JOHN 5:39–42 – 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. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE SINNER’S LOSS – THE SAINT’S PURSUIT. Today’s scripture is part of a “courtroom experience” with Jesus and the religious crowd. It actually carries throughout the chapter. The language of a courtroom is repeated often – testimony and witness. Yet, in the middle of this drama, we find Jesus saying something which may appear out of place but is anything but. After exposing the ignorance of the Jewish leaders of the real purpose behind the scriptures, Jesus states the truth, sad truth, that is the condition of every person who is not a believer in Him – “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.”

The greatest consequence of sin’s entrance into the world and the ruination of humanity was the loss of experiencing the love of God and being able to love God which both are really descriptions of the loss of eternal life. Our Lord Jesus told us that eternal life is not defined by an immortal existence. He said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). I think this is often misunderstood by people, even Christians. Immortality is a given for every soul, believer or unbeliever. We were created for immortality so the issue isn’t if we are going to live forever. We are. Every person will. But Jesus defines eternal life, not as immortality, but in knowing God. And to know God always leads to loving God because to know Him is to know His love and when that is happening, a person longs to love Him back. His majesty, beauty, and holiness are like magnets irresistibly drawing the person knowing God to love God. Yet, not so for the sinner, and the reason for the existence of all the misery in the world, all the sorrow, all the purposelessness in people’s lives, and all the vain attempts to find satisfaction and contentment is because of the lack of knowing the love of God. Truly, the greatest loss in the Garden of Eden was the loss of God’s love known. And that loss continues in every person who is not a Christian. But there is the other side, the glorious side. The sinner’s loss is now the saint’s gain and pursuit.

When a person becomes a Christian, we are told one of the most profound things to happen in the newborn heart is the pouring in of God’s love – Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:1-5). And what does His love in us do? It fuels our desire to know it more and more. To know the love of Christ becomes our passion and pursuit. Check out Ephesians 3:14-19. When we encounter God’s love, this becomes our prayer. We want more. We want to be as close to Christ as a human being may be this side of heaven.

So, the love of God in us. Do we know it? If so, is it enflaming our hearts for more of it and moving our wills to seek it in Word and prayer? If we know anything of its power and presence, then seek it we will. It will be the saint’s pursuit.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for opening the eyes of my understanding to behold and experience Your great love.”

QUOTE: “The greatest and most satisfying experience the human heart ever knows is the love of God. Are we experiencing it?”