MATTHEWS GREAT COMMISSION

THE AUTHORITY OF THE KING

"Go ye therefore, and disciple the nations, bapti­zing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age."---MATTHEW 28:19, 20.

            There is a common method in the pres­entation of the four parts of the Mis­sionary Manifesto by the four evan­gelists. An aspect of truth which the commission emphasizes is stated; the responsibility of the Church concerning that aspect is declared; and the power in which the Church may discharge her responsibility is revealed.

            In our consideration of the Manifesto in its four aspects, we shall observe this method in each case by attempting to discover the deposit, the debt, and the dynamic.

            The words "deposit" and "debt" are closely allied in any consideration of the Church's mis­sionary responsibility. Paul, in writing to the Romans, said: "I am debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." (Rom. 1:14) We may understand what he meant by the dec­laration by reference to his second letter to Timothy, in which he said: "I know Him Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed. unto Him against that day." (2 Tim. 1:12) This passage, as it thus stands in the Revised Version, or as it reads in the Authorized, "I know Him Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day," is more than translation; it is interpretation. The phrase "that which I have committed unto Him," common to both versions, is the equivalent to something more brief in the Greek New Testament, which literally trans­lated reads "my deposit." Such translation would leave the question open as to whether the apostle referred to something he had deposited with Christ, or to something which Christ had deposited with him. I submit that the decision must be made by an examination of the context. In this last letter to Timothy Paul was urging him not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, and in the course of the paragraph referred to the Gospel of which he had been appointed a preacher, apostle, and teacher; and declared that he himself was not ashamed because he knew Him Whom he had believed, and was persuaded that He was able to guard his deposit. The de­posit was evidently the Gospel.

            In the Roman letter, in close connection with his declaration that he was debtor, he made the same declaration, "I am not ashamed of the Gos­pel." His deposit thus created his debt. That deposit was the Gospel which he held in trust for the world. That the responsibility was a grave one he knew full well, and in yet another letter, when speaking of the difficulties of the work of the Christian ministry, he exclaimed, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and, in close association with the question, affirmed, "Our sufficiency is of God." (2 Cor. 3:5)

            Thus, in the Manifesto of Jesus, we shall find the Gospel for the world, which is the Church's deposit; a responsibility, which is the Church's debt; and the revelation of the power in which the debt may be discharged, which is the Church's dynamic.

            In Matthew the revelation of Jesus is that of the perfect and all-sufficient King. Consequently, and naturally, when he wrote the account of the resurrection and the events following it, he only referred to those words of Jesus which grew distinctly and emphatically out of His Kingship. All that Matthew had to tell concern­ing the resurrection and the subsequent occurrences is recorded in the last chapter of his Gospel. So far as the actual resurrection is concerned, everything is told in the first ten verses. Immediately following that is a passage which we may treat as a parenthesis, in which he gave an account of the going of the guard into the city, and of the way in which the priests promised to shield them in case of Pilate's anger. In the last few verses we have the account of the meeting in Galilee. It must be remembered that this meet­ing was not on the day of resurrection, but long subsequent thereto, and therefore the commission which Matthew gives was uttered by the Lord subsequently to those recorded by Mark, Luke, and John. According to Matthew, He said to the women on the resurrection morning: "Fear not; go tell My brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see Me." (Matt. 28:10) He gives no account of further happenings on that first day, and we read: "But the eleven went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had ap­pointed them." That could not have happened on the same day. There is evidently a gap in the account. The distance between Jerusalem and Galilee was more than fifty miles. Mark, Luke, and John, in each case with particular emphasis and careful indication of time, affirm that on the evening of the day of resurrection He met the disciples in the upper room where they were as­sembled. Moreover, it is evident, from careful comparison of the narratives that on the after­noon of the day of resurrection He walked to Emmaus with two disciples, and appeared subse­quently to the eleven assembled in the upper room. Chronologically, therefore, it is evident that the charge given to the disciples in Galilee must be placed later than the instructions given to them in the upper room, as recorded by Mark, Luke, and John. I nevertheless believe that both the Gospel and the note of the commission according to Matthew are found in their true place in the New Testament, because the first note of the Church's message to the world must always be that of the Lordship of Christ. His brother and Peter called Him the Despot. (2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 4)

            Yet let us not forget that this is only one note. To make this the one inclusive charge of Christ to His disciples is to fail to apprehend the full and spacious meaning of missionary endeavor. They had entrusted to them the symbolic picture of the Threefold Godhead which had been actively working for their salvation, sanctification, and eventual glorification after perfection and were commanded with His complete authority to take this symbolic picture of the Triune Godheads accomplishment and with all the other teachings Christ had taught them and teach these truths to all the nations and like Adam, Christ would be with them until their job was finished.

