“When speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus rebuked them for their hard-heartedness, saying, ‘You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me’ (John 5:39).
It is not the Scriptures themselves that have the power of life, but rather the Person whose Word is recorded. In other words, it is the incarnate Word who gives life (John 1:1-14).
Yet wrapped up in His comments about the purpose of the Scriptures is the truth that they are ultimately about Jesus Himself. Elsewhere, in Luke 24:27, Jesus encounters two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection and instructs them ‘beginning with Moses and with all the prophets’ (the Old Testament), explaining to them ‘the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.’
In short, the Bible is all about Jesus.
It is in the Scriptures that we are taught about Jesus Christ’s eternality (Heb. 13:8), deity (Titus 2:13), transcendence (Col. 1:15-18), incarnation (John 1:14), virgin birth (Matt. 1:23), humanity (Heb. 2:14-18), sinlessness (Heb. 4:15), righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30-31), obedience (Rom. 5:19), humility (Phil. 2:5-8), sacrificial death (John 3:16), vicarious atonement (1 John 2:2), death (John 19:30), burial (John 19:38-42), resurrection (Luke 24:6-7), ascension (Acts 1:9), intercession (1 Tim. 2:5), and glorious future return (Rev. 19:11-16).
All that we come to know and love about our Savior is taught to us in the Word of God. And the Lord desires us to know Him (John 17:3) so we might be saved by Him and conformed to His image (1 Tim. 2:4; Rom. 8:29).”
–Nate Pickowicz, How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God (Chicago: Moody, 2021), 105.
