The Great Commission (c. 30 AD)

Before His Ascension, Christ entrusted His Church with a divine mandate, the commission that would carry His saving work to the ends of the earth:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo” (Matthew 28:19 to 20, KJV).

Here, the Church is revealed as a living, teaching, sacramental, and missionary body. She bears the full authority of Christ’s presence, for He adds, “you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of” (Matthew 28:20, KJV). This promise is not mere comfort but an eternal assurance that the Risen Lord Himself abides within His Body, the Church, guiding, sanctifying, and preserving her in truth.

Christ did not send the apostles in their own name or human wisdom, but as extensions of His divine mission. “be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I” (John 20:21, KJV). Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they would act in His stead: forgiving sins, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23, KJV); preaching repentance and the remission of sins in His Name, “and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47, KJV); and baptizing into the death and Resurrection of Christ: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4, KJV). Thus, the ministry of the apostles is not independent, but the visible continuation of Christ’s own work in the world.

The Lord’s words, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, KJV), reveal the indestructibility of this divine institution. Though the