Finally, in His work in His resurrection Christ prepared and charged the disciples to preach the gospel and disciple the nations for His propagation that the church may be produced. Luke 24:44 and 45 say, “He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things must be fulfilled which have been written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me. Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.” The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and Psalms are the three sections of the entire Old Testament, that is, all the Scriptures (v. 27). The Lord’s word here unveils that the entire Old Testament was a revelation of Him and that He was its center and content. The fact that He opened the mind of the disciples indicates that in order to understand the Scriptures, our mind needs to be opened by the Lord Spirit through His enlightening (Eph. 1:18).
Christ’s meeting with the disciples in Luke 24 was the right time for Him to commission them to preach the forgiveness of sins. After pointing out that it was necessary that Christ should suffer and rise up from the dead on the third day (v. 46), He told them that “repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (vv. 47-48). Forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed only after Christ’s vicarious death for the sinners’ sins had been accomplished and had been verified by His resurrection (cf. Rom. 4:25).
To proclaim the forgiveness of sins is to proclaim the jubilee. Luke 4 speaks of the release of the captives. To proclaim the forgiveness of sins is to proclaim the release of captives from slavery and bondage. The first aspect of the jubilee is the forgiveness of sins. According to the following books of the New Testament, the forgiveness of sins ushers the forgiven ones into the riches of the Triune God. Therefore, forgiveness of sins brings us into the enjoyment of the Triune God. This is the jubilee.
The Gospel of John emphasizes life for fruit-bearing (John 15:5), whereas the Gospel of Luke stresses forgiveness of sins for proclaiming. To bear fruit in life requires essentially the Spirit of life received through the breathing of the Spirit (John 20:22). To proclaim forgiveness of sins requires economically the Spirit of power received through the baptism in the Spirit (Acts 1:5, 8).
In Mark 16:15 the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation.” This reveals that the redemption of God accomplished by the Lord Jesus through His death and resurrection is not only for man, the leading one in God’s creation, but for all the creation. Hence, all things, whether on earth or in the heavens, were reconciled to God, and the gospel should be proclaimed to all creation under heaven (Col. 1:20-23). Based upon this, all the creation expects to be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-22).
In Mark 16:16 the Lord Jesus went on to say to the disciples, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned.” To believe is to receive the Lord Jesus (John 1:12) not only for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43) but also for regeneration (1 Pet. 1:21, 23), so that those who believe may become the children of God (John 1:12-13) and the members of Christ (Eph. 5:30) in an organic union with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). To be baptized is to affirm this by being buried to terminate the old creation through the death of Christ and by being raised up to be the new creation of God through Christ’s resurrection. To believe and to be so baptized are two parts of one complete step for receiving the full salvation of God. To be baptized without believing is merely an empty ritual; to believe without being baptized is to be saved only inwardly without an outward affirmation of the inward salvation. These two should go together.
Mark 16:16 does not say “who does not believe and is not baptized shall be condemned.” This indicates that condemnation is related only to not believing; it is not related to not being baptized. Believing itself is sufficient for one to receive salvation from condemnation; yet it needs baptism as an outward affirmation for the completion of one’s inward salvation.
In Matthew 28:18 the resurrected Christ spoke to His disciples saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” In His divinity as the only begotten Son of God the Lord Jesus had authority over all. However, in His humanity as the Son of Man to be the King of the heavenly kingdom, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after His resurrection.
In verse 19 the Lord Jesus continued, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Because all authority had been given to Him, the Lord Jesus sent His disciples to go and disciple all the nations. They go with His authority. To disciple the nations is to cause the heathen to become kingdom people for the establishment of His kingdom, which is the church on earth today.
Notice that the Lord Jesus did not charge the disciples merely to preach the gospel but to disciple the nations. The difference between preaching the gospel and discipling the nations is that to preach the gospel is simply to bring sinners to salvation, but to disciple the nations is to cause the Gentiles to become kingdom people. The disciples were sent by the Lord not only to bring others to salvation but also to disciple the nations.
In verse 19 the Lord speaks of baptizing the nations into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is to bring repentant people out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may become kingdom people. After the Lord Jesus accomplished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of death and resurrection, and became the life-giving Spirit, He charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect, whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible aspect by water is vain, and without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. Not long after the Lord Jesus charged the disciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based upon this, the disciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38), not only visibly into water but also invisibly into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered a tomb to terminate the history of the baptized ones. Because the death of Christ is included in Christ, because Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and because the Triune God is one with the Body of Christ, to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ is to do one thing: on the negative side to terminate their old life and on the positive side to germinate them with a new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord Jesus here is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.
In Matthew 28:20 the Lord Jesus concludes, “Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.” Christ is Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). Here He promised to be with us in His resurrection with all authority all the days until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age.
Home | First | Prev | Next