            In order to the clearest apprehension of the value of the words of Jesus uttered in Galilee, let us particularly notice some of the facts which Matthew records concerning the meeting of the

King with His disciples on that occasion. "The eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spake unto them." It is interesting to notice the effect that was produced upon these men by the appearance of Jesus. There are suggestions concerning that appearance which it may not be possible finally to explain, but the inference of the declaration, "Jesus came to them," is that when they first saw Him, He was at some dis­tance from them, perhaps standing a little higher on the mountainside. As they looked at Him they worshipped; but some doubted; and the suggestion is that there was something in His appearance which compelled them to this atti­tude of worship. The word "worship" here used means absolute prostration in the presence of supremacy and sovereignty. In different forms it occurs about twelve times in the course of this Gospel, and about twelve times in the course of the Gospel according to John. It is practically absent from those of Mark and Luke. These things are not accidents in the economy of inspired revelation. In the Gospel which presents the King, and in that which demonstrates Deity, that attitude is referred to repeatedly. In those presenting Jesus as Servant and as Man the word is almost entirely absent.

            While this word occurs over and over again in Matthew, here at Galilee it gains a new signif­icance, which is accentuated by the declaration that "some doubted."

            "When they saw Him they worshipped Him." There was evidently something about His ap­pearance which commanded the attitude of wor­ship, which bent these men before Him in submission and adoration. What the peculiar nature of the appearance was, of course it is impossible to declare, but my own conviction is that its effect upon them was due to the fact that He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead." With reverent reti­cence Matthew gives us no description of the appearance. He affirms that "when they saw Him, they worshipped Him." The declaration "but some doubted" is a valuable evidence of the truth of the account. Were this narrative a human fabrication it is not likely that these words would have been written. The word "doubted" is an uncommon one, only occurring twice in the New Testament, and each occurrence is in this Gospel. Peter walked on the water to go to his Lord, and when he looked at the boisterous waves he was afraid, doubted, wavered. Other words translated "doubt" in the New Testa­ment suggests unbelief. This one indicates wa­vering, wondering, perplexity. In the hearts of some of them there still lurked fear and uncer­tainty. They had seen Him die. They had been gathered about Him in the upper room on more than one occasion. He had appeared to one and another of them, and to the whole com­pany assembled together. They were sure that He had risen. When they saw Him on the slopes of Olivet there was something in His ap­pearance which demanded worship; and yet they could hardly believe their senses—their minds wavered. It is to be remembered that no word of rebuke fell from the lips of Christ. He came nearer to them, and perhaps by that coming, banished forever the fears that had lin­gered in their hearts, making impossible in all the days to come any further doubt. The scene then is before our minds. The risen and glorified Lord stands in the midst of the group of wor­shipping men, some of them wavering in fear born of wonder. To them He uttered the words of His Kingly commission, in which we may discover the deposit of truth for which the Church is responsible, the debt created by the possession of that deposit, and the dynamic in the power of which the Church may discharge the debt created by the possession of the deposit.

            The deposit is named in the claim of Christ: "All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth." The debt is declared in the command of Christ: "Go ye therefore, and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." The dynamic is revealed in the promise of Christ: "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age."

            First, then, the deposit of the Church. The one truth emphasized in this phase of the Missionary Manifesto, better known by some as the Great Commission is that of the absolute author­ity of Christ (Despot): His supremacy and sovereignty; the fact that He shares the throne of empire with none. The word here translated "author­ity" does not suggest power in the sense of energy or might. The first intention of the word is that of the power of choice—that is, the right to choose. Its second intention is that of the power of enforcement, that is, the right to insist upon obedience. The third intention is that of the power of government—that is, the right to utter the final verdict and to pass sen­tence. John in his gospel said it also this way in the 13^th chapter: “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.” Twice in the Bible is this truth made evident concerning His absolute authority in both heaven and earth and at both times were important doctrinal truths being symbolized and commanded to obey. Important deposits handed to the disciples.

