NOTES for Joh 5:39

And indeed, we search the Scripture as the key to salvation. It seems like a thick instruction manual, and by following it we will finally gain eternity. It is enough simply to understand what is permitted and what is not, how to act in one or another situation, and everything will work out. But that is not what the book is about.

However people may try to reduce Revelation to Law, that is not the meaning. God reveals Himself; He comes, and it turns out that there are no rules. Even judgment for us consists in the fact that the Light has come into the world, and we begin to see that our deeds are evil. Scripture speaks of Jesus; we read what is written for only one reason: to know Him, understand Him, hear His voice. And, recognizing that the Bible speaks of nothing else, we must read precisely this way the centuries-long history of God's Revelation to people. A Revelation with which it is so difficult to agree, because it overturns our usual ideas about the structure of the world.