 The Covenantal Commission
Matthew 28:18-20 is the passage usually referred to as the Great Commission. In this text, Jesus tells the disciples about His authority over everything, both heavenly and earthly, as well as their role in heralding this reality to the world. The New Covenant is fundamentally different from what has come before and so news of the kingdom must go forth, announcing the victory and reign of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:15-16). However, Jesus not only tells them to proclaim the good news of salvation and His kingdom, but also to teach or instruct about obedience to Him. The question that must be considered is who are the Apostles told to instruct? This is such a straightforward passage that I think many of us read it almost too casually, assuming that we understand the full meaning. In the course of this article I want to lay out the distinction between the way many in the Christian nationalist and Theonomic camps would understand the text, with the way I understand the text. Disciples of All Nations This is the issue of contention. When you read the phrase “make disciples of all nations” how do you understand it? Before you read on, spend some time thinking about the phrase. What seems to be the most natural and plain way to understand Jesus' words. There seems to be two ways that it is understood. First, it seems that many read that the “nations,” as whole entities, are supposed to be made disciples. This would obviously mean that the individual nations (political entities) would need to be taught how to obey Christ. This would also mean that it is the nations that are to be baptized according to the trinitarian formula. If this is the correct understanding of the phrase then we should all be Theonomists, at least, and maybe even Christian nationalists. The other alternative is that Jesus is telling the Apostles to make disciples “of'' or “from” all the nations. This would mean that it is not the nations as political entities that are supposed to be taught obedience to Christ, but rather individual believers from that national group. This would also make sense of the command to baptize the disciples that are being made, not the national entity. I believe that this interpretation is strengthened by the fact that the word translated as “nations” has a much broader semantic and theological range than just geopolitical nation states. The term is “ethnos” and generally refers to the gentiles or the nations. But these can and often should be taken as referring to the people group not the political group. In this interpretation Jesus is calling for disciples to be made from every kind of person in the world. Regardless of distinction every type or kind of person must be represented among the disciples of Christ. I also think that we see this reflected in the glorious culmination of the kingdom of Christ revealed in heaven. We are told in Revelation 7:9 that there will be gathered before the throne of God and the Lamb a great multitude “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” If this text is the sovereign fruit of the great commission then it would seem clear that the disciples being made and taught to obey Christ are individuals who hear the good news of salvation and through the convicting and converting work of the Holy Spirit are born again (Titus 3:5). In this case, while we should expect good fruit from more and more people being saved as the gospel goes forth and flourishes in a culture, a nation or all nations cannot be made disciples because that designation belongs to individual image bearers of God who belong to Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19b-20) and are those zealous to do His will (Titus 2:14). And these are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom (Philippians 3:20-21) and members of His body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:27)! Now with this scriptural basis, in the weeks to come I want to argue for Christian Localism in the areas of personal holiness, family discipleship, local church commitment, and faithful community engagement.
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