p. 532 | THE GREAT COMMISSION by D. T. J.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 29, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 34.

THE GREAT COMMISSION.

By D. T. J.

BY D. T. J.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28:19, 20.

To believers this commission has all the force of a command, and is referred to as such in Acts 1:2. It is the same Gospel that was preached by Noah, Abraham, and all the prophets. The plan of salvation is one from the beginning to the end. There are, however, marked stages of development in the proclamation of the Gospel. Its first glimmering light fell on our first parents in the Garden of Eden, when God, addressing the serpent, which represented Satan, said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” But the Gospel will shine in its full splendor and exert its full renovating power in the last days, just before the second coming of Christ, when a people will be developed who shall not have “spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but . . . be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27), who will be “without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14), and “without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 14:5). Thus will the Gospel do its perfect work even in a time when the greatest moral darkness prevails, and when deception is more general, and sin more prevalent, than in any other age of the world’s history. By this will be demonstrated the wisdom and efficacy of the Gospel system, and it will be proved that the prevalence of wickedness in all ages is not attributable to any defect in the remedy which God has provided against sin. If God through the Gospel can develop a people who are worthy of translation without seeing death at a time when “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people;” when “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived;” when the forces of evil are so strong and so clever that “if it were possible they would deceive the very elect,” then is Christ “able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him.” This is the glad tidings which he commanded his disciples to proclaim to “every creature.”

He instructed them to baptize those who accepted the Gospel, or became “disciples,” “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Those who are baptized in the name of the Father pledge themselves by that solemn act to renounce all allegiance to all other gods and accept the Lord as their God. This also implies perfect obedience to God in all that he has commanded, and pledges the subject against rendering vain worship by “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matt. 15:9. “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12), and “the whole duty of man” is comprehended in fearing him and “keeping his commandments” (Eccl. 12:13). “God will bring every work into judgment,” and “as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.” Rom. 2:12.

Those who are baptized in the name of the Son say by that act that they accept him for all that the Scriptures represent him to be,—the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, the Saviour of sinners, the Mediator between God and man, their Righteousness, their great High Priest, the King of Israel. He therefore becomes to them a Saviour from the old life of sin, and a model for the new life of righteousness; he is to them the one ideal of perfection. His life in all its phases becomes to them a model worthy of emulation. He is the Father of their new life, and that life is to be fashioned after his own. As the child takes the copy book and writes and rewrites the copy until he can perfectly trace all the lines, or as the artist studies every color and shade and line and curve of the model before him, and then places it on his canvas, compares it with the original, erases his imperfect copy, and does his work over again and again, each time correcting some of his mistakes, until his own copy is a perfect reproduction of the model, so are we to take Christ as our model, study his character as revealed to us in the Bible, and faithfully reproduce it in our own lives, comparing our own lives with his from time to time, and correcting the mistakes that we have made, until our characters are a perfect copy of his; for “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” 2 Cor. 3:18. The law and the Gospel, representing respectively the Father and the Son, are in perfect harmony in the work of redemption, the one pointing out sin, the other presenting the remedy for sin. The one is the unchangeable rule by which character is measured and its defects revealed, the other the unfailing fountain of mercy, in which every penitent sinner may wash and be cleansed.

To be baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost implies that the subject receiving this ordinance accepts the Spirit of God as his

guide. After Christ had finished his work of instructing the twelve disciples whom he had chosen, and had given them the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, he “commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.” Acts 1:4. This “promise of the Father” was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost by the descent of the Holy Ghost. See Acts 2:14-21. The Holy Spirit was to be a very important factor, working in connection with men, in the propagation of the Gospel. As they left their homes and families and friends and went out among strangers who would despise and persecute them, it was to be their “Comforter.” John 14:16. As they met the sophistry and deceptions of the false religions of the heathen, it was to be a monitor which should bring vividly to their “remembrance” all that their Master had taught them. Verse 26. It was to go with them as a convicting power, and as they preached the Gospel, it was to “convince” “of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:8. It was to preserve them from all error, for it was to be to them a “spirit of truth,” which was to “guide them into all truth.” Verse 13. This it did by causing them to understand the words of holy writ, for he was not to “speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.” Thus was the gift of the Spirit designed of God to be a safeguard against all error in doctrine and against all apostasy.

It is the prerogative of God alone to say what shall be done in circumstances where his will is not clearly understood. When men begin to supply doctrines to harmonize with their own interpretation of certain passages of Scripture, the way is opened for all manner of error, and, as of old, “the commandment of God” is made of “none effect” by the “traditions” of men. Matt. 15:1-9. In the days of Moses when one violated the law, he was apprehended and held in custody till the mind of the Lord was revealed. Of the blasphemer it is said, “And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be showed them” (Lev. 24:12), and of the Sabbath breaker, “And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.” Num. 15:34. In the days of the apostles, when the great contention arose between the Jewish and gentile converts about the question of circumcision and keeping the law of Moses, a council of the apostles and elders was called at Jerusalem, and when they framed their decision and sent it out, it began with, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.” Acts 15:28. If the church had always submitted to be led by the Holy Spirit, it would never have gone into apostasy, and the Dark Ages would never have existed in its history.

“And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” In the account of the successful examination of Daniel and his fellow-students at the close of their three years’ course in the schools of Babylon, the record says, “And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus.” Dan. 1:21. But Daniel continued longer than till the first year of Cyrus, for in chapter 10, verse 1, we read, “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel.” Why then was it stated so many years in advance that Daniel was to continue till the first year of Cyrus?—Evidently because in that year an event of surpassing interest to Daniel and all his people was to transpire,—the proclamation of Cyrus for the return of the Hebrews from the Babylonish captivity, and the rebuilding of their temple at Jerusalem. Daniel was to live to witness that event, and perhaps to assist in bringing it about. So when the Saviour says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” he points forward to a time when his presence will be with them in a special manner, through the Spirit, to lead them back into long forgotten truths, to give them power in preaching the Gospel to a world more deeply steeped in sin than it had ever been before, to be a comforter to them through the unparalleled troubles of the last days, and to prepare a people to stand before the Son of man when he shall come “in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels.”