John 5:39-40

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Here, Jesus is answering the Jews who are arguing with and persecuting him because of all He’s been doing (working on the Sabbath, identifying Himself with God, raising the dead). All the way back to verse 19, Jesus constructs a counter-argument against the Jews’ position, but verse 39-40 is the crux of it. These Jews have been studying the Torah and the prophetic writings for centuries, and yet now that the Messiah has come, they refuse him, instead turning back toward the Law as if it alone will save them.

This fallacy, of believing that just knowing the Scriptures and being “good enough” will save you, is what I call the “Pharisee fallacy.” Even today, people study the Scriptures but forget to trust Jesus with their salvation; they think, perhaps, that they have to be “good enough” first for Jesus to save them, so they immerse themselves in the Word of God. Being in the Word is great; forgetting to friend-request Jesus somewhere along the way isn’t so great.

Knowledge of the Bible can’t give salvation in and of itself; knowledge of the Bible and believing in Jesus, Whom it foretells and describes, is what salvation is about. To know God, you must both read about Him and allow Him to be in your life.