Missing the Point Entirely

It's possible to spend your entire life studying about God and never actually know God. Today we're looking at people who knew Scripture inside and out but completely missed its main character and central message.

John 5:44 "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

Jesus asks a penetrating question: "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another?" Here's the reality: you can never seek God's glory if you are pursuing your own.

These religious leaders would pray, "Oh God, be glorified," all the while their central preoccupation was "God, glorify me." They loved being called Rabbi and teacher. They craved recognition. "Kiss my baby, bless my wife, pray for my family – oh, I'm just a humble man of God." But they loved it. They absolutely craved getting glory from men, and because they loved getting glory from men, they were never ready to bow down and give glory to God.

Jesus knew their hearts: "I know you – you do not have the love of God in yourselves."

Here's what's remarkable: On the last day, at the great white throne judgment, the judge will be Jesus Christ. But Jesus says there will be a prosecuting attorney on that day. Do you know who it is? Moses. The very one the Jewish people esteemed so highly will be the one to witness against them.

What will Moses's accusation be? Not "There's Sally, she broke the ninth commandment" or "There's Bob, he broke the seventh commandment." No, Moses will stand up and tell every single person who had the privilege of knowing Scripture: "How could you not see that the entire point of the Bible is not so that in keeping it you would earn your way to God, but so that you would begin to remotely fathom your need for a savior?"

The point of the law is not so that in keeping it we would save ourselves, but that it would bring us to the end of ourselves. You will not meet a single person in heaven who is there because they obeyed the Ten Commandments.

The law was written so you would recognize that in observing it, you fall totally short of the righteousness of God and therefore need a sacrifice from God that will pay for your sin.

James Boice used to say: "Imagine you're hanging by a chain from a cliff, and there are ten links. How many of those links need to break for you to fall into the abyss?" One. James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point is guilty of all."

There are two things the law does, and neither of them is earning our way to God: it condemns, or it points to a savior.

As Warren Wiersbe said, "It's one thing to have the word in our hands and heads, but quite another thing to have it in our hearts."

Ask yourself this question: Have I missed it? You can know the Scripture backwards and forwards and never know Jesus. The Bible is not an end in itself but the means to the end – and that's knowing and loving God.

Stay dialed in.