John 5:39,40 - Bible Study Producing A Relationship With Jesus

You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life.
But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can
give you this eternal life.
John 5:39,40 (NLT)

It is possible for men to be very studious in the letter of the scripture,
and yet to be strangers to the power and influence of it. [Matthew Henry
Commentary]

The religious leaders knew what the Bible said but failed to apply its words
to their lives. They knew the teachings of the Scriptures but failed to see
the Messiah to whom the Scriptures pointed. They knew the rules but missed
the Savior. Entrenched in their own religious system, they refused to let
the Son of God change their lives. Don't become so involved in "religion"
that you miss Christ. [Life Application SB]

Study of Scripture does not lead to eternal life unless it leads to Jesus. .
. .Jesus is the greatest revelation of God, revealed in Scripture and
manifested in the flesh (Jn 1). Some who claimed to seek and follow God
refused to see and believe Jesus. Diligent study of Scripture is fruitless
if it does not lead to faith in Christ. Faith, not facts, is the ultimate
purpose of Scripture study. [Disciple SB]

Studying the Bible or knowing its contents backward and forward does not
earn anyone eternal life. What the Scriptures do is point individuals to
Jesus. [Victor Teacher's Commentary]

The Jew searched the Law and yet faded to recognize Christ when he came.
What was wrong? The best Bible students in the world, people who
meticulously and continuously read scripture, rejected Jesus.  How could
that happen?  One thing is clear--they read scripture in the wrong way.
They read it with a shut mind. They read it not to search for God but to
find arguments to support their own positions. They did not really love God;
they loved their own ideas about him. Water has as much chance of getting
into concrete as the word of God had of getting into their minds. They did
not humbly learn a theology from scripture; they used scripture to defend a
theology which they themselves had produced. There is still danger that we
should use the Bible to prove our beliefs and not to test them. . . The
function of the scriptures is not to give life, but to point to him who can.
[Barclay Commentary]

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme
of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him. At the creation
we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of
him in the promise of the woman's seed; we see him typified in the ark of
Noah; we walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day; we dwell in the tents
of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear the venerable
Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the law, we find the
Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers,
all look one way-they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to
look within, and to read the mystery of God's great propitiation. Still more
manifestly in the New Testament we find our Lord the one pervading subject.
It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but
here you stand upon a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the
New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is
bejewelled with the Redeemer's name. We should always read Scripture in this
light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks
down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in
a glass-darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed
preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This volume
contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by his love. These pages are
the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and
cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved
with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling
bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The
quintessence of the word of God is Christ. [Morning and Evening by Charles
H. Spurgeon]

Christ is the treasure hid in the field of the scriptures, the water in
those wells, the milk in those breasts. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Jesus said of the Old Testament Scriptures,--and how much more is it true of
the New,--"They are they which testify of Me," the Redeemer, Him in whom our
hopes of eternal life are centered. John 5:39. Yes, the whole Bible tells of
Christ. From the first record of creation--for "without Him was not anything
made that was made"--to the closing promise, "Behold, I come quickly," we
are reading of His works and listening to His voice. John 1:3; Revelation
22:12. If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Holy
Scriptures.
Fill the whole heart with the words of God. They are the living water,
quenching your burning thirst. They are the living bread from heaven. Jesus
declares, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you." And He explains Himself by saying, "The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:53, 63. Our
bodies are built up from what we eat and drink; and as in the natural
economy, so in the spiritual economy: it is what we meditate upon that will
give tone and strength to our spiritual nature. SC88