Why are believers called to be "teaching them to observe all things" (Matthew 28:20)?

And why not here "repentance and remission of sins"? why not "preach the gospel to every creature"? What is the peculiar fitness of this conclusion of Matthew? The Lord, rejected as the Jewish Messiah, opens out fresh dealings of God with men. Before, they were not to go even to Samaritans; but here an entirely new sphere is opened. It is no longer God having His peculiar dwelling-place in one nation; it is now this larger thought — "Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (ver. 19).* Baptism is here in contrast with circumcision, and the fuller revelation of the Godhead is contrasted with the name Jehovah by which God was known to Israel. "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." This falls in with the sermon on the mount, where the Lord says, in contrast with them of old time, "But I say unto you." He was the Prophet like unto Moses whom God had promised to raise up, and to whom they were bound to harken. What special guidance was this for Jewish disciples! They were to teach all things that Jesus had commanded. He was the beloved Son of God who now was to be heard pre-eminently. It was not a question of putting the Gentiles under the law — which has been the ruin of Christendom, the denial of Christianity, and the deep dishonour of Christ Himself.

The closing word is, "I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age," so that in this closing word we have "all" no less than four times. Our exalted Lord wields all power in both spheres, so that nothing is beyond His reach. If anything adverse happens to His servants it must be by His permission. All nations are to be the scope of their service, and not in the midst of Israel only as heretofore. Those baptized from the nations are to be taught to observe all the Lord's commands and instructions, for the servants are to be marked by obedience, and to bring those that they reach into obedience also. Then all the days to the finish they can count on the support and spiritual presence of their Master.

In Galilee, the great commission is given. It stands, we may say, between the assurance of our Lord's omnipotence and of His special omnipresence. We say "special" because it is not merely His presence as God everywhere, but "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age" — a special presence, to defend, sustain, uphold, empower His disciples. Therefore they are to go and teach all nations; that is, make disciples of all nations, of course through the preaching of the gospel, but a discipleship which seems, in the very terms in which it is described, to be along the lines of that kingdom of heaven whose mysteries our Lord had previously unfolded. It is this which explains why baptism has so prominent a place here. The two keys of the kingdom, baptizing — the external or physical, and teaching, the internal or mental key. Disciples are thus made by the preaching and the teaching of the truth, and baptized into the kingdom in the name of the triune God who has been fully revealed in the person of His Son.

217 The Lord addresses them on the ground of the place which now belonged to Him, which He will fully take in power hereafter, which belonged to the risen Lord, being His in right of the new place into which He had entered as man. "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." All is not accomplished, all things not yet put under His feet, but it is His place as the risen Man who has glorified God and accomplished the work given Him to do. Hence He sends them forth beyond the limits of the King of Israel in Zion, that had been set forth fully in chapter 10, then and on to the future. Here connected with the remnant of the Jews, associating them as brethren with Himself, having accomplished redemption, they were to disciple the nations, baptizing them (not to Jehovah, not to Messiah or the Son of David, but) to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that in which the one God of Israel was fully and completely revealed; teaching them to observe that which they had learned from Him on the earth; and He would be with them to the end of the age. It is thus before the millennium, not the mystery of the church, nor the future gathering of all things. The former was revealed and confided to Paul, the latter to come in when the age was finished. Not the mission from Bethany (which the Acts follow throughout), not starting from Jerusalem nor beginning it as that did; but accepting the poor of the flock as brethren to Christ; they were to bring in, disciple all the nations on the footing of their relationship with Him as thus risen.

To make disciples then involves baptizing and teaching them to observe all things that the Lord has commanded. Now the Lord Jesus finally accompanies this authorization with the assurance of His presence with His disciples always, to the end of the age. This implies His authoritative power among His people in the present form of the kingdom of heaven, and it remains a precious encouragement for ourselves, in spite of the degenerated state of the kingdom today. In bodily form of course the King is absent, yet faith is to recognize the reality of His wisely directing authority just as though He were visibly present. By the power of the Spirit of God who indwells the saints of God since Pentecost, it is a very real sense in which the Lord Jesus is present with us always; but only faith realizes and responds to this.

