The Five Ch-eat Commissions 7 5

The Five Great Commissions and

Contemporary Christian Witness
Robert A. Kolb
"Go, therefore, and make disciples." These words form the heart of what
contemporary Christians call "the Great Commission," the basis for much of our
discussion of Christian outreach at the end of the twentieth century. God is the
wmmissioner: he is the one who sends; it is his mission. The mission of his disciples
extends the mission of the Messiah. As the Christ was sent to the cross, to-and out
of-the tomb (John 20:21), so he sends his disciples to deliver the benefits of his
own mission to planet Earth. To equip and prepare his disciples for the mission, he
gave them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), to continue to provide them with what they
need, as another counselor, even as he had during his stay with them on earth (John
14:16-18; 16:7-15).
Matthew 28: 18-20 provides us not only the command of Jesus to gather God's
people into his following and flock. It also has given the church important details on
how to go about "making disciples." In this passage two participles explain the
imperative, "make disciples." The first instructs the church to baptize, the second to
teach. Although there is no chronological necessity set down in the order of these two
parts of the process, there is a certain theological rationale in so ordering these two
gdts of God. Baptism is the birth of the child of God (John 3 :3-5). Teaching enables
the child to grow and mature.
God bestows salvation through baptism (1 Pet. 3:21; John 3:3-8), and when he
brings mfants into his lungdom (Matt. 18:3) through this sovereign act of recreation,
he illustrates with particular clarity that his salvation-his restoration of our
humanity-omes
as pure gift, without any merit or worthiness on our part. So he
fashioned Adam and Eve and each of us in our humanity, and so he restores that
humanity to those who are dead in sin.
Disciples are literally reborn (John 3:3-5), not made, but like all children, of
wurse, the children of God need to grow and develop. The God who gives new birth
in baptism fills out the faith thus born and bestowed through teaching. The Holy

Dr. Robert A. Kolb is Mission Professor of Systematic Theology and Director

of the Institute for Mission Studies at Concordia Seminary, SSI.Louis.

76 Missio Apostolica
Spirit continues to conduct this teaching through his church with he instruction which
flows from that biblical Word that was given to bestow salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3: 15).
As helpful for our understanding of the nature of the church and of conversion
to the faith as Matthew 28: 18-20 is, we miss the more complete description of the
Christian's calling to make disciples by focusing exclusively on this one
"commissioning"passage, to the exclusion of other similar commissions which Jesus
gave toward the end of his earthly ministry. For in at least four other passages, from
the end of each gospel and the beginning of Acts, Jesus also expressly sent his
disciples to bring others into his family, as the forgiven and recreated people to God.
In each case the risen Lord was preparing his people for Pentecost and the growth
of the Word of the Lord which was to follow. In each case the writers of these books
placed special words of sending at the conclusion of their reports of Christ's earthly
ministry and-in the case of Acts 1-at the starting point of the life of the church.
An examination of all five of these passages lays out for us a filler understanding
of Jesus' intention in incorporating the mission of making other disciples into the
normal and natural life of those whom he had called to be his own people. In these
passages he lays out the basis for that mission, the promises which accompany those
who he sends, and the activities involved in making disciples.

The Passages
The Great Commission involves the basis on which making disciples happens:
"all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (v. 18); the commiss~on,
"Go, therefore," (v. 19a); the activities or process, "make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (w. 19b-20a); and a
promise, "I am with you always, to the close of the age" (v. 20b).
In the longer completion of Mark's gospel, Jesus' words are recorded in a form
quite similar to the Great Commission: "Go into all the world (the commission) and
preach the gospel (the activity) to the whole creation. He who believes and is
baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." The
promise of certain signs was added to this commission (Mark 16:15- 18).
Luke records a commission from Jesus' mouth which began with a different
expression of the basis for the activity which he was commissioning: "'These are my
words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about
me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he
opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written,

