For too long the Christian church, particularly us Pentecostals, have been too casual about this essential part of the Great Commission. We may not have confessed it openly, but we have acted as if the redemptive work of Christ is completed when a sinner confesses Jesus as his or her Savior. But we need to understand that the declaration and commandment of Jesus to His disciples in Mathew 28:19 describes the mission to which He is sending them. Accepting the salvation and forgiveness of sins that Jesus gracefully gives can happen in an instant, but becoming a disciple is a lifelong process.
There may be many ways to explain why we call these last instructions of Jesus to His disciples as “The Great Commission.” In my opinion this is one. It is a double mission. Reaching out to the sinner to tell him the redemptive story of Calvary is our mission. But making disciples out of those who believe, is the co-mission. Both aspects are equally important because unless the newborn grows and matures in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he is destined to die. The alternative is to reach the age of an adult but to live as a child. And as we all know, children do childish things, both naturally as well as spiritually.
A disciple is one who lives according to the discipline of Jesus. Both words come from the same origin. The connotation is to learn, and to inquire with the intention to become. It is not merely cognitive knowledge, it is transformational. What we need to understand is that we are not talking about a set a rules and regulations. It is a lifestyle, a mindset a way of being. In the theology of the apostle Paul, Christ is to be formed in us (Galatians 4:19). We are expected to grow, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4: 13). The Spanish version of this verse says that we must reach the state of a perfect man according to the stature of Christ. Of course this is in no way speaking of the moral perfection that is unique to God. It does mean, however, that we are engaged in a growing process, with a particular set goal: that is the process of making disciples. Please observe that disciples are to be made. It is hard, steady, long work. And that, my friend, is not a piece of cake. But it is not “mission impossible” either. In fact, we are commanded, by the same Lord who commanded us to go and to preach, to go and make disciples. For that purpose He has placed in the church some to be teachers. One of the greatest satisfactions for any disciple is to reproduce himself. It is very rewarding!
We must keep in mind that Jesus was quite specific as to the scope of this second aspect of the Great Commission. The first disciples were instructed to make other disciples “of all nations.” It is important to understand that Jesus was not speaking of nations as we know them today. He was not meaning countries like Italy, Spain, China or the United States. He was not referring to a defined geographical area. In contemporary missionary language we can say that Jesus was speaking of different ethnic groups. That’s right! Jesus already knew in His time that the nations in our times would be made up of various races and people groups. A good example of that is the United States, which is commonly known as a nation of nations. In this country you can find some of the largest concentrations of Latin Americans, Jews and Chinese. Each one of these represents a different nation in the language of The Great Commission.
Now, that was an unbelievable challenge for a group of people whose religion had taught them a very exclusive view of the Kingdom of God. In their way of thinking, gentiles were not worthy of access to God. And anyone who was not a Jew was a gentile. Here is Jesus, not only telling them to make God accessible to everyone, but actually to take God to them. Can you see the dilemma? This may be why Jesus prefaced what He had to say with this statement, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” In other words, it is as if Jesus was telling them, “Don’t question me or doubt me, I know what I’m doing and I want you to do it exactly as I’m telling you. I am opening the door for anyone, regardless of ethnicity, to become my disciple.” The Kingdom of God is truly a kingdom made of all the nations. As evidence of this we have a preview in Revelation 7:9 where we read, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”
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Victor M. Pagan is Assistant Director of Church of God World Missions.
© 2009 Church of God World Missions