What is the meaning of John 5:38? Nor does His word abide in you Jesus tells the Jerusalem leaders that the problem is not a lack of information but a lack of internalization. • God’s Word is meant to take up residence, shaping thoughts and desires. “If you remain in My word, you are truly My disciples” (John 8:31; see also Colossians 3:16; Psalm 119:11). • When Scripture stays external—mere facts to master—its life-changing power is blocked (Hebrews 4:12). • The evidence that the Word is not abiding shows up in their resistance to Christ. First John 2:14 links the abiding Word with spiritual victory; absent that, blindness follows (2 Corinthians 4:4). because you do not believe Faith is the doorway through which God’s Word enters the heart. • “The message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed” (Hebrews 4:2). • Unbelief hardens; belief softens. Compare the contrast Jesus draws in John 3:18—belief brings life, unbelief leaves a person “already condemned.” • The leaders’ scholarly knowledge could not substitute for trust. James 1:22 warns that hearing without doing deceives; here, hearing without believing blinds. the One He sent Everything rises or falls on the response to Jesus. • “This is the work of God: to believe in the One He has sent” (John 6:29). • Rejecting the Sent One means rejecting the Sender (John 12:44; 13:20). • The Father repeatedly testifies to the Son—through John the Baptist (John 5:33-35), through miracles (v. 36), and through Scripture itself (v. 39). Ignoring that testimony exposes a heart closed to God’s Word. • By emphasizing “the One He sent,” Jesus centers salvation on His own person, echoing John 3:17 and pointing forward to His prayer in John 17:3. summary John 5:38 diagnoses spiritual anemia: Scripture is on the lips but not in the heart, because faith in Christ is absent. When the Word is welcomed with belief, it abides, transforms, and leads straight to the One the Father sent—Jesus, the living Word who alone brings life. |
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