Matthew 28:19

Matthew 28:19. Therefore. The glorification of Christ is the ground of His sending them, and the blessed reason why in their weakness and insufficiency they can go. Evidently addressed to all the brethren, not to the Apostles only, and so understood in the early Church (comp. Acts 8:1; Acts 8:4).

Make disciples of. More than ‘teach.' It includes the two means which follow: ‘baptizing' ‘teaching' (Matthew 28:20), probably referring to the whole process of Christianizing, from beginning to end. Because Christ rules (Matthew 28:18), go, not to conquer men by force, but to work on their hearts make them disciples, docile pupils in the school of Christ.

All the nations. The limitation of chap. Matthew 10:5 is now removed. Then the disciples needed time to learn; now their commission is made universal. Yet the Jewish prejudice could not be overcome at once, and the Apostles themselves, until further revelation came (Acts 10), were in doubt whether circumcision were not first necessary. This fact shows that we could never have had the gospel, if the Gospel history had not been explained by the further revelation, which some now seek to underrate.

Baptizing them. The ‘discipling' consists of two parts: baptism, the rite of admission, and the subsequent instruction. This is the ordinary process in the Christian Church. And it has been usually understood as referring to admission into the covenant in infancy; then a growing up in Christian instruction. Too often, parents have clung to the former with superstitious scrupulousness, and neglected the latter. This method can apply only to Christian churches already established. As the Jewish religion began with the promise of God, and the faith and circumcision of adult Abraham (see Romans 4:11), so the Christian Church was founded in the beginning, and is now propagated in all heathen countries by the preaching of the Gospel to, and by the baptism of, adults. But even in the case of adult converts, a full instruction in the Christian religion does not, as a rule, precede, but succeed baptism, which is an initiatory rite, the sacramental sign and seal of regeneration, i.e. , of the beginning of the new life, not of sanctification or growth in holiness.

Into the name, etc. This includes the idea of ‘by the authority of,' also ‘dedicated into communion and fellowship with.' It implies, not only a confession on the part of the one baptized, but an admission to privilege: the rite, the sign and seal of both. It is into one name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is impossible that this means, the one name of God, of a mere man, and of an attribute of God. It is the one name of One God, existing (as well as manifested), as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Comp, the baptism of Jesus, where all three persons of the Godhead revealed themselves. The doctrine of the Trinity receives powerful support from passages like this, but it rests even more on facts, on the whole Scripture revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the three great works of creation, redemption, and sanctification. All of which are signified and sealed in this formula of baptism. Since God reveals Himself as He is: this Trinity of revelation (oeconomical Trinity) involves the Trinity of essence (ontological Trinity).