THE GREAT COMMISSION - SOME THINGS WE HAVE OVERLOOKED

The Great Commission - Some Things We Have Overlooked

The great commission is one of the great miracles of word from the life and ministry of Christ. No one but He could have gathered up so many things in such few words and with such telling effect. No one but He could have foreseen the needs and problems of the church through the centuries and have provided for every one of them in advance.

Conservation

The law of conservation is one of the divine qualities of the entire Bible, but it is especially true of those passages which record the words of our blessed Lord. With simplicity of speech, yet breadth of comprehension. He could characterize a situation. And such He did in the compactness of the great commission as recorded in Matt. 28:18-20. In these few words Christ provides all the essentials to constitute a great and enduring commission for the church until He returns. As is sometimes the case, the treasures of this commission do not become apparent until a problem arises which sends one back to examine again the authority for his ministry. This is true for the order and place of baptism.

Character

The ideal character of the great commission consists in the fact that it is a command which rests firmly upon the person and claim of Christ. Throughout this entire passage it is clearly indicated that Christ is God. The apostles worshiped Him (Matt. 28:17). The claim Christ made no one but God could have made (vs. 18). The content of the commission was conceived in the mind of Deity (vss. 19-20). The assured presence of Christ could be true of One who alone is God (vs. 20).

The sovereign command of vss. 19 and 20 is clearly grounded upon the deity He has demonstrated, and the sovereignty with which He is invested. "Therefore" of vs. 19 links the command of vss. 19 and 20 with that which has preceded. Since Christ is God and has been invested with universal authority; "therefore" the church should carry out the command. This must be the final court of appeal and the last resort for undergirding this command.

This means then that knowing what this command teaches, it becomes obligatory upon Christians to carry out this command because the One who uttered it is God; and because He has absolute and supreme authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice. Any other basis for carrying out this command is lesser in strength and proportion and will ultimately fail.

Content

The sweeping content of the great commission is in some respect one of the amazing things about this command.

(1.) There is the claim to deity and sovereignty (vs. 18).
(2.) This is followed by the consequent command (vs. 19).
(3.) Missionary travel to reach the nations is set forth in the word "go" (vs. 19).
(4.) Preaching the Gospel and winning converts is contained in the words "teach" (KJV) or better, "make disciples" (vs. 19 ASV).
(5.) The admissory rite into the church is expressed by the words: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (vs. 19).
(6.) The teaching ministry of the church for its membership is commanded —"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (vs. 20).
(7.) The comforting and continuous presence of Christ is assured—"And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (vs. 20)

Classification

The logical classification and order of the various elements of the command is of the utmost significance. Three of them deserve attention in this article: "teach" (vs. 19), "baptizing" (vs. 19), and "teaching them to observe" (vs. 20).

The first of these, "teach" (KJV), or "make disciples" (ASV), comprehends the ministry of evangelism and the winning of men to Christ. There is no doubt about this when compared with the parallel account in Mark 16:15: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." As a result of receiving this message men are saved. And the seal of this experience is the rite of baptism, which follows in the Matthew account, and is also definitely linked with faith in the Mark account (16:16).

"Teach" (KJV), or "make disciples" (ASV), is a translation of the Greek verb matheteusate. In this verb, Christ is gathering up the entire ministry of the church through the present dispensation till He comes again. Becoming a disciple of Christ not only involves the heralding of the message of the Gospel, but also persuading men to believe it, and join themselves to Christ as His pupils and followers. This command makes room for various and sundry methods by which this end will be accomplished, though later further truth was revealed to implement this command.

The second of these elements, "baptizing," deals specifically with the initiatory rite of induction into the church. This rite was the one thing that declared publicly to the world that a listener had believed the message of Christ and was determined to identify himself with Christ. For this reason faith and baptism were always linked together, though faith was the saving condition. It is so linked in Mark 16:16. On the Day of Pentecost repentance and baptism are joined (Acts 2:38). In all the experiences of the Early Church this has been true. And in the history of the church, and in the thinking of men, these two things have been joined together—faith as the condition of salvation, and baptism as the outward manifestation.