            Human choice must always be made in submis­sion to a higher will, therefore it can never be said that man can have an absolute right and power of choice. Authority in the last analysis is the right to determine, enforce, and pass sen­tence. Therefore be careful what you believe to be true concerning both these deposits.

            In these words Jesus, standing on the resurrec­tion side of His grave, in the simplest language made the most magnificent claim, when He thus declared Himself to be King by Divine right, and there­fore absolute in His Kingship. The word admits of no qualification. The claim admits of no limi­tation. In that moment He claimed authority in the material, mental, and moral realms.

            The application of His claim to this world does by no means exhaust it. He swept the compass with a reach far wider, more spacious, and stu­pendous. Not only on earth, but in heaven is authority given to Him. The one phrase, "in heaven and on earth," includes the whole crea­tion of God where even the angelic realm exists. It is manifest that He is excluded Who created, and Who puts all things under the feet of His King. It is equally manifest that all is included which comes within the scope of that comprehensive word, the creation of God. We may interpret this final claim of Jesus by the prayer He taught His disciples: "Our Father Who art in the heavens. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." (Matt. 6:10) His ministry of teaching having been completed, having accom­plished His exodus and resurrection, at last He claimed authority in heaven and on earth, thus assuming the throne of empire over the whole creation of God, included in the terms of the prayer, and now defined in the words, "in heaven and on earth."

            Of course, this is but to state the fact in the broadest and most comprehensive way. To those who will give themselves to careful consideration of it, there will come an ever-increasing conscious­ness of the greatness and moral worthiness of the claim. This authority, moreover, is the more remarkable in that Jesus described it as delegated authority from the Father. Ultimately, it is the authority of essential Deity.

            Perhaps we come nearest to an understanding of the special value of these words of Jesus when we consider what they meant to the men who first heard them. To them the claim must have been that of the vindication of the ideals for which He had stood through the years of His public minis­try; the ratification of the purposes which He had declared to them in the process of His patient training of them for the work which they were called to do; and consequently it suggested the initiation of the new era of their new responsibility.

            One recognizes the difficulty of speaking of the ideals of Jesus with anything like conciseness, and yet it is necessary to make the attempt. For the purpose of an article such as this, the master prin­ciples upon which He had insisted both in His speech and manner of life through the years of His public ministry; in the more pronounced discourses which fell from His lips, in all His arguments with His critics, and in the private teach­ing of His disciples; may be stated as the sovereignty of the spiritual, and the necessity for heart purity. Again, out of the mass of His teaching it is difficult to cite a lonely illustration of the fact that He stood for the supremacy of the spiritual. Perhaps one of the simplest is that conveyed in His words: "Be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Matt. 10:28) Here is a distinct recognition of the fact that the essential life of a man is independent of the body. The man of the world would affirm that to kill the body is to kill the life conse­quently the only thing he fears is the death of the body, and indefinitely he strives to deliver his body from death, because he sees nothing beyond its destruction. Some foolish men claim they do not fear death that do not acknowledge His authority over their spirit, soul, and body. Jesus, with a fine disdain for that which is merely physical, in these words in­dicated His conception that the ultimate thing in human life is not the physical but the spiritual. At last, upon the slopes of Olivet, He stood in the glory of a life that vindicates the word spoken before death. He went to the Cross not fearing those who kill the body but could not destroy the life. He knew that although they nailed Him to the tree, they could not hinder Him, or hurt Him in the deepest facts of His being. Now in resurrection life He said: "All authority hath been given unto Me, in heaven and on earth," and a fair application of His words may be, I have vindicated the ideal for which I stood, that namely, of the supremacy of the spiritual.

            He stood, moreover, for the necessity of purity in the inward part, forevermore condemning, not so much the outward action as the inward desire. According to the testimony of her ac­cusers, a woman was taken in the act, and ar­raigned before Him; but He was far more shocked by the un-manifested lust of the men who charged her, than by the account of her sin. In all His teaching He had made it clear that what a man is in his deepest life is what he is in very truth in the sight of heaven, in the balances of eternity, in the conception of God. This Man, Himself a Man of inward purity and heart spotlessness, went to death, and, in virtue of that purity, did what no other had done—He mastered death. Because He was sinless He gained the victory over death. The disciples heard Him say: "All authority hath been given unto Me, in heaven and on earth," and knew in their deepest consciousness that His resurrection was the vindication of His own claim to sinless­ness; and the vindication, therefore, of His ideal of the necessity for heart purity.

