Go [therefore] and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
The chapter closes with the risen Jesus meeting His eleven remaining apostles on a mountain in Galilee, and sending them out to every nation on earth. Two things stand out: He commands on the strength of authority just given to Him, and He names God in a way no one had heard before.
The word "therefore" points back to what He had just said. One writer notes the exact word He uses for His position and the exact word He uses for the task, quoting an older translation that reads a little differently from the ESV:
The Lord has risen from the dead, and the kingdom is ready to be announced. He says, "All authority" — not power — "is given to Me, in heaven and on earth: go, and disciple all nations." Clearly He would not say, "Make children of God." Only He Himself could do that. "Disciple" was the suited word in reference to the kingdom; and this brings us to the commission.
Earlier in this same Gospel Jesus sent out His twelve first followers under a far narrower order. The change here is deliberate, and one commentator traces it to the cross:
He sent them not to Gentiles, and not to any Samaritan town, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Such a commission is plainly not applicable today... in Matthew 28:19-20 the change is emphasized, for all nations are now to hear. The cross made this great change. There Israel rejected the mercy offered to her, and the door of mercy opened to Samaritans and Gentiles.
People had known God by other titles before. Matthew's ending replaces them, and one writer holds this form of words to be essential to the act itself:
Now they were to baptize them to the name of the Father, and so on. It was not a question of the Almighty God of the fathers, or the Jehovah God of Israel. The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is what marks out Christianity. Let me say that this is the true formula of Christian baptism.
Another writer draws out what that one name says about God:
This baptizing is "to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The name, not the names, of Father, Son and Spirit. This is the Christian revelation of God; and what is not done in this way is not Christian. The "name" in Scripture gives the real character of what it stands for.
One writer explains what the act declares:
The risen Lord... authorizes them to mark out the disciples of Christ by the confession of "the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." So baptism is plainly a token, or mark, or badge, of discipleship to Christ. Baptism puts on the badge of discipleship.
A badge worn is a claim to be lived up to:
...one name, three Persons - and all the dignity and worth of that name rested on those who received baptism. This is where we are... the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is upon us. We are to be true to that name, true to those Persons. Then the world sees some expression of the glory and dignity that name carries.
The grammar of the sentence matters. Some have argued that baptism itself is what makes a person a disciple. Kelly reads the order of the words differently:
Clearly the Lord tells His servants to disciple all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them. Both follow the act of making them disciples. Baptism comes at once, as the start; teaching runs on through their whole life.
One writer measures how far this commission reaches by the promise attached to it:
In His commission to these brothers, He tells them to make disciples of all the nations, and says He will be with them to the end of the age. This commission plainly belongs to the kingdom, and it runs on longer than the church does.
- Authority. He does not ask for a hearing; He states that all authority in heaven and on earth is His, and the going out rests on that.
- Reach. The cross lifts the earlier limit to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and all nations come into view.
- Name. Not Almighty, not Jehovah, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one name, three Persons, the revelation that marks out Christianity.
- Mark. Baptism puts that name on a person as the badge of discipleship; teaching then runs on through the whole of life.
- Promise. The commission runs to the end of the age, and He promises to be with them the whole way.
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you. And behold, *I* am with you all the days, until the completion of the age.
Matthew's Gospel ends with a job and a promise, not a farewell. The risen Christ sends His eleven remaining apostles to make disciples of all nations, and He tells them He stays with them. What are they to teach, how long does "always" last, and why does this Gospel never mention Him going up to heaven?
One voice sets what the new disciples must be taught. Christ Himself is the standard of what they must keep. One commentator links this to the way Jesus had already set His own word against what people were told long ago.
"Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." This fits with the Sermon on the Mount. There the Lord says, in contrast with those of long ago, "But I say to you." He was the Prophet like Moses whom God had promised to raise up, and they had to listen to Him. They were to teach everything Jesus had commanded. He was the beloved Son of God, and now everyone must listen to Him above all. The point was never to put the nations under the law. Doing that has ruined the church world, denied Christianity, and deeply dishonoured Christ Himself.
Note what the teaching aims at. It is not just information passed on. It is a life of obedience reproduced in others. And the word "all" keeps coming back across these closing verses.
The closing word is, "I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age." So in this closing word we have "all" four times over. Our exalted Lord wields all power in both spheres, so that nothing is beyond His reach. If anything bad happens to His servants, it must be by His permission… Those baptised from the nations must be taught to keep all the Lord's commands and instructions. Obedience must mark the servants, and they must bring those they reach into obedience too.
Matthew stops with Christ speaking, and never records Him leaving. One writer sees this as deliberate: the force of the promise depends on it.
If we had heard here of His going up to heaven, how it would have weakened the shape of the truth, or even destroyed it! Clearly its moral force is far better kept as it is… He promised His presence with them to the end of the age. Then the curtain drops. So He is heard, though not seen, for ever with His own on earth, as they go out on that mission — so precious, and so dangerous.
The Gospel that opened by naming Him "God with us" therefore closes on the same note.
In the person of Jesus, God was with us, and He is with us still. The closing words of this Gospel of Matthew are our constant comfort. They are the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ in it: "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." So we can follow the lowly, rejected man from Nazareth with confidence, and carry out His word, for He will be to the end what He was at the beginning, "God with us."
The One who says "I am with you" is not a well-wisher. His identity and His authority are what make the sentence worth anything.
All power is His; all power in heaven and on earth. Soon the day will come when indeed He will have all things put under His feet. And the last word, "And behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age." Precious promise to faith! He will never leave us or abandon us. The One who is with us is the "I am," the mighty Jehovah, the Immanuel — God with us — and He holds all power in heaven and on earth.
The wording "all the days" covers every one of them, bright or bleak. It also puts an absent King within reach of faith.
The King, as we know, is going to be away. That is exactly why He assures those who represent Him here that He is always present with them. Faith may count on Him all the way, as surely as if He were still here in person with His disciples. "All the days" means every single day, cloudy or bright, until the age reaches its close. Then the heavens open and give Him back to earth.
The promise has a limit, and the limit is good news. His nearness now is one-sided. Something better replaces it.
I am with you to help in temptation, to strengthen in duty, to guide in confusion, to comfort in sorrow. From the moment you become a disciple I am with you all along… At present I am always with you, but you are not always with Me. At present Jesus is constantly near His own, but His own do not constantly desire to be near Him. Here it is only by faith that believers enjoy His presence. There they shall see Him as He is.
Commentators differ on what closing point is meant. One reads it as the stretch of time before Christ returns in glory to reign.
So in Matthew He says, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." He means the age that comes before Messiah returns in glory to set up the kingdom openly.
Another says the older wording "end of the world" has done damage. The age being wound up is a Jewish one that is still ahead.
The end of the world, as people in the church world usually understand it, is not in view here. It is the close, the winding up of the age… it is the ending of the Jewish age, which is still future.
- All power — the job rests on a Lord who holds all authority in heaven and on earth. Nothing touches His servants without His permission.
- All nations — the risen Christ sends His own out to make disciples of the nations and baptise them.
- All His commands — disciples learn to obey Christ's words, not to live under law again. Obedient servants make obedient disciples.
- All the days — every single day, cloudy or bright, faith counts on Him as surely as if He stood there in the body.
- To the end — the promise runs to the close of the age, when "I am with you" gives way to seeing Him and being with Him.