On the Day of Pentecost this was the order of events (Acts 2:41). "Then they that gladly received his word" speaks of faith and the experience of salvation. "Were baptized" explains what happened immediately on "the same day." The rite of baptism was administered as the clear evidence that these Jews had believed and were identifying themselves with Christ. "And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls" declares the result in relation to the original group of disciples. The original group was the church. By baptism another three thousand was added. This was followed regularly from that day on. "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47 KJV), or better, such as were being saved. The formal and public manifestation of addition to the church was by baptism, which is the part that men performed in adding to the church.

It is most important to notice that out of all the things which Christ taught His disciples, He mentioned only one thing as a requirement for entrance into the church. That one thing was baptism. It is true that baptism belongs to the realm of obedience. But it was the necessary obedience of a saved soul to exhibit his new life to the world, and especially to the church, to qualify him for membership. No other rite or act of obedience was required. This is significant. Had other things been added, it would have prolonged the time between conversion and entrance into the church. In fact, it would have seriously endangered the great message of grace which wooed men to Christ. This does not mean that the things which Christ commanded were to be in any way depreciated. It only means that these requirements belong during the period of church membership.

The third of these elements, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20), relates to the practical teaching ministry during the membership of believers. That is where this teaching ministry was placed in the apostolic ministry. It would have been impossible to have done this on the Day of Pentecost. In fact, in the very next verse after it is declared that 3,000 were added to the church, it is affirmed: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42).

This sort of ministry is for those who have definitely joined themselves to Christ as His disciples. Baptism becomes a deciding factor in separating publicly from the world to the church. And it prepares the believer for the ministry which will begin and persist through the entire period of his membership. This ministry of teaching is to cause him to know the blessed truths of his salvation. Learning is a long process. Some will learn more readily than others, but no one will ever exhaust the riches that are in Christ. Each succeeding cycle of progress will only cause the horizon of the grace and goodness of the Lord to recede into ever enlarging proportions.

Moreover, it is not to be concluded that this teaching process is merely for the purpose of imparting intellectual truth. All this is to a very practical end; therefore, the text reads: "Teaching them to observe." It is the word "observe" which means to translate knowledge into practice. It is this moral element that prolongs the process. It is far easier to learn truth intellectually than it is to convert what we know into conduct. If all these things had to be incorporated into conduct before one could become a member of the church, some would never become members of the church. But the Lord has ordained that these things shall be learned and incorporated into conduct in the warm atmosphere of the church while enjoying its fellowship and mutual helpfulness.

However, a part of the teaching process for those who are members of the church is discipline. This becomes necessary for some who are resisting the truth. Though it is a distressing thing to administer, it is at the same time a very effective instrument in the hands of the church. Many who will not learn any other way, often respond to this. One sure way to make discipline necessary is to drop the standards for entrance to the church by not requiring Trine Immersion. If the initiatory rite is not obeyed, the logical groundwork has been laid for setting aside or resisting other things that fall within the area of those which should be learned during it thus becomes clear that there is one rite that is required for church membership that is baptism. To increase the number goes beyond the command of the Lord, initiates a trend which will not logically stop until everything is added, raises the standards so high that no one could ever become a member during his lifetime, and introduces a tendency that could very easily lead to legalism. On the other hand, to leave "all things whatsoever I have commanded you" to the period of membership where Christ places them, the fellowship, teaching ministry, and mutual assistance of the entire church can be utilized for growth in grace and knowledge.

Comfort

The needed comfort of the great commission for those who take up the responsibility of discharging it is inherent in it. It is strengthening to know that the commission has sovereign authorization (vs. 18). The specifications of the commission with their clear order and progress serve to encourage the servant of God (vss. 19-20). The spiritual presence of this sovereign Lord all the days, through sunshine and shadow, gives one the sense of working together with the Lord (vs. 20b). And the knowledge of His second coming stimulates in this long and arduous task. There will be an end to the task. And it may be tomorrow. When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, then shall we receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. These things will keep the man of God faithful to the commission, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.