Have you ever read a book, watched a movie, or listened to someone tell a story and completely missed the point?
Maybe you watched The Lion King and remembered Simba’s adventures, sung the songs, and cringed at the battle with Scar, but missed the story’s deeper message about responsibility, courage, identity, and returning to restore what had been broken.
You knew the characters. You remembered the details. You could even explain what happened. But somehow, you missed what the story was really about.
It’s possible to do that with the Bible.
The religious leaders in JESUS’ day knew the Scriptures. They studied them carefully. They knew the commands, the stories, the prophecies, and the promises. They were considered the experts. They taught others what God had said and were waiting for the Messiah God had promised.
Yet JESUS said they had missed the point.
“You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about Me.” (John 5:39)
They knew the Scriptures, but they missed the One the Scriptures were about. They searched God’s Word for life while refusing to come to the One who gives life.
That should get our attention.
We can read the Bible every day, underline verses, memorize passages, study theology, listen to sermons, and learn a lot about God without allowing His Word to lead us into deeper trust in JESUS.
JESUS said the Scriptures “testify about Me.”
From beginning to end, the Bible tells one unfolding story of God’s work to redeem sinful people and restore what sin has broken. And that story leads us to JESUS.
In Genesis, God creates a good world (Genesis 1:31), but humanity repeatedly rebels against Him (Genesis 3:1–13; 4:3–10; 6:5–7; 11:1–9), and sin brings death into His creation (Genesis 3:19, 22–24; 4:8; 5:5–31; 7:21–23). Yet even there, God promises that a descendant of the woman will ultimately defeat the serpent (Genesis 3:15), and as sin spreads, He shows His grace by preserving Noah and his family through judgment and establishing His covenant with Noah and his descendants (Genesis 6:8, 18; 7:23; 8:20–22; 9:1–17).
God later promises Abraham that through his offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3; 22:18). He rescues Israel from slavery through the blood of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12). He gives sacrifices that teach His people that sin brings death and forgiveness requires a substitute. He gives them kings, priests, prophets, covenants, and promises that keep pointing forward.
The Psalms anticipate a righteous King (Psalm 2:6–12; 72:1–17; 110:1–4).
The prophets promise a suffering Servant (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), a new covenant and forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31–34), and a coming kingdom ruled by God’s righteous King (Isaiah 9:6–7; Daniel 7:13–14).
Then JESUS comes.
John begins his Gospel by telling us that the eternal Word who was with God and was God “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). John the Baptist sees JESUS and announces, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
The promises, pictures, and expectations begin coming together in a Person.
After His resurrection, JESUS explained this to two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus:
“Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27)
Later He told His disciples,
“Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).
The Bible is made up of sixty-six books written by many human authors over many centuries, but together they tell one story of God’s redemption that finds its fulfillment in JESUS.
That changes the way we read it.
We don’t read David and Goliath simply looking for five stones to defeat our personal giants. We see the LORD rescuing His helpless people through His chosen king.
We don’t read the Passover merely as an ancient account of Israel escaping Egypt. It prepares us to understand why the New Testament calls JESUS “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
We don’t read about sacrifices, priests, kings, temples, and covenants as religious rules or disconnected biblical history. They help us understand who JESUS is and what He came to do.
But John 5 gives us an important warning. Knowing all of those connections still isn’t enough.
JESUS continued:
“But you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:40)
There was the real problem.
The Scriptures testified about JESUS, but the religious leaders refused to come to Him.
The goal of Bible study isn’t simply knowing more Bible or even more about God. The goal is knowing the God who has revealed Himself through His Word and coming to JESUS for life.
That makes John 5:39 a good question to consider whenever we open our Bibles:
How does this lead me to JESUS?
Sometimes the connection will be direct. Sometimes we will see our need for Him through human sin and failure. Sometimes we will see a promise He fulfills, a pattern He completes, a truth He teaches, or something about the character and purposes of God that JESUS perfectly reveals.
And sometimes Scripture simply exposes something in us that needs to trust and obey Him.
The point isn’t to force JESUS artificially into every verse. It’s to read every passage as part of the one story God is telling—a story that ultimately finds its center and fulfillment in Him.
So when we open our Bibles, let’s remember why we’re there. These are the words that testify about JESUS. They reveal who He is, why He came, what He has done, and the life we can only find in Him.
Let’s not know the Scriptures and miss JESUS.
Let’s look for JESUS.
Let’s listen to JESUS.
Let’s believe JESUS.
And let’s come to JESUS, because the eternal life we’re reading about is found in Him.
Follow me… as I follow JESUS Christ.