Great Commission
Mat 28:18-20. [And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”] This is the Great Commission, given by our Lord to His disciples. Its three-fold nature runs in parallel with the three-fold command given to Adam in the garden, which is found in Gen 1:27-28 [So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”]
When we look at the big picture, we ask: What is the purpose of our lives—why are we here raising families and doing all that we do? This is what the catechism question (What is the chief end of man?) states. The answer is: To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Two scriptures that go with this answer are Mat 5:16 [In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven] and 1 Cor 10:31 [So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God]. What does it mean to glorify God in the way we were designed to do. A person who has an expensive car and adores it will draw the attention of other people to it and speak about it incessantly. It is the same way with glorifying God, and you spend time thinking about Him, and encouraging others to think about His magnificence.
As an image bearer of God, the first Adam was given a three-fold command. We glorify God when we obey this command, imaging God, reflecting Him to the rest of creation, and showing them what God is like. Our hearts are designed to obey this command, and when we don’t we experience great weakness of spirit.
The three-fold command given to Adam
BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY AND FILL THE EARTH. When we have families, we fulfill this, and in so doing, we proclaim that God is a God of loving relationships. God is love. He has eternally existed as three Persons in the one Being. The father has eternally loved the Son and the Son has eternally loved the father, and through the Spirit they have eternally shared this unity. The reply Jesus gave, when a scribe asked Him what the greatest commandment was, is recorded for us in Mark 12:29-31 [. . . ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’]. He commands us to love, because He is love, and when we love others, we show others who He is. We are to weep with those who weep and bear one another’s burdens. In this way, as image bearers, we glorify God before one another and to the animals and even to the angels. But the problem is that we fall far short of God’s glory. People love to read and hear stories about fictional characters. Many people are fascinated by characters on screen in movies, which is why TV shows like Shortland Street are so popular. In this way, romance-novel readers, binge-watching Netflix addicts, cat and dog lovers, and so on, irrespective of whether they are believers or not, all proclaim the importance of relationships. We are created for relationships, and instead of enjoying a relationship with Him and with our brothers and sisters, we resort to the wrong avenues, like it says in Jer 2:13 [for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.]
SUBDUE IT. God calls us to image Him by going forth and creating order. You can see examples of this in architectural design, planning of gardens, taming of animals, and so on. When we organise and use the earth’s resources, we are imitating God’s creativity. Humanity is the master in place of the Sovereign Lord of the universe. We are supremely created in His image. Everywhere you look, you can see believers and unbelievers obeying the Lord in this. We are most satisfied when we do this. This is why children, and grownups too, love to play strategy games on the computer, spending hours creating, designing, and gathering and using resources in these games. God has blessed us with hobbies and occupations, and those not doing these things feel bored. Little boys love to build Lego towers and young girls love to play house and organise dinners? Even the reason why people would want to put the pieces of a jigsaw together is because the desire for order and organisation is hard wired in us.
HAVE DOMINION OVER EVERY LIVING THING . . . God is wise, righteous, just, and merciful, and we reflect this when we look after animals. The reason we have the drive to look after animals is because God has given us a conscience to do so. Human beings have to contain fierce animals and put strong animals to work as kind masters.
When we are born again, we are created anew in Christ, after the image of Christ, and we are given the Great Commission to obey, and this is also three-fold like the command humans were given after their physical creation.
GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. This, like the command to fill the earth with people, is telling us to fill the earth with disciples like ourselves. This is about the multiplication of disciples and expansion of the church, so that every people group is reached with the gospel of Christ.
BAPTISE IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT. What a blessing it is to hear the testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by the gospel, when they come to be baptised. Baptism is the way we demonstrate to the watching worlds that we have been subdued and brought under submission to God’s rule.
TEACH THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THAT JESUS COMMANDED US. Disciples must be taught to leave their old sins and follow after Him. They must be taught to align their lives with His rule. In this way the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
More satisfaction and joy is to be had when we join the conquering army of the Lord against the hordes of Satan, than in a video game. Joining the mission of Christ to bring real people into real relationship with Christ and with God’s people is more worthwhile and satisfying than relating to mere characters on a television screen or in a book. When we were born again in Christ and our new nature craves to do what He wants—to image Him by going to the nations, to make disciples and changing their allegiance to do our part in subduing the whole world to bow to His rule—we must be involved in carrying out the great commission, otherwise our heart will be sick. So we need to obey Him. We may be called to go as a missionary to another country, or we may be called to support missionaries with our means and with our prayers, meanwhile reaching out to workmates and those around us, challenging them to follow Christ.