Words Resounding With The Testimony Of Truth

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.
John 5:39

In John 5 the Jews had a problem. While clinging zealously to their Old Testament Scriptures, they refused to embrace the person of whom those Scriptures speak so eloquently—and frequently.

J. C. Ryle, who devoted his life to preaching the clear, insistent truths of God’s Word, comments on the message of the Old Testament.

WALK WITH J. C. RYLE
“The ‘Scriptures’ of which our Lord speaks are, of course, the Old Testament.

“And his words show the important truth which too many are likely to overlook: that every part of the Bible is meant to teach us about Christ.

“Christ is not merely in the Gospels and the Epistles. Christ is to be found directly and indirectly in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets.

“In the promises to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David … in the pictures and emblems of the ceremonial law … in the predictions of Isaiah and the other prophets … Jesus, the Messiah, is everywhere to be found in the Old Testament.

“How is it that men see these things so little?

“The plain truth is that the chief seat of unbelief is the heart. Many do not wish to believe, and therefore remain unbelievers. To talk of lacking evidence is childish

folly.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Searching is more than merely seeing. Many in Jesus’ day saw with their eyes what they were unwilling to believe with their hearts.

They knew the Scriptures but refused to acknowledge the Messiah of whom those Scriptures speak: the Messiah whom John the Baptist proclaimed. The big picture of Christ is there in the Old Testament for those willing to see it. And it’s difficult—and dangerous—to ignore such compelling evidence.

The psalmist would describe it another way: Foolish!