The Five Great Commissions 77

that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead"' (Luke 24:4446). On the basis of God's llfillment of his ancient plan for saving sinners, which
had been recorded in the Scriptures and fleshed out in his own death and
resurrection, Jesus prescribed the activity of preaching repentance and forgiveness
of sins "in the name of the Messiah to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." "You
are witnesses of these things," Jesus reminded his disciples (w.47-48). Then he
promised, "I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you
are clothed with power from on high" (v. 49). The other counselor, the Holy Spirit,
was on his way.
In John's gospel the whiff of Eden surrounds the commission. John began his
gospel by repeating the initial words of Genesis, "In the beginning," and going on to
affirm that Yahweh had come in human flesh by affirming that this Jesus of Nazareth
is that Word which created all things (John 1:1- 14). At the conclusion of his gospel,
John recalled that Easter evening encounter in which he bestowed that shalom which
reigned in Eden, and he breathed again the breath of life, which his disciples were
coming to understand is the Holy Spirit himself (John 20:19-22). Peace is the
promise; the presence and power of the Holy Spirit-as well as the person of Christ
himself-the basis of the commission: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you" (w.21-22). The activity resembles that in Luke's commission: "If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (v.
23).
Luke followed his commission at the end of his gospel with a simpler version at
the beginning of Acts, where Jesuspromisedhis disciples, "You shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (v. 8a). With that promise framing their
futures, the disciples were commissioned to carry out the activity of witnessing to
Jesus "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (v. 8b).
The object of all these commissions is clear, either expressly or by implication:
all are aimed at malung disciples (Matt. 28: 19), or baptized believers (Mark 16:16),
or forgiven sinners (Luke 24:47; John 20:23) of all nations (Matt. 28:19; Mark
16:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).

The Basis
The hndamental basis of any commission is clear and obvious: the one who
gives the commission; his or her authority is the foundation on which the mission
rests. Jesus speaks; he commands, "Go!" He thus provides the only basis which his
disciplesneed to take seriously:his intention. In Matthew 28: 18 he made it clear why
he could give such a commission. As the Author of Life (John 1:1- 18), he has the
authority. He had consistently claimed the authority to forgive sins throughout his

78 Missio Apostolica

minishy (Matt. 9:6), and his continuing incorporation of others into that group of
followers whose sins had been forgiven and who could thus follow him indeed would
depend on that authority.
Luke's commissioning placed the person of Jesw in the context of God's ancient
plan, set forth in all three parts of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, the prophets,
and the psalms or writings. God's plan took shape in the suffering and death of the
Messiah and in his resurrection. The entire process of making disciples rests upon
the application of the death and resurrection of the one who is speaking to those who
are dead in trespasses and sins, as Paul (Rom. 6:3- 11; Col. 2: 11- 15) and Peter (1
Pet. 3 :21) would later point out.
Earlier in his gospel John had repeated the promise of Jesus that after his
departure from this earth, another source of counsel and power would come to the
aid ofhis disciples (1 4: 16-17,26-27; 15:26; 16:7-11).In John 20 the gift of the Holy
Spirit, through whatever kind of breathing it was that Jesus performed, formed
another part of the continuing basis for making disciples. For in breathing the Holy
Spirit upon his disciples, he commissioned them to retain and to forgive sins.

The Promise
As he commissioned his disciples to be his witnesses and to proclaim repentance
and forgivenessof sins, Jesus promised them his presence, his power, and his peace.
"I will be with you always, to the close of the age," he promised (Matt. 28:20),
assuring his disciples that his presence would ensure their integrity in the midst of
all the hostile factors which could oppose their witness. He fiu-ther promised his
power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power to do all that is necessary to make
disciples, that is, to forgive sins and to witness to his name (Luke 24:49; Acts 1%).

The Activities
The process for making disciples outlined in Matthew 28, rightly understood,
summarizes it well. For baptism involves the death of the sinner and the gift of new
life in Chnst Jesus (Rom. 6% 11;Col. 2: 11- 15; 3 :1-5). Teaching them all that Jesus
had spoken and commanded embraces all that his disciples need to understand and
believe. The other passages do not say more than that-but Luke 24 and John 20 do
provide a sharper focus for our understanding of what it means to baptize and teach.
It means to retain the sins of the impenitent and to call them to repentance; it means
to forgive the sins of those whom the Holy Spirit is gathering into the family of God
through the gdt of new life in Christ.

