<p>5:40 <i>But you will not come to me, so that you may have life-</i> The Jews searched the scriptures, thinking that by their Bible study alone they would receive eternal life. But they never came to Christ that they might know the eternal life that is in Him (Jn. 5:39,40). They thought &ldquo;eternal life&rdquo; was in a book, a reward for correct intellectual discernment and exposition, rather than in the man Christ Jesus. And for all our Biblicism, we need to examine themselves in this regard. For like Peter, we must be Christ-centred more than purely Bible-centred; we must see Him &ldquo;in all the Scriptures&rdquo;, knowing that the whole word of God&rsquo;s revelation was made flesh in Him.</p><p>The gift of life, the life and living of Jesus, His Spirit, was not predicated upon academic Bible study. We could not ask for a clearer argument against the argument that God's Spirit is only active today through the so-called &quot;Spirit-word&quot;. The &quot;life&quot; or Spirit given to those who &quot;come to me&quot; is a gift; and the Jews were in fact hindered from receiving it by their excessive Biblicism.</p>