Given all those different verses, what exactly are we commissioned to do? If you look at Matthew 28 in the original Greek, you’ll notice there is only one imperative, the other verbs are participles. What does that mean? It means something like this, “As you go, make disciples, and you do this by baptizing them and teaching them.”
Baptizing is the initiatory rite which brings a person into the kingdom. (That’s not saying that baptism is necessarily salvific — that’s an argument for another post — but saying that baptism is the profession of faith and initiation into the discipleship process). Teaching is the continual training that takes place throughout our lives as we increasingly learn and obey everything which Jesus commanded. “As you go throughout your life, make other Jesus followers,” that’s the gist of the command.
Let’s use the other gospel accounts to fill out our understanding of the task that Jesus has given to us. In the Gospel of Mark, we are commanded to “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” That is the imperative in that sentence. Proclaiming the good news for the gospel of Mark would have been proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God.
In Luke/Acts the emphasis is upon “being witnesses.” One could, perhaps, argue that the commission here was given explicitly to those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus. But the pattern of the New Testament is that these witnesses would make other witnesses (1 Peter 1:8) who, even though not seeing with the physical eyes, still could say that Christ was crucified before their eyes (Galatians 3:1). Once again, the commission here is that the Spirit will enable disciples to proclaim Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In John, the Spirit is given, and the disciples are sent just as Jesus was sent by the Father. What does that mean? It means that the disciples were sent to spill their lives out for others, to proclaim good news to the vulnerable, to testify to the goodness and greatness of God, and to testify that Jesus was the great I Am. In other words — they too were sent to proclaim the good news.
What, then, is the central concern of the Great Commission? It is to proclaim, as we go and wherever we go, with our life and lips the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission is really part of God’s great purpose of revealing Himself to humanity.
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