Though the importance of reading the scriptures is implied by the question, Christ did not ask, “Do you read?” but “What is your reading?” To what end did the Lord ask this question? Does it matter as much how we read the scriptures as if we read them? Does it matter what we conclude when reading the Bible? Does it matter what we do in response to what we read? What is at stake? How was Christ directing this lawyer, and us by extension, in the asking of this question?

The question directs us to interpret the scriptures. Christ asked the lawyer to give an account of his understanding of the law, showing us that God would have us not only read the scriptures but also interpret them. And do we not interpret what we read by nature? Is it not part of the glory of the human mind to link concepts and ideas together to form an understanding of truth? Do we not reason to the general from the particular and to the whole from the parts? So it was with the lawyer: in his continual reading of the scriptures, he had drawn conclusions about the meaning of the scriptures, and Christ would test whether his knowledge was accompanied by understanding.

Christ often directed his hearers to personally interpret the scriptures. He often asked, “Have you not read?”-not because they had not read but because they had not rightly interpreted. He asked the Pharisees how the Christ prophesied in scripture could be David’s son and David’s Lord: “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matt 22:45). He told those who grumbled at His mercy, “Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous but sinners" (Matt 9:13). So also Christ directs us to not only read, but to properly interpret the scriptures.

But how can we properly interpret the scriptures? They exceed the wisdom and understanding of the greatest of minds. They provoke the noble-minded to say, “Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33). They are spiritual and beyond the comprehension of fallen humanity: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). What are we to do then? How can such wisdom from God be understood? We need the help of God. Proper interpretations belong to Him. It is the Spirit of God who opens the hearts and the understanding, and God has promised to so bless us if we truly seek Him. “If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:3-5). “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

Proper interpretation of the scriptures is essential for eternal life. What is at stake in the interpretation of the scriptures is no less than the eternal destiny of the soul. The lawyer’s question was, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). How did Christ direct him for the answer? -to the interpretation of the scriptures, showing that a proper understanding of God’s truth is essential to eternal life. In essence, Christ was asking, “In all that you know of the written law, what do you think that it teaches about the way to eternal life?” The lawyer answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."” (Luke 10:27). Indeed the promise of the law is, “if a person does them, he shall live by them” (Leviticus 18:5). In this sense, Christ told the lawyer, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28).

But had the lawyer properly interpreted all of scripture? Could this man truly love God with all the heart, soul, strength, and mind? Could he truly love his neighbor as himself? Had he not also read, “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.” (Deut. 27:26)? Had he not also read, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Eccles. 7:20)? Had he not also read Isaiah’s words, "Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5)? If he had understood those scriptures, he would have cried, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). He would have said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). He would have asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).

Why, then, did Christ not tell the man that he could never sufficiently fulfill the law to inherit eternal life? He could have, but it seems that He would have the man to learn the condemnation of the law by attempting to fulfill it. The law, properly applied, would teach the man his need of the gospel. But to come to such an understanding, the man still needed to humble himself, for “he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29). -that is, he attempted to relax the requirement of the law by restricting the meaning of neighbor. O how many hear the scriptures but will not allow them to affect the heart! Rather than having a broken and a contrite spirit, they seek the ease of conscience. Rather than falling on their knees in repentance, they twist the scriptures to their own destruction (2 Pet 3:16). They thrust the scriptures aside and judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46). Is it so with us?

The scriptures must not only be read and properly interpreted, but also truly believed. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Proper interpretation must be accompanied by faith to avail the soul. So many perish for failure to believe and apply the scriptures. That very Bible that contains the words of life proves to be the sentence of death. As the handwriting on the wall was to King Belshazzar (Dan 5:1-31), so the Bible becomes to them a pronouncement of judgment. O may it not be for any that would read this! Do not be a hearer of the Word only but a doer of the Word (James 1:22). Do not reject the instruction of God. “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25). Do not give Christ occasion to say of you, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

Proper interpretation and belief of the scriptures lead to Christ. Had the lawyer opened his heart he would have seen that, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). He would have seen that the law leads to Christ, for only in Christ can the demands of the law be satisfied. He would have seen that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Christ said to the Pharisees, “You search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life; and it is these that testify of Me. And you are unwilling to come to Me that you might have life” (John 5:40). The Pharisees were correct to search the scriptures for eternal life, but they failed in their interpretation and application of what they read. They had a knowledge of the scriptures, but their knowledge was fruitless for they rejected the very One of whom the scriptures testified. Let it not be so with us. Let us allow the scriptures to lead us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let our understanding of them cause us to know Him in whom is life eternal.