The Great Commission
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Disagreements, even seemingly minor ones, about exactly what Jesus actually says in the Great Commission, have massive downstream consequences. It’s the difference between a premillennialist and a postmillennialist. A theonomist or an antinomian. One-kingdom or two-kingdoms theology. These aren’t the only views that can come from different understandings of the Great Commission, but different conclusions about this brief passage can create huge theological differences.
So I’m going to break down the simplest and most obvious meaning of every line in the Great Commission.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus is King. He is King now. He is not king at some later date. This means that Jesus is ruling over the earth now while he is seated at the right hand of God until his enemies are made his footstool (Psalm 110).
Jesus is ruling physically. He’s not merely ruling spiritually. He’s ruling with all authority: spiritual, physical, and whatever other kind of authority we can come up with.
The people waiting on Jesus to be King are sadly missing out on calling the nations to submit their King now, and not some future undefined date.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
Jesus says go therefore.
Because he has all authority, the nations are his. Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to disciple the nations so then he can have authority there. He has authority now, and his disciples are to proclaim to the rebels in all nations that they need to submit to their King.
He also commands his disciples to make disciples of all nations.
Assuming Jesus actually intends on accomplishing the plan that he lays out here to his disciples, it means that the nations actually will be discipled. Every nation will affirm Christ as King.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
This is what it means to disciple the nations. Baptism is the sign and seal of God’s covenant with his people (Westminster Confession 27), so we need to bring the nations into God’s covenant. Discipling the nations means getting them to profess their faith in Jesus and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9-11).
We shouldn’t merely preach the Gospel, but we must also baptize the nations. The nations need to call themselves Christian. They need to admit they are under Christ.
It’s interesting that Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize and teach in that order. Not to teach and baptize. It’s as if Jesus is implying obedience comes after salvation. This makes sense if we ask ourselves if a dead man can bring himself back to life.
Some people would respond here with the objection that we may create false converts. First, I’d note that what you’d be objecting to is the Bible. But second, it’s entirely true that we may create false converts. We may baptize people who aren’t really saved.
Though the most faithful Baptists who do the most pre-baptism interviews, who offer the most classes, who rigorously pour over every word of every profession of faith they receive for any cracks, still baptize people who aren’t really saved. Jesus didn’t command us to save people. Jesus commanded us to call people to be saved. Jesus commanded us to baptize.
And the alternative is not creating converts at all.
This is why Jesus also said…
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you
To disciple the nations, we must baptize them and teach them to obey God’s Word. We can’t merely baptize them. We must also teach them to obey.
There are churches that fall into a ditch on both sides of the road. Some emphasize baptism without obedience. Some emphasize obedience without baptism. In reality, you can’t have obedience without baptism. And if you have baptism without obedience, you’re creating false converts.
This is why Jesus said baptize and teach.
What are the nations supposed to obey? God’s Word. If Christians take the great commission seriously, then they must recognize that nations need to obey the Word of God. This does not preclude making a nation’s law reflect God’s law.
If a nation permits abortion, they are not observing all that Jesus commanded. If a nation affirms same-sex marriage, they are not observing all that Jesus commanded.
If a Christian prefers a secular government to one that reflects God’s Word, they are utterly ignoring Jesus’s words, or otherwise actively rebelling against them.
It’s also our job to remind Christians like these to observe all that Jesus commanded.
We have a lot of work to do.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
An age arguably ends at Jesus’s ascension, which happened immediately after he gave the great commission. It wouldn’t make sense if Jesus were referring to the end of that age, so Jesus must have been talking about the next age. Our age.
So Jesus is with us.
He is King, and we must obey him. We have our mission to call all rebels into submission to their King, and he is with us throughout.
Discipling the nations isn’t in our hands alone, but it’s also in the Lord’s much more capable hands. This means we are not alone when we teach and evangelize. We do not go out in our own power or on our own authority, but we go out under the banner of our King.
So have courage because Christ is Lord and we have our marching orders.