            These are the ideals He has committed to His Church, to which she must yield a ready sub­mission within her own borders, and which she is called upon to proclaim with no uncertain sound to all the nations.

            His claim to authority meant also a declaration of the ratification of His purposes. He had told His disciples that He would build His Church; that He would lead it as an army in conflict against evil and its issues, and in victory over all, including the very gates of Hades; that He would erect a moral standard, and make them, His disciples, His interpreters thereof, giving them "the keys of the Kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 16:19)

            Immediately following this declaration of pur­pose, He had spoken to them of the necessity for the Cross, and they, with faith faltering, had seen Him die. In spite of all He had foretold them, they looked upon the Cross as evidence of His failure to accomplish His purposes. From their standpoint of observation it was impossible for one who died to build a Church, and lead an army, and insist upon a moral standard. But now they saw Him in all the glory of resurrec­tion life, and knew that therein He demonstrated His power to build a Church, having passed through death and become the first-born from among the dead. They knew that He had the power to combat sin and overcome it, for He had taken hold of death, which is the ultimate of sin, and in His mastery of death had revealed His ability to deal with sin. He had lived in perfect conformity to His own ethical standard, and when His life resulted in His rejection by men and His being put to death, it had seemed as though the impossibility of obedience was proven; but now, standing in the power of risen life, He claimed authority, and thereby sug­gested that His own victories vindicated His right to be the ethical Teacher of the world. And He was commissioning them with a commission that needed His assistance, literally to be with them until accomplished, to the end. Teaching others all He had taught them. Baptizing those followers in the names of the Three Who had been involved in their very salvation. A monumental task named the Great Commission. To aid in such a great truth they were given the symbol of triune immersion.

            Not only did that claim, emphasized by the res­urrection, vindicate His ideals and ratify His purposes, it declared that the hour had come for the initiation of the mission of seeking and saving the lost.

            That absolute Lordship is the first message which the Church is charged to deliver to the world, and the ultimate proof of it is the resur­rection. I am not prepared to declare that we are wronging the Lord Christ when we emphasize His Lordship upon the basis of the perfection of His example. I do however say that the preach­ing of His example will never subdue sinning men to His Lordship. I do not affirm that it is wholly inaccurate to declare that in the high conceptions of life revealed in His ethical teach­ing is reason for crowning Him. I do however affirm that we may preach His ethic without being able to win victories in the moral realm. The Church's message is not fundamentally that He is Lord by reason of the matchless beauty of His own life, or on account of the lonely splendor of His moral standard. The Church is called to declare that He is Lord by the resurrec­tion of the dead. To deny the historic truth of the resurrection is to blot out every missionary commission in the New Testament. If in answer it be acknowledged that He commissioned His dis­ciples to certain work before His Cross and resur­rection, in reply we have only to examine the earlier commissions. In the earlier days of His ministry, He said among other things: "Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans."            Beyond the resurrection His charge was no longer local, but universal, the whole creation being included. The first business of the Church is to proclaim to the world the authority of the King Who came to empirical power by the way of resurrection. No other came to power this way.

            If that be the deposit, what then, is the debt? It is clearly indicated as to its widest scope in the words "disciple the nations." The Church's re­sponsibility as indicated by these words is that of the proclamation of the Lordship of Christ, the insistence upon the supremacy of His ethic in every nation, among all peoples. His mes­sengers are charged to proclaim the fact of His Lordship, to announce to men everywhere that He is King. They are to pass through all na­tions proclaiming Him King upon the basis of His resurrection, and all that it involves. This means, therefore, that she is to proclaim and in­sist upon His ethical standards; that His ideal of intellectual greatness is the knowledge of God; that His ideal of emotional function is to love God and our neighbor; that His ideal of voli­tional fulfillment is to seek first the Kingdom of God.