On Matthew 28:19-20, this is the comment: "Now, here we have our Lord's commission, which is the only commission to baptize. The disciples were to disciple (ματηετευσατε) all nations; but what was to be the means by which they were to be discipled? 'baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost,' and having thus been made disciples, they were to teach them all things, etc. … It would seem, then, according to Matthew 28:19, persons were to be made disciples by baptism in order that they might be instructed about the Lord Jesus, so that they might know and believe on Him, and be taught in all He had said."

First of all we have to challenge our hearts as to whether we are really acquainted with the commandments of the Lord; for how can we keep them without really knowing them? His commandments must be learned, and how else can we learn them but by becoming acquainted with the Scriptures. There are the individual commandments given in the Gospels and Epistles telling us what the Lord desires us to do. He instructs us in this Gospel to wash one another's feet (John 13), to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34); to abide in Him (John 15:4). In Matthew 5 He tells us to let our light shine before men, not to resist evil, to love our enemies and to be perfect as our heavenly Father (vers. 16, 39, 44, 48); and many such commandments are given for our obedience. After writing many commandments in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle says, "If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord's commandment (1 Cor. 14:37). So that it is not enoughto regulate our conduct in individual life by the Lord's commandments, we must learn so that we may keep His commandments in relation to His will in the assembly.

Let us then ask more particularly wherein this righteousness consists. When our blessed Lord, in His lowly grace, presented Himself to John for baptism, the Baptist forbad Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (Matt. 3:13-15.) This answer of our blessed Lord gives us exactly what we seek. Having all His delight in the saints in the earth, and the excellent, He identified Himself with them as God's chosen ones from amongst His ancient people; and having come to do God's will, He was with them now subject to every word of God. When therefore the Baptist went forth on his mission, and cried, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," preaching the baptism of repentance, that word became binding on the heart and conscience of every godly Israelite; and inasmuch as Jesus had now taken His place amongst His people, it was binding also on Him, not that He needed to be baptized (far be the thought!), but because in His own love and grace He took this position to glorify God, and to bless His people. He thus teaches us that obedience is the way of righteousness. And there is no other way of practical righteousness; not obedience in order to be saved, but obedience as being the expression of the new life we have received through the new birth in the power of the Spirit. (See 1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 6.) What indeed are the commandments which are given to us? They are but the display of the nature of God, just., for example, as all the precepts of the epistles are but the expressions of features in the life of our blessed Lord. If therefore we have a new nature, and Christ Himself as our life, all the activities of this nature and life must flow out in divine channels, and the commandments and precepts of the New Testament are these divine channels. This cannot be too much urged; for though it be true that God saves us absolutely on the ground of His own grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, He does look for practical righteousness in the walk and ways of His children. For this end He has given us His word, to be "a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path;" and when we are guided by it, in subjection to it, when our lives are ordered by it, righteousness will never be wanting. We read in Rev. 19 that it was granted to the Lamb's wife "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white;" and this fine linen, we are told, is the "righteousness of saints." (v. 8.) This is the full display, in all its totality and completeness, of the righteousness of every individual child of God which was wrought out in this scene in obedience to the Word. Wherever there are the new nature and divine life in the soul, there will be practical righteousness, but the measure of it will be determined by our obedience to the word of God.

We shall find ample "instruction in righteousness" in our Lord's sublime discourse on the Mount. Who will pretend that the Christian is above and beyond it? It is good for us to enjoy our heavenly portion, but even this may become a snare if it lead us to forget that we are called, as long as we are left down here, to be practically, and in all reality, righteous. All our ways should be in accordance with the word of God. We need, not only instructions and directions, but even commandments. It is in John's Gospel, where on the very first page we are brought into the relationship of sons, or rather of children, that the Lord speaks most of commandments. Granted that they are in keeping with the relationship; but the higher the relationship, the more strictly is obedience enjoined. Our blessed Lord Himself is the pattern of perfect obedience. Has He not said, "I have not spoken of (or, from) myself, but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak, and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." The very words that He was commanded by His Father to speak to His disciples became commandments from the Father to them. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," saith He, and again, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Again, "If a man love me he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."

Let us understand that keeping Christ's word means, if it mean any thing, honest subjection to the whole of it: to that of which we may not even perceive the importance, as if we did; calling nothing little which He enjoins — of what has equal authority with the weightiest to emphasize it for us. Herein is often the truest test of a right spirit in us, when we obey not in uncertainty, but in darkness; and go out upon His leading, not knowing where.