The Two Commissions --- (No. I)
With each of the commissions there was associated "good news" or "glad tidings." Glad tidings" of something provided by the Lord for man. But first, let us look at the message of John the Baptist before Jesus presented Himself to John. We read, according to Matthew's account, "And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. 3:1-7) John came in fulfillment of prophecies found in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah and Malachi. He came as the fore-runner of Jesus, to bear witness of Him and to prepare a people for the Lord. The message of John was one of "good news" to the Jews, in that it heralded the approaching nearness of the Messiah and his kingdom. Since the days of the earliest prophets Israel had looked for a kingdom which should be ruled over by a descendent of Judah and of David. John's message of glad tidings announced that that kingdom was now "at hand."
After John had introduced Jesus to Israel as "the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," he was imprisoned by Herod and later put to death. "Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14,15) Here two things attract our attention: first, Jesus did not begin preaching "the gospel of God" till after John was delivered up, and second, what the gospel which he preached was. Mark says His message was, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." Like John, the gospel which Jesus preached was the good news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
As the ministry of Jesus progressed, He selected twelve men whom He also called apostles; these He commissioned to preach a specific message to a particular people. This is sometimes called "the first" or "limited commission." It is recorded in Matthew 10:5-8: "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give."
First Commission Was Limited To Jews
Three points worthy of special note are found in this commission: First, the twelve were to go and preach to the house of Israel only; second, the gospel or good news of their message was, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand"; and third, they were given the power to confirm their message as from heaven by ability to perform miracles. No mention was made of Jesus as the Christ, nor was their message preached in His name. This is significant when viewed in the light of the commission given after the resurrection.
Later, as Jesus was entering into the last days of His earthly sojourn, He selected and commissioned seventy others, whom He sent before Him, two by two. Luke says of the sending of these, that Jesus charged them, "And into whatever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." (Luke 10:8,9) Here again, the message is virtually the same as that preached by John, by Jesus, and by the twelve: "The kingdom of God cometh nigh unto you." The selection of these seventy was not the creation of a special office in the church, but simply I the selecting of a group of men for a special work, with a message soon to be fulfilled and superseded by a greater.
Reviewing these passages, we note that the message of John, Jesus, the twelve, and the seventy was limited in two points: first, it was simply that the kingdom of heaven or of God was at hand; second, it embraced the Jews only. After the day of Pentecost the message of an approaching kingdom would have been out of place, for from that time on the kingdom was an established reality, and was preached as such by those under the later and greater commission. This message of the nearness of the kingdom, however, was good news before Pentecost, for it meant that the long anticipated kingdom was about to appear.
The first commission included only the Jews, but the promise made to Abraham, and the prophecies of the prophets had included "all the families of the earth." Jesus came not to save a few to the exclusion of others, but to seek and to save that which was lost, irrespective of race or station in life. Consequently after His rejection and following His resurrection, we find Him appearing to the apostles and giving to them a new and larger charge. We read, "But 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 saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28:16-20)
"Great" Commission Includes All Nations
Analyzing this account of the commission given by Jesus after His resurrection, we find that instead of Jews only, "all nations" should be taught or discipled. Second, the ones taught should be baptized into "the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," something neither taught nor practiced prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus. May we emphasize one thought before leaving this point? Who were included in the expression THEM? baptizing THEM? According to the text, those who had been discipled, taught, were the ones to be baptized. This was in perfect harmony with what Jesus had formerly declared when He said, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me." (John 6:45) This would forbid the baptizing either of those untaught or of those too young to be taught.
A third point is, teaching should follow baptism, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;" which teaching is that of the things commanded by Jesus. This is another direct appeal to His authority. The things taught by Him are the things to be taught and observed by His disciples. This would exclude an appeal to Moses or David for authority in religious practices. If neither Christ nor the apostles taught a thing, it is not to be bound upon the disciples of Christ today. Summarizing this account of the commission, we learn, (1) That all men are now to have the gospel preached to them. (2) those accepting it are to be baptized into the names of the three persons of the godhead, (3) and those baptized are to be taught to observe all things commanded by Christ.
Looking now to Mark's account of the new or "great" commission, we read, "And he said unto them, Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." (Mark 16: 15, 16) This is as inclusive as the account in Matthew, it includes "the whole creation," all men. Here it is definitely stated that they are to "preach the gospel": but is the gospel of this commission the same as "the gospel" of the limited commission? We have seen that "the gospel" of those days was, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." No, that is not the message of the new commission. Paul tells us what was meant by the expression when he wrote, "Now I make !mown unto you, brethren, THE GOSPEL which I preached unto you....For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures." (1 Cor. 15:1-4)
Here the apostle declares that in preaching unto them "how Christ died for our sins," was buried, and raised according to the scriptures, he had preached unto them the gospel. What, then, is the difference between the "good news" of the limited commission and "the good news" of the great commission? Here we have it: The approaching nearness of the kingdom was the gospel of the first, while the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ "for our sins" is the gospel or good news of the second. So when Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation," He was saying, "Go ye into all the world and tell men of the whole creation that I have died for their sins, but have been raised from the dead for their justification." This is the gospel of the new and world-wide commission.
Faith The Basis Of All Acceptable Obedience
Let us now note the second point in Mark's account of the commission, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..." Believes what? believes the gospel, believes Christ died for sins, was buried and raised. This is the basic fact man must believe in order to be saved; for if Jesus has been raised from the dead He is the Son of God, the Savior of men, with all authority in heaven and on earth. Salvation in the blood of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are being questioned and denied by so-called scholarship today; but no man can be saved by Jesus Christ who denies these.
The third point in Mark's account of the commission is the association of faith with baptism as requisite to salvation. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Here God joins faith and baptism as conditions of pardon. Jesus said, "What therefore God bath joined together let not man put asunder." (Matt. 19:6) I realize He said that in connection with the marriage union, but He did not say "WHOM God joins together," but "WHAT God joins together," stating a general law. Here God has joined faith and baptism, and what God hath joined together who dares separate? "He that believeth not shall be condemned." Unbelief will condemn, it takes faith plus the expression of that belief in an act, which act is baptism, to save. The point is well illustrated by a very simple suggestion: Suppose a doctor should say to his patient, "He that eateth and digesteth his food shall live, but he that eateth not shall die." No one would or could misunderstand such language. It takes eating plus digesting to live; it takes only refusing to eat to die. It takes faith plus baptism to save; it takes only unbelief to condemn. This is by the authority of Christ.
Friend, just as long as any man confines himself to the gospel of Christ, he can look with confidence to this commission as authority, but when he launches out into fields about which the Bible is silent, he is treading upon dangerous ground. The gospel is God's power unto salvation. One must not go beyond it, and he dares not stop short of it. Nothing can be a substitute for the gospel. Sin is the same as ever and man's requirements have not changed. The redeeming power of the blood of Christ is the same now as in the generations gone by, and the terms upon which man may receive forgiveness of sin and entertain the hope of everlasting life have never changed since that Great Commission went into effect. We are not to look to the first or limited commission for the terms of pardon today, but to that commission given after the resurrection, sealed by His own blood.
In these two statements we learn that to be saved men must be taught; in that teaching they must be brought to believe that Jesus is the Christ; they must be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; they must then observe all that Jesus commanded.
— Temple Terrace, Florida