Posts Tagged ‘Great Commission’
Not only did Jesus tell us to make disciples, but he told us how to make disciples. In the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20), Jesus lays out a method of spiritual formation that is from the inside-out:
- “Make disciples” - Enlist people as students of Jesus, engaging their mind and their will (or their “hearts”) in the intentional experience of learning from him.
- “Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” - This doesn’t just refer to dunking people underwater. It literally means to immerse (”baptize”) them into the presence and reality of the triune God. Put another way, we must immerse people in the kind of life that is full of the work of the living God. That is exactly what Christ did with his disciples.
- “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded” - Specifically, teach them the faithful outward acts of a genuine inward faith, like those found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). This means to praise them when they succeed, correct them when they’re wrong, and encourage them when they’re tired.
Jesus is the narrow gate through which we enter God’s Kingdom and are enabled to become His eikons again.
No other person in human history has comprehensively demonstrated the ability to partner with God to conquer sickness, personal immorality, systemic evil, political exploitation, religious manipulation, and even death. Jesus is the master of human spirituality. All other teachers fall short.
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