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This week we continue our series looking at how we are created in the image of God, and we come to a very familiar passage, one which is used in almost every local church's mission statement I have seen; Matthew 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.”'

The authority

Jesus' words here are very interesting; he begins by declaring that all authority is his before telling his disciples to make more disciples, and links the two thoughts with the word 'therefore'. How are these two ideas linked in such a way that Jesus used the word 'therefore' in explaining why we should make disciples? Apart from the fact that Jesus' authority means we should willingly submit to him and 'therefore' we go, I believe that something deeper is happening here. Jesus' authority means that we must go and make disciples because of the truth that is mentioned in verse 20. Jesus declaring that he is with us always hints to the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost. Ephesians 1:13 states that we were 'sealed with the promised Holy Spirit', and it is him, our constant companion and our reminder that Jesus is always with us, who confirms in us what Jesus was saying in these verses.

I know this sounds cryptic but hear me out; being created in the image of God is like how a glove is created in the image of a hand - the glove is designed to be filled with a hand. We have been designed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and it is by this authority that we receive from God that we must, 'therefore', emulate Jesus' example. He was addressing his disciples at this point and essentially saying, 'I made you my disciples, so now go and disciple others because you have that same authority.' It was said elsewhere by Jesus to his disciples that 'whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father' (John 14:12). Jesus wants us to know that Jesus example is not just a good one, but one that we should all aim to emulate for his glory.

All nations

This is one place in Jesus' ministry where he specifically commanded us to include 'all nations' in our ministry. Jewish converts in the early church found it difficult to understand that God's plan suddenly included the gentiles as well, but it is verses such as this one that confirm to us that the idea was not a new one; it was Jesus' plan all along! The truth is that God is a God of the nations; apart from promising Abraham that he would be a father of 'a multitude of nations' rather than just Israel in Genesis 17:4 and that through his offspring (i.e. Jesus) 'all the nations of the world will be blessed' (Genesis 22:18, emphasis mine) we see mentions of God's multi-national plan throughout the whole Old Testament. Psalm 72 demands for 'all nations' to serve God, and Isaiah 52:10 declares that 'all the ends of the earth shall the salvation of our God.' Without finding every other reference we should take on board the fact that if we are created in God's image (and we are) then we, like God, should have a heart for all the nations, starting in our own neighbourhood but certainly never stopping there.

This may take two forms - on the one hand it means that we should be aware of the fact that God may send us to a foreign land to spread His good news - while it is a mighty privilege to impact our neighbours with the truth of Jesus' ministry God is over the nations, and so should our ministry. On the other hand the nations should be represented in our own local churches; we only truly see the local church bearing the image of God when our churches are as multicultural as the earth God created. It is my firm belief that the diversity of a church is a direct measure of how active the Spirit of God is in a local church's life; the more diverse the congregation, the more welcome to God's will the congregation and, of course, their leaders. Clearly there are some geographical areas which are predominantly of one cultural background; the diversity of our local church should reflect the diversity of the population. If our local church is based next to a college we should expect to see a high number of students in the congregation - if we are not then we should question our theology of God as God of the nations and how that impacts the way we bear His image. While numerous painters have historically portrayed Jesus as the glowing white bearded man that is not the image I believe God wants the church to portray!

The commandments

It is at this point that I get the question fired at me: 'Sam, I thought you were all about a gospel of grace! Why do we now need to start telling people to obey God's commandments? Doesn't Romans explain that the only purpose of the law is to demonstrate our own sinfulness?' And, of course, you would be correct in saying that; we therefore would do well to look at this phrase in light of what we know about being created personally and corporately in the image of God. The reason why we should obey the commandments is not in order to earn our own salvation - if we had to earn our salvation through good works there would be no hope for any of us! In commanding this we should look at what Jesus did, because of course he observed all the commandments...or did he? It is a common mistake that Christians make to declare that Jesus never took a step out of line with the commandments given in the Old Testament and in that way did what we could not, because this is not entirely true. As Craig Groeschel would say, it is true...ish; while Jesus did everything in line with God's will there are some Old Testament commandments which were not strictly kept - he did not stone the adulterous woman, and he continually offended the Jewish teachers of the law on the Sabbath.

We need to redefine what Jesus meant, therefore, in verse 20. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount we see Jesus showing us that even if we keep our externals looking perfect our heart still lets us down, and it is our heart that he is really interested in. Jesus' words to us here are not that we should go and tell people the literal words 'do as God says in the ten commandments', but rather we should explain how the only way we can have the freedom to keep God's commandments is empowered by God's Spirit, whom we receive when we accept God's wonderful free gift of grace. The only way we can have a truly pure heart is if it could be covered in some way - if our sin and guilt and shame and filthiness could be taken away and somehow replaced by a new, clean heart. The good news is that this has happened - I'll give us three verses before saying goodbye until next week. Ezekiel 36:26 promised 'I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.' In addition to this we learn from 2 Corinthians 5:21 that 'for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.' And finally, Titus 3:5-7 tells us in one of my favourite passages that 'he saved us...according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life'.

Could anything possibly be any sweeter? Let's be encouraged by God's grace, and let's do as Jesus asked us by faithfully discipling those in our care, bringing glory to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

A Great House Falls