            The Church is not sent to New York, London, or Calcutta, or Peking, to invite men to consider the claims of a Teacher Whom men may compare with others. How foolish and mistaken. She is to announce Him as the crowned Lord, absolute King, the only One Who, having en­tered into conflict with the forces that unmake humanity, and the enemies that hold humanity enthralled, has crushed and defeated them, com­ing into the place of final and glorious victory by the way of resurrection. She is to preach the Absolute Lordship of Christ to the nations, and thus to bring them under the spell of the announce­ment. Her responsibility is that of seeing to it that all the nations hear its proclamation. The Church has never been commissioned to convert the world, but to evangelize it, to create its opportunity of choice, to bring men everywhere face to face with the King, that in His presence man may crown or crucify Him; to preach the doctrine of His supremacy, which doctrine be­comes to those who hear it a savior of life unto life, or of death unto death, according to whether they obey or rebel. That is the first great and grave responsibility of the Church. The church today is not suffering as the first church because it is not preaching and teaching the Lordship and Kingship.

            As she fulfills that function, proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus, bringing men under the in­fluence and sway of the love of Christ, com­pelling them to consider His claim, there will be those who will submit themselves and bend the knee, and yield the heart and life to Him. Such she is commanded to baptize "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." This baptism is in itself a suggestive symbolism. The first thought it conveys is that of a Triune Godhead Who has actively separated them from the world and its ways, from an eternal death to an eternal life, and Who will take them onward to perfection and separation from all sin to a Kingdom where they will rule and reign with Christ in an eternal Kingdom without end in an eternal body. These Three are made known by Christ as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Water Baptism symbolizes the Three in One. The disciple dunked three times into the one substance water. This is triune immersion which the Matthew passage teaches straight from the Lord’s own mouth using an elliptical Greek phrase.

            Those who submit to the King’s teachings are brought into His Kingdom through death and resurrection, not by water baptism, but by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, of which water baptism is a symbol or sign.

            Those who come under the influence of the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus, and yield­ing to it, pass through His death and resurrec­tion into living union with Him, are to be taught "to observe all things whatsoever I com­manded you." They are to realize in their own fellowship the actuality of His Kingship, and are to manifest through their corporate life the glory and grace of the Kingdom of God. This new society is formed wherever, as a result of the proclamation of His Lordship, men and women yield thereto; a society of those who not only believe in His Lordship, but bend to it, and exhibit to the world the result of His Kingship in their individual lives and social fellowship.

            If we measure the history of the Christian Church by that great ideal we inevitably see how sorely and grievously she has failed. Few there are that teach the symbolism of baptism correctly. Few speak with their Lord daily as Adam. And few open His book where the commission awaits their reading.

            Finally, a brief word concerning the dynamic. If the Church is to fulfill this great responsibility, she must enter into the full meaning of the final words of the Lord: "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age." He wishes to speak with His disciples daily, two thousand years after He left this earth and said He would return; with you daily both in Person and word.

            We must understand the meaning of the phrase “end of the world." Too often we think of it as some catastrophe or destruction of the earth. That is not the meaning of the words of which the Lord made use. The best translation is undoubtedly "consummation of the age." The earth will continue long after the completion of this age. Today man rules but one day there is only One Who rules. The promise is that of the abiding presence of the King through the present age of man’s rule. It is impossible to preach His Lordship prevailingly, except in living fellowship with Himself. We may discuss it and demonstrate it intellect­ually, but the demonstration will lack compelling power, except as the truth is proclaimed in living, personal comradeship with Him. In His phrase "all the days," is inferred mastery of circum­stances, the inference vindicated, as we have seen, by His resurrection. The One Who through de­feat proceeded to absolute victory accompanies His people, as in obedience to His command they go forth to proclaim His Kingship.

            In the words already dealt with, "the consum­mation of the age," His ultimate victory is im­plied. There was no fear of failure in the heart of the King. The age initiated by His first advent will be consummated at His second and through all the toil He abides with His people, leading them in perpetual triumph as they abide in fel­lowship with Him.

            The realization of the promise of His abiding presence is entirely dependent upon the Church's willingness to fulfill her responsibility. She has no right to apply this gracious word to herself except as she fulfills the conditions imposed. If we have no passion in our hearts for the discipling of the nations, we have no warrant for believing that He remains in fellowship with us.       The King abides daily with those who truly believe He is alive and has given an impossible commission that can only be accomplished with His daily presence and the comfort of the Holy Spirit in a world that denies His claims. May He help us find those that are His before the Father tells His Son to go get His bride. (Matt. 24:36)