The Five Great Commissions 79

Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins

Luke understood repentance and baptism as two sides of the same action of God
(Acts 2:38). God gives the gift of being able to be turned, to have a change of heart
and mind, in and through the action of his Word, also in baptismal form.
Psychologically, the Holy Spirit sets the scene for his turning us from false gods
to trust in Christ through some form of crushing under the weight of the law. For the
law is God's structure for human life, built into the human creature at creation, and
when we go afoul of this structure, it lets us know. Sometimes, for a longer or
shorter time, it does so in such a gentle manner that we can deceive ourselves into
thmkmg life is going okay. But the law finally squeezes as it condemns the rebellious
ways which we have chosen for ourselves.
The law does accuse us of a variety of sins, above all, rejecting God as our Lord
(the first commandment sins). But the law crushes us even when we fail to recognize
and acknowledge its accusation. It makes us say "ouch" even when we do not
perceive our own responsibility in a visitation of evil-rightly or wrongly-but place
the blame elsewhere. The law crushes whenever it makes itself felt in our discomfort
and disease, in a world in which we know we were made to be comfortable and at
ease. Therefore, Chstian proclamation of the law to those outside the faith will not
exclusively aim at obtaining a profession of guilt before the conversation can move
further. The crushing power of the law can smother old gods and topple old idols
even before an individual hearer can acknowledge his or her own guilt.
Likewise, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ is the heart of the gospel, but it
is not the only expression of this gospel with which we can begin the presentation of
our Lord to those outside or at the edge of the faith. Forgiveness of sins clears the
decks of the worst of evils, our own alienation from God, our own responsibility for
destroying our relationship with him. Forgiveness of sins plunges us out of the
paralysis of our sinfilness and into the liveliness of faithfulness. But Christian
conversationmay move to the good news that Jesus Christ is for those under the law
before the perception of guilt may pinpoint the heart of the problem--our sin. Our
witness may begin the gospel when the turning has begun on the basis of fear or discouragement or a longing for a different kind of life-because the evils outside us
have overpowered old ways of securing life, which had been serving as our false
gods.
Therefore, to the person whose life has been tom apart by alienation and
estrangement, in the home, in the workplace, in the neighborhood, we come with a
message of reconciliation right at the heart of our existence. We can promise that the
most important of human relationships, with God himself, has been more than
patched up through the coming of C h s t to serve as the one who has reconciled us
to God.

80 Missio Apostolica

If the conversation centers upon our hearer's obsession with a boss who wants
to destroy him or her, we can begin the telling of the story of our God by speaking
of his protecting and liberating power. What the Israelites under Moses experienced
in the face of Pharaoh, we now experience as Christ comes to be present in our lives
as the resurrected Lord who has hurled the worst of our enemies out of our paths and
our lives. This Liberator may not wipe the boss out of our lives, but he does reorder
our priorities, and he does give us the assurance of his presence and love no matter
what the boss might do.
Clearly such conversations must eventually move beyond both a shallow
perception of evil and a preliminary glimpse of the gospel, with which they may
begin. But the rhythm of law and gospel may be introduced into a person's life in this
way. Only the Holy Spirit can bestow the gift to be able to perceive how serious our
sinfulness really is: as Luther observed in the Smalcald Articles, III:I, the
understanding of sin as original sin is something which comes only through the
insight and courage that the Holy Spirit gives. Apart from his aid, sinners know about
sin, but not about its depth and virulence, not about its inherited and permeating
nature. The gospel expressed in such preliminary ways serves as the Holy Spirit's
instrument for granting the courage to look more deeply and honestly into our own
responsibility for evil. If God loves me enough to reconcile me to himself, or to
liberate me from subjection to the boss's humiliation, then he will love me enough
to come to save me from my own mistakes, too. And experiencing absolution for old
mistakes wdl give me the courage to confess sins, both past and present, that is, the
experience of forgiveness will enable me to acknowledge my continued failure to
love God, my continuing defiance of his commands and deafness to his Word.
For witnessing to this Word at the end of the twentieth century, the model of
proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins provides the basic outline, which the
Holy Spirit aids us in making specific for the situations in which he calls us to speak
his Word.

