Chapter Three: The Starting Place
It is important to bear in mind that the true historical beginning of Christianity, considered as an institution, is not found in the first chapters of the four Gospels, but in the last. This institution or church was founded and widely spread over the earth before any of these Gospels had been written; and it was founded by the application of those very principles which are the subject of our present investigation. It is true that the wonderful facts which came subsequently to be recorded by the evangelists were well known by the apostles. The Christ had come into the world—God's only begotten Son—and had lived and taught among men. His chosen disciples had listened to his instructions, had witnessed his miraculous works, had been near to him in his sufferings and death, and had seen him again and again after his resurrection. On one of these occasions—the last one, at the close of his earthly work and mission, and just before he went back to live forever with his Father in Heaven — he gave commandment to his apostles, and sent them forth into the world. He commissioned them as his ambassadors, giving them special instructions as to what they were to teach and what they were to do in his name; and it was the execution of this mission which resulted subsequently in the establishment of the church and the propagation of the Christian religion. This, then, was the starting place. It was the initiation of the great movement which has so wonderfully and powerfully affected the world; and we may expect, consequently, to find in this commission, either explicitly or implicitly, all the essential elements and "first principles" of the doctrine of Christ. It shall be my object, therefore, to study it, first in its terms—to weigh and consider with all possible care the language of the document itself; to see what it means—what the Saviour meant by it; and then, secondly, to go with the inspired apostles out into the world, as they were engaged in the execution of it, in order to see how they understood it. I cannot doubt that, if we engage in this task in the proper spirit, free from all bias and prejudice, and in humble dependence upon God, we shall be guided into the certain knowledge of those great principles which constitute the very essence and stability of the Christian religion.
We have in the Synoptic Gospels three separate versions of the commission. The reasons for this we need not pause here to consider; suffice it to say that they are mutually supplementary to each other, and we may understand that together they give us all the elements of that most important and fruitful deliverance. I will quote them here, once for all, as they stand in the Revised Version.
1. "And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing. them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:18-20.)
2. "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." (Mark 16:15-16.)
3. "Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures; and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:45-49.) We cannot doubt that our Lord imparted to the apostles, on the occasion to which I have alluded, all the terms of this commission, 1: e., everything mentioned in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke; but the Holy Spirit, perhaps in order to induce us to study and compare these sacred records, has caused them to be written in part by one evangelist and in part by the others.
A brief and, for the present, quite superficial comparison of these versions will serve to show that, from Matthew's alone, we should not know how disciples were to be made; and while it reveals the obligation imposed upon the apostles to administer baptism, it does not disclose the motive which would induce men to submit to or desire baptism. From Mark's version alone we should have no baptismal formula; nor should we know that the baptized would sustain the personal relation of disciples to the Lord; and from neither of these versions should we learn that repentance was to be preached. From Luke's version we learn nothing about belief, or the consequence of disbelief; nothing about baptism; nothing about discipleship; but we do learn that the word " saved," as used in Mark, has the special signification of "remission of sins," and that this is closely connected with repentance. We also learn that the apostles were to be witnesses of the facts of the gospel; that they were to begin in Jerusalem, but not until after they should be clothed with power from on high.
If now we merge the three versions into one, and arrange their several items in what seems to be the natural order of their presentation, we shall have the following tabulation:
1. The apostles were to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be clothed with power from on high.
2. They were (first in Jerusalem and afterwards in all the world) to "preach the gospel," involving the Christhood, the sufferings and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
3. They were to bear personal " witness " to the facts of the gospel, and to confirm their testimony by the written word—their minds having been opened to understand the Scriptures.
4. They were to expect that the gospel thus preached and witnessed would, in many cases, result in "belief," in others in "disbelief," to be followed by "condemnation."
5. Those who believed would, as the .natural consequence, though it is not here stated in terms, become distressed on account of their personal sins.
6. Such persons were to be told in the first place to "repent," and in the second, to be "baptized" in the name of Christ, and ”into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
7. Upon compliance, they were to be assured of the "remission of sins," or that they were "saved" from their sins.
8. As the result of all this, they would be recognized as "disciples" of Christ, and, as his disciples, they were to be "taught" to observe "all things that he had commanded."
9. In the execution of this commission the apostles were assured that their Lord would always "be with them," even "unto the end of the world."
From this brief summary of the commission, it is evident that some things in it must, of necessity, be confined exclusively to the apostles—such as their personal testimony to the facts of the gospel, and their miraculous endowment from on high; both of which, however, were for the sake of establishing those great and fundamental principles of the gospel—also contained in the commission—which are of universal and unchanging obligation. These we shall next take up seriatim. And surely if Christianity was developed out of them, and if it is still maintained and perpetuated by them, they must be worthy of our most thoughtful and serious consideration.