we are born of God. Christ is the key figure of human history. Whatever else we do, we must arrive at a definite conclusion regarding Him. All else in life follows as a consequence of that conclusion.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice in Christ our Redeemer. 
We praise You that You have sent Him, 
and brought us to love both Him and You.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.  

I John 5:1 

What is the evidence that we are the children of God? According to John it is that we believe that Jesus is the Christ. By using that terminology, John is focusing on what it means to be ‘the Christ.’ Christ is not Jesus’ name, but rather the title He bears as the Anointed One of God. This is inextricably connected to Him being the Messiah. This sets Him apart from all others. We find in Scripture a host of references, all of which lead us to the inevitable conclusion, ‘neither is there salvation in any other….’ Whether we speak of Him as Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Root and Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star or any other of the many titles we use, we are stating our belief that He is the Christ. This is how we know we are born of God. Christ is the key figure of human history. Whatever else we do, we must arrive at a definite conclusion regarding Him. All else in life follows as a consequence of that conclusion.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice in Christ our Redeemer. 
We praise You that You have sent Him, 
and brought us to love both Him and You.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘You Think’

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 5:39

Christ could be very direct.  We find Him so when He was engaged in controversy.  Throughout the Gospel of John particularly, Christ was often so direct that His antagonist became enraged.  While He was not pugnacious or belligerent, His opponents often became so.  In the text before us, Christ makes a simple, direct and very telling statement.  He challenges the religionists by saying, ‘Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life….’  The scribes and Pharisees were students of the Old Testament.  Their rabbis dissected every portion of it and based all of their lives upon it.  They guarded it and built hedges around it.  All of their lives were dedicated to the study of the Word of God, and in following it they were utterly convinced that they would achieve eternal life.  They were wrong.  The Scriptures are inspired, inerrant and infallible.  They are the work of God, which He has magnified above all His Name.  ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’  Eternal life does not come by faith in the Scriptures.  Eternal life comes by faith in Christ.  There is a world of difference.  A person may spend his entire life studying the Scripture and yet miss Christ.  The Scribes and Pharisees did just that.  Christ called them out on this critical error.  The Scriptures are not an end in themselves.  They are a means to an end.  The end is Christ.  It is Christ Who gives to His Sheep eternal life.

Our Holy and Wise Savior,
we rejoice that You have clearly pointed us to the Scriptures
in order that we might find You there.
We pray that we would be even more enraptured with You
than merely with the things that You have given us,
however wonderful they are.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Search the Scriptures’

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 5:39

The extraordinary nature of the Person of Christ, and the remarkable nature of His ministry brought Him into conflict with the religious establishment of the day.  Because Christ had healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, and told him to take up his bed and walk, He had violated some of the man-made, and deeply revered rules of the ardently religious purveyors of tradition.  They challenged Christ about His healing of the man and His instructions to him.  Thus began a face to face confrontation in which they rejected Christ and His claims.  In the midst of that controversy, Christ challenges them by saying, ‘search the Scriptures.’  Other translations put it, ‘You search the Scriptures.’  Here is what is manifestly clear from all else we know about the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day.  They were ardent and intense students of the Scriptures.  They were steeped in the Old Testament; in the Law, the Prophets and in the Psalms.  It was about these Scriptures that Christ was speaking when He challenged them.  Over the next days we will, as God enables us, look carefully at the message which Christ was sending about His place in the Old Testament and where these scholars could find Him.  So also, we may search the Scriptures and find Him there.

Our most Holy and Wise God,
we rejoice in Your Word as one that finds great treasure.
We praise You that You reveal Christ unto us in the Scriptures,
from the beginning to the end.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning