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If we observe the things possessed, governed by the possessive pronoun "My" (emos)
used in John's Gospel we find they are: meat (to do the Father's will); judgment; word;
commandments; peace; love; joy; glory; kingdom. All these are aspects of the
Father's doctrine Christ came to pass on to us. They all contribute to our knowledge of
Him.
In contrast to this essential knowledge of God and His Son, Christ specifically says
that all the dreadful deeds that His countrymen were to perpetrate on Himself and His
disciples were because of this lack of such knowledge.
"And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor
Me" (16: 3).
All through the history of the church dreadful things have been done in the name of
the Christian religion because they have not fully understood God's Word. Even today
they have their counterpart with those who would separate families and follow many
erroneous doctrines because of misunderstood passages of Scripture. If the Lord Jesus
Christ had been truly known, His Spirit of Truth would have corrected the error. If in
humility we patiently seek guidance from the Holy Spirit we cannot miss the way.
Returning to the word `offend' we find it used once more in this Gospel in chapter 6:
The whole channel of the knowledge of the Father and the Son is in prospect under the
figures of bread, flesh and blood. Man by food and drink digests their constituents and
they become part of his body. By figure of speech to eat the flesh of the Son of God and
to drink His blood is to absorb into our spiritual life (in no sense our physical body) the
life giving properties of the Holy Spirit operating through and by the Word of God. For
to accept the truth of the Bible and to walk in the Spirit according to its teaching is to
partake of God's plan for the forgiveness of our sins and the redemption that God
Himself has imparted to the shed blood of the Saviour. It was the failure of our Lord's
audience to understand the figurative language that caused the majority of those who
heard Him to `be offended' and to turn away. To Peter and the others our Lord asks
"Will ye also go away?" (6: 67), to which Peter blessedly answers:
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and
are sure Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God" (6: 68, 69).
Let us be quite clear as to what our Lord was teaching. The whole Bible and that is
the Word of God, was necessary for the spiritual growth of the `new man'. Moreover the
birth of the new nature in man was equally dependent on the meaning God had
deliberately given to the cross in all its prophetic implications and fulfillments.
The Jews and Greeks for different reasons found such doctrine unacceptable as we
have seen. Today man has so much pride in intellectual accomplishments, examining
and criticizing the original texts of Scripture that he is blind to the supernatural
surveillance and overruling of God Who could direct His servant Paul to write: