How to Interpret the Great Commission

This is your hermeneutic on neo-Calvinism:

So we are told to “disciple all the nations.” And how? By baptizing and teaching. Teaching what? “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Everything means our whole Bibles. Jesus said that “Scripture cannot be broken.” He condemned Pharisees for not keeping God’s law. Of course, I’m not saying that Jesus expected the Law to be kept in its Mosaic aspect. Noahic dietary freedoms are fine and blood rituals like circumcision and animal sacrifice are no longer to be practiced as they once were. But the whole Bible, properly interpreted, is our governing document. And by “our” I mean, all humans.

Every moment Iran or India or the United States spends disregarding the Bible as the king’s word to them, at any institutional or personal level, is a moment of treason. All peoples, tribes, nations are called to entrust themselves to the new king and be his subjects (not to mention that he actually wishes to make them his co-rulers).

This means, by the way, that if we preach a gospel that doesn’t communicate to the hearers that the universe now has, by virtue of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, a new public king–that we aren’t preaching the real gospel. . . . The Great Commission, on its face, outlaws secularism and cultures based on any other god or lord than our Lord Jesus Christ. And it tells all Christians to say so.

And this is your hermeneutic on Calvinism:

He expressly calls himself the Lord and King of heaven and earth, because, by constraining men to obey him in the preaching of the gospel, he establishes his throne on the earth; and, by regenerating his people to a new life, and inviting them to the hope of salvation, he opens heaven to admit to a blessed immortality with angels those who formerly had not only crawled on the world, but had been plunged in the abyss of death. Yet let us remember that what Christ possessed in his own right was given to him by the Father in our flesh, or—to express it more clearly—in the person of the Mediator; for he does not lay claim to the eternal power with which he was endued before the creation of the world, but to that which he has now received, by being appointed to be Judge of the world. Nay, more, it ought to be remarked, that this authority was not fully known until he rose from the dead; for then only did he come forth adorned with the emblems of supreme King. . . .

Let us learn from this passage, that the apostleship is not an empty title, but a laborious office; and that, consequently, nothing is more absurd or intolerable than that this honor should be claimed by hypocrites, who live like kings at their ease, and disdainfully throw away from themselves the office of teaching. The Pope of Rome and his band proudly boast of their succession, as if they held this rank in common with Peter and his companions; and yet they pay no more regard to doctrine than was paid by the Luperci, or the priests of Bacchus and Venus. 324 And with what face, pray, do they claim to be the successors of those who, they are told, were appointed to be preachers of the gospel? But though they are not ashamed to display their impudence, still with every reader of sound judgment this single word is sufficient to lay prostrate their silly hierarchy—that no man can be a successor of the apostles who does not devote his services to Christ in the preaching of the gospel. In short, whoever does not fulfill the duties of a teacher acts wickedly and falsely by assuming the name of an apostle; and what is more—the priesthood of the New Testament consists in slaying men, as a sacrifice to God, by the spiritual sword of the word. Hence it follows, that all are but pretended and spurious priests who are not devoted to the office of teaching.

Christ shows that, in sending the apostles, he does not entirely resign his office, as if he ceased to be the Teacher of his Church; for he sends away the apostles with this reservation, that they shall not bring forward their own inventions, but shall purely and faithfully deliver from hand to hand (as we say) what he has entrusted to them. Would to God that the Pope would subject to this rule the power which he claims for himself; for we would easily permit him to be the successor of Peter or of Paul, provided that he did not usurp a tyrannical dominion over our souls. But as he has set aside the authority of Christ, and infects the Church with his childish fooleries, this shows plainly enough how widely he has departed from the apostolic office. In short, let us hold that by these words teachers are appointed over the Church, not to put forward whatever they may think proper, but that they, as well as others, may depend on the mouth of the Master alone, so as to gain disciples for him, and not for themselves.
And, lo, I am with you always. As Christ gave to the apostles a commission which they were unable to discharge by reliance on merely human power, he encourages them by the assurance of his heavenly protection. For before promising that he would be with them, he began with declaring that he is the, King of heaven and earth, who governs all things by his power and authority. . . .

It ought likewise to be remarked, that this was not spoken to the apostles alone; for the Lord promises his assistance not for a single age only, but even to the end of the world. It is as if he had said, that though the ministers of the gospel be weak and suffer the want of all things: he will be their guardian, so that they will rise victorious over all the opposition of the world. In like manner, experience clearly shows in the present day, that the operations of Christ are carried on wonderfully in a secret manner, so that the gospel surmounts innumerable obstacles.

So much the more intolerable is the wickedness of the Popish clergy, when they take this as a pretext for their sacrilege and tyranny. They affirm that the Church cannot err, because it is governed by Christ; as if Christ, like some private soldier, hired himself for wages to other captains, and as if he had not, on the contrary, reserved the entire authority for himself, and declared that he would defend his doctrine, so that his ministers may confidently expect to be victorious over the whole world.

(Double-bonus: notice the affirmation of Christ’s mediatorial kingship, which is distinct from his kingship as the second person of the Trinity.)

13 thoughts on “How to Interpret the Great Commission

  1. If only we can ignore Jesus as redeemer (human mediator of salvation from divine wrath) when we work with non-Christians. …Since non-Christians can’t be motivated by grace (no grace for them), let’s try to work with them by also ignoring grace when it comes to the justice and politics of this present age? Since of course it’s our vocation to work with them.

    Schweitzer reminds us, “Preaching the cross is laughable and offensive to the world whereas social action is respectable and attractive.” If both these activities are equally understood to constitute obedience to the Great Commission, which of the two is likely to flourish, and which is likely to atrophy? Moreover, even if the church somehow maintains a perfect balance between the two, that still means that her missions resources are being divided between that which the church alone can do (preach the gospel for the salvation of eternal souls) and that which the secular government and false religions can do (social action).”

    http://inscrutablebeing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/talking-past-each-other-on.html

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  2. I respectfully recommend that you read William Symington’s Messiah the Prince. (You can find it online for free.) It is a splendid development of the Scripture’s teaching on the mediatorial kingdom. I pray that all those in the visible Church carefully study the biblical data on Christ’s kingdom, as it exists today. May we all pray with our Lord, “Thy kingdom come.”

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  3. Phil, so you’re a covenanter. Can’t ever tell with your bumper sticker comments.

    Did you know that Samuel Rutherford considered your view (a la Symington) popery? “The Magistrate as a Magistrate is not the Deputie of Jesus Christ as Mediator.” To call the magistrate a deputy of Christ as mediator is “the heart and soule of popery.”

    You might find the essay by the Covenanter, David McKay, in The Faith Once Delivered, ed. Anthony Selvagio, instructive. (I’m not holding my breath.)

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  4. Ben, so? No one is denying that everything is subject to Christ. Every orthodox Reformed Protestant affirms that Christ rules the church differently from the way he rules society. Theonomists, Covenanters, and neo-Calvinists fall off their high horse on that difference.

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  5. Kent,

    Way lame,

    Like a third baseman calling a walk-off-homerun a cheap shot as the batter rounds third base

    At least DGH brings some substance

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  6. What are you even talking about Dr. Hart?

    1) What does that have to do with Rutherford and Symington?

    2) You are aware Rutherford wouldn’t exactly agree with you on two kingdoms stuff right?

    3) That Abraham Kuyper openly disagreed with the Covenanter (as well as the Rutherford/Establishment) position?

    What do those three groups have to do with one another?

    So what is your point?

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  7. Ben, what’s yours? It’s not as if Symington is the only view and settles all debates. That’s the point. So Phil appeals to Symington. Woopeedo. Try telling my why 2k is wrong aside from quoting some historical person who isn’t inspired and isn’t the pope. 2kers have long understood they disagree with a host of folks, that Calvin’s Geneva is not Witherspoon’s Philadelphia. It’s 2k critics who can’t seem to appreciate the difference between themselves and Calvin.

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  8. Ben, so now Symington’s a straw man? Can you get your story straight? Or how about admitting that you have no more interest in returning to Calvin’s Geneva or Rutherford’s Scotland than Tim Keller does? But if you do want to go back there, your problem is a lot bigger than 2k. In which case, you could thank us for providing a dog for you to kick.

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