I am often asked this question. It is tough to answer, since so many factors are involved. Is the study Bible in question clear on the saving message? Six literal days of creation? Pre-tribulation Rapture? Dispensationalism? Eschatology? Eternal rewards? Inerrancy? Ecclesiology? Christology? Pneumatology? And so on.
The most important feature in a study Bible is that it is clear, or at least mostly clear, on the saving message. So, I have picked two that fall into that category in order to compare how clear they are on the saving message: The Nelson Study Bible (NSB) and the Ryrie Study Bible (RSB).
The RSB. Dr. Charles Ryrie, one of my seminary professors, completed this study Bible in 1978, my first year at DTS.
The comment on John 1:12 is excellent. It says that believing in His name is “an explanation of what it means to ‘receive’ Him,” and not the other way around.
The pivotal verse of John 3:16 is treated well in the RSB note: “…men judge themselves. The acquitted are those who have believed in Him; the condemned, those who have rejected Him.” I appreciate the fact that the RSB does not routinely substitute trust for faith.
I like the comment on Rom 4:24: “Saving faith is faith in the Giver of miraculous life, demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus.” This is like Zane Hodges’s summary of the saving message: Jesus is the Guarantor of everlasting life to all who believe in Him for it.
I was disappointed that there is no note under 1 John 5:13.
The note on Rev 3:20, while sparse, is very good: “How incredible that Christ should be kept outside His own church! How gracious that He should still seek entrance!”
However, the RSB comments on Eph 2:8-9 (“Works cannot save…but good works always accompany salvation”) and Jas 2:14 (“Both Paul and James define faith as a living, productive trust in Christ. Genuine faith cannot be dead to morality or barren of works”) are off base. They are inconsistent with the rest of the RSB notes.
I would rate it a seven out of ten on the issue of soteriology.
The NSB. Dr. Earl Radmacher was the lead editor, and he selected a lot of Free Grace people to contribute notes. Unfortunately, there were some Lordship Salvation contributors, and Dr. Radmacher was not able to eliminate all their notes.
The notes on John 3:14, 15, 16, and 17 are very good, with the exception that believing is not explained, and when a synonym for believing is used, they write, “When a person trusts Christ…”
What is written concerning John 11:25-27 is very good.
The note on Eph 2:8-10 is not clear. It says that “the believer’s salvation has already occurred in the past, at the Cross.” Really? It also says that both salvation and faith are the gift of God. These are Calvinist comments.
James 2:14 is notoriously misunderstood, and it bothers me that the NSB note shows this same misunderstanding. It says, “Genuine faith will naturally produce good works; the two complement each other. When someone truly believes in a cause, that belief will change the way that person lives.”
I find the comments on 1 John 5:13 to be essentially clear and helpful with two major exceptions: it uses trust as a synonym for believing and it implies that assurance is not of the essence of saving faith (“Those who trust Christ can know they have eternal life because God says they have it”).
The note on Rev 3:20 is helpful, though it suggests that it that this is only probably not an evangelistic verse (“the context makes this improbable”). Probably? It should say that this is definitely not an evangelistic verse.
I would rate the NSB as a four out of ten in terms of soteriology.
I was surprised when I did this study. I had always thought that the NSB was slightly better than the RSB concerning soteriology. I learned that the RSB is significantly better than the NSB in this regard.
I do not own a Scofield Reference Bible or a Tony Evans Study Bible, but I think they might be ones to consider as well.
GES is considering producing our own study Bible after we complete The Grace Old Testament Commentary (ETA, December 2026). Or, we might just write a few hundred notes regarding key verses, but not have the text of the entire Bible. That would allow us to have lots of notes while keeping the book at 200–300 pages.
In lieu of a study Bible, you might consult The Grace New Testament Commentary and the GES website, which has a nice search feature (search). We hope these resources will help you keep grace in focus.