Implications for Contemporary Practice

Much of contemporary evangelistic practice in North America today aims for a
critical moment at which the person whom the Christian has been approaching with
the biblical message is asked, "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
and do you commit your life to him?" There are at least two problems with this
approach.
First, the whole concept of a critical moment is psychologically defensible but
at the same time questionable. Psychologically, we know that a complex mass of
factors go into any decision, and no one moment determines that decision. Those who
answer yes to this question may have actually been trusting in Christ before, or may

The Five Great Commissions 8 1

still have yet to develop a genuine trust in the Savior; in any case, the "magic
moment" is rooted in a seedbed which has been watered and fertilized earlier, and
it precedes further developments which are an integral part of the existence of faith.
Second, too much emphasis placed on a specific moment of commitment
inevitably leads to a focus on what the human creature has done, not on what God has
done. It thus creates a situation which robs the believer of the assurance of God's
unconditional love. Similarly, asking the question, "Do you accept Jesus and commit
your life to him?" places the burden and responsibility for the relationship upon the
one who is being converted to the faith. That contradicts Christ's description of this
coming into the kingdom of God as "new birth." Babies do not determine whether
or when or how they will be born. They simply receive the gift of life. By placing this
question in a critical position in the person's coming to faith, we are acting as if we
must become like consenting adults to enter the kingdom of God. That is not the way
Jesus described the event (Matt. 18:3; John 3:3-5). If too much emphasis is placed
on the psychological act of acceptance and commitment, believers will always be
limited in the trust they have for Chnst, because they will always wonder if they can
"undo it" just as they "did it" in the moment in which they accepted and committed
themselves to the Lord.
Indeed, psychologically, new converts do accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. They
do commit their lives to him. However, two points must be noted. First, what is really
important in conversion to the Christian faith is Christ's commitment to us; his
acceptance of us is what initiates the relationshp we have with him. Second, it is also
vital for a proper understanding of the relationship to recognize that when we, with
mind and will, do perform the proper psychological functions-accepting him and
committing our lives to him-it is the Holy Spirit, the recreator, who is moving the
human head and heart to come to faith. Our faith, and all its psychological aspects,
are his creation, products of his precious recreating power (Titus 3:3-8).
Therefore, instead of asking such questions at the "critical moment" of our
witness, it might be better to follow the model of proclaiming repentance and the
forgiveness of sins, of helping the hearer to recognize the crushing burden of the law
and to hear the life-restoring solace of the gospel.
In oversimplified,schematized form, the following example sketches an outline
for an evangelistic approach based upon the model which Christ set forth in Luke 24,
and by extension, the other Great Commission passages of the New Testament. At
the proper moment, for instance, the witnessing believer might summarize what the
conversation partner has said.
"You really feel you are at the end of your rope because of these hostilities you
are encountering ffom the boss and from your fellow employees."

"Yes, you've heard exactly the way I feel. I really do not know which way to
turn!"

"God is turning to you, John, right now, even in the midst of these hostilities. He
has come in human flesh, as Jesus of Nazareth, to give up his own life in order
to overcome the most disruptive of all hostilities, the hostility which separates
us fi-om our God. He loves you, John, and takes you to his side right now, in the
midst of the hostility you are experiencing."
At this point in the conversation, John's reaction will determine how the witness
proceeds. In any case, we wish to place the focus not on John's reaction but on the
Gospel which gives new life through its being said. In this way the Christian witness
gives voice to the Word of the Father, who speaks to conceive this new child of his
lungdom. Children do not conceive themselves; parents do. The parent is the one, in
fact, who speaks the new believer into existence. We ought not give a different
impression.

In his goodness God has commissioned us to make disciples, to be his midwives

in bringing the children of his family to new life. He provided us with instruction and
models for the process: it centers in the activities of calling to repentance through
appropriate use of the crushing power of the law, and of bestowing the forgiveness
of sins, as we deliver his life-giving Word through our words of absolution. Christ
calls us and empowers us to carry out his commission, as we serve as the instruments
of h s recreating Word in our day.