The Great Commission

The so-called “Great Commission” is stated at the end of the book of Matthew as follows:
“Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, --- and THEN teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this: that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Matt. 28:19-20

We hear so much in churches about making converts and baptizing them – but the part about teaching or maturing these new converts often gets pushed aside in order that more and more converts can be reached.
Christ, in His way, has divided the preaching of the gospel into two aspects: go and make converts AND second, show those converts what it MEANS TO BE CONVERTED! Show them how their new birth makes everyday life work. Show them that I am not only with you corporately as the church, but that I am with each reborn Christian individually, dwelling within, and THAT I WILL ALWAYS BE THERE!

God’s purpose with the unconverted is to draw them into the realization that life does not work properly without Christ. But, in addition, God’s purpose with converted Christians is to draw them into the realization that life does not work properly, EVEN WITH CHRIST INDWELLING, unless we know that He is there, stay aware that He is there, do not become distracted from the fact that He is there, and trust totally that He is there IN ORDER TO MAKE LIFE WORK!

It is a sad fact that many who feel that they are Christian because they have accepted the death of Christ for their sins continue to fight the world, the flesh and the devil unsuccessfully.

As much as we need to build the church by salvation of the unconverted, it is just as important, or even more so, to build the church with knowledge to the converted Christian. Each Christian, where the opportunity presents itself, is guided by God to bring his fellow Christian into the awareness of his living union with Christ.

In the Great Commission quoted above, I like to mentally add one word to the section: “. . .and teach these new disciples HOW to obey all the commands I have given you. . . “.The “how” is very important and is not something that a Christian can easily discover on his own.

But you can be the difference between whether your Christian friend is a “successful” Christian or a “frustrated” Christian. Present the concept of union with an indwelling Christ for consideration. Then let the Holy Spirit reveal to their mind that:

The whole Person of Christ dwells within the individual Christian to BUILD him personally to maturity and… the whole Person of Christ is embodied by the church corporately to BUILD the church to maturity. SO THAT CHRIST CAN BE ALL IN ALL!

Christ and the church are one single reality. The body is not an attachment to Christ, it embodies Him. It gives expression to Christ - the whole Christ — and it carries Him within it. In other words, the New Testament church is nothing else but the corporate Christ - Christ living in the saints, in each individually and in all corporately. This indwelling Christ is the church’s nature and structure, her unity, truth and certainty. He is everything to her (whether she realizes it or not). And Christ is in each member personally!

Humans have brain limitations on understanding this spiritual fact. How can a being be wholly in a single Christian, and wholly in the Christian church? I guess it works the same way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be wholly three Persons and wholly one God. I don’t know!

How Do We Build?

Now that we have a reasonable understanding of what is meant by the church, how do we go about the building process? I see two aspects to the Christian work of God in building the church.

1.) We are to proclaim the saving Gospel to those without Christ in our own little world around us - to those who need to call out to God for a Savior and to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By the power of the Holy Spirit, this builds the church numerically or quantitatively.

2.) We are to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, which is Christ in you, to those who have been born again, those “saints” and members of the church. This builds the church spiritually or qualitatively.

This second aspect of the Gospel has been virtually ignored by vast segments of the Christian world. There must be a Gospel outreach to converted Christians who desire to move on from the “elementary teaching ABOUT Christ” to full maturity IN Him.

I am personally confident that you can’t build the church successfully without large doses of the “Christ in you” message.

All of the power of the Godhead is placed in us in union with Christ at our new birth. It is all there ready to be used in our daily living. But you cannot use it until you know it is there, trust that it can be used, and then make a willful soul decision to step out and use it. Without this knowledge, the saving Gospel very often just creates a frustrated Christian!

And that was ME for about the first fifty years of my life. I knew that I was a Christian. I had accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord. I wanted to do the right things and I tried hard in my own strength to do them.

But I lived out personally the same frustration that the apostle Paul did in Romans Seven. After his conversion, he became the poster-child for the “frustrated Christian”. “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself,…then I need something more! For if I know the law by still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t DO it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? Romans 7:15-24 Message Bible.

The frustration of Paul here is so severe that many who have read these verses come to the conclusion that this must have been before Paul’s conversion that he was so frustrated.

But, no, this was Paul AFTER he became a Christian (and it was ME for fifty years!).

But in the immediately following verses, the light dawned on Paul – the Holy Spirit got through to him what is the second part of the Great Commission:
“The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ…” Rom. 7:25; 8:1-2 Message Bible.

So what message of growth should we be teaching new converts to Christianity? How do we achieve the second part of the Great Commission?

Paul laid it out in very specific terms:
“I am crucified with Christ – nevertheless I live – yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me” Galatians 2:20.

“God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: Christ in you…the hope of glory” Colossians 1:27.

“For He has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’” Hebrews 13:5.

This revelation knowledge turned MY life around, because I understood that I didn’t have to constantly call out to God to come to me and change me. I had Jesus living in me and to handle what I couldn’t handle in my own strength – AND HE AIN’T GONNA LEAVE!

[Back to Home]