Gospel Basics

Getting to know Jesus in His humanity, just as the people to whom He spoke and ministered came to know Him, is what the studies in the gospels are about. The Savior had been born into humanity and had begun to introduce Himself to the people He came to save. He wasn't teaching them Church-age doctrines, because there was no Church until His work of propitiation was completed and He had been resurrected and ascended back to the Father. Unbelievers cannot learn Church-age doctrines, because they are spiritually dead. There is a tendency as we Christians study such passages as John chapter 6 to include doctrinal categories and use Church-age vocabulary. We can see the basic teachings in what He presented, such as positional truth, election, eternal security, etc., but since He Himself was keeping it simple to accommodate the spiritually dead and ignorant crowd to whom He witnessed, I prefer to stay close to the narrative and experience Him just as they did at the time, and just as I did as a young adult, seeking the truth about God. The 4 gospels are about the God-Man and His message of salvation. The mystery doctrines of the Church were disseminated through the Apostles after the day of Pentecost, to teach us who and what we are IN CHRIST. Coming up tomorrow in the LW Dixon Bible Study blogpost: John 6: 41-71 -- Grumbling Jews' reaction to "eat My flesh and drink My blood."