“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
John 5:39-40

They had grown up studying the Scriptures, lived their lives awaiting this Messiah, yet when He stood before them in person, they did not believe Him. Why?

How often have we read the Bible as an end in itself? Have we over-glorified intellectualism and knowledge-seeking, and missed the whole point entirely?

Scripture -> Eternal life

Scripture -> Jesus -> Eternal life

The book is not the end; the book reveals the person, and in that person we find life.

I am guilty of this myself, at times subconsciously reading the Word religiously, perhaps to appease my own conscience and to avoid feeling guilty.

Every morning I come to commune with a person, not just to read a book.