God’s Word reveals that He has given the kingdom, the authority, and the glory to His Son. God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, has completed everything pertaining to the receiving of the kingdom and the exercising of authority. Now only one thing is lacking—there are not enough people on earth who are willing to submit to His authority. Hence, He saves us through the gospel for the purpose of making us His kingdom. This concept, this thought, however, has not been prevalent in the church in the past. Very few have had the concept that their salvation is for them to be the Lord’s kingdom. For this reason, the Lord has not been able to establish His kingdom on the earth.
Logically, since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord (Matt. 28:18), He should reign. However, people on earth rebel against Him; few submit to His authority. This is the reason that the Lord sent His disciples to preach the gospel in all the earth and to disciple all the nations (v. 19).
Matthew 28 clearly says that the goal of the gospel is to make us the Lord’s disciples. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to preach the gospel to disciple all the nations. The meaning of the word disciple is different from that of believer. The emphasis of believer is on believing in the Lord. When a person believes in the Lord, that person becomes a believer. We may say that once a person believes, all the problems are solved, and that person is a believer. The word disciple in Greek has an emphatic sense of being trained and led. Therefore, a disciple is one who has been trained, ruled, and disciplined. In other words, he is one who has been dealt with by authority and who submits to authority.
When we believe in the Lord, we become believers. However, the Gospel of Matthew says that our believing in the Lord is for us to become His disciples. On one hand, the Bible reveals the gospel as the gospel of grace, which is for us to become believers through faith. On the other hand, the Bible says that the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom, which is for us to become the Lord’s disciples, those who are trained, ruled, disciplined, and dealt with by the Lord’s authority. According to the gospel of grace, God is pleased to freely grant us grace, and we can receive this grace simply by believing. However, this gospel is also the gospel of the kingdom through which God desires to bring us under the ruling of the heavenly authority so that we may become His kingdom, those who are ruled by God’s authority.
Matthew reveals the gospel of the kingdom (24:14). Chapter 28 says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord (v. 18). The Lord desires to rule and reign, but there are few on earth who are willing to be ruled by Him. Hence, He has sent out His disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom. In Matthew the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel that the Lord sent His disciples to preach is the gospel of the kingdom, which is to bring people to Him and make them His disciples that they may be led, trained, taught, dealt with, and ruled by Him in His kingdom. This is what it means to be a disciple.
To be a believer today is rather simple and easy, but it is not as simple to be a disciple. Luke 14 records that when many came to follow the Lord Jesus, He said to them that if anyone does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own soul-life, he cannot be His disciple (v. 26). The Lord did not say that he is unworthy to be His disciple but that he cannot be His disciple. To be a believer is simple, but to be a disciple is not. To be a disciple, one needs not only to love the Lord above all but also to hate everything apart from the Lord. He needs to give the Lord not only the highest position but also the unique position.
In Luke 14:27 the Lord went on to say that whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Him cannot be His disciple. In Luke 14 the Lord spoke the phrase cannot be My disciple three times (vv. 26, 27, 33). In the final instance He said, “In the same way therefore everyone of you who does not forsake all his own possessions cannot be My disciple.” To be a believer is simple. Once we pray, confess, repent, believe, and receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are a believer, a saved one. However, it is inadequate to be merely a believer. Every believer should also be a disciple, one who is trained, ruled, led, disciplined, and dealt with by the Lord’s kingdom. Because the Lord’s desire is for us to be His kingdom and be trained under His authority, after we have become believers, we must learn to submit to His authority in order to become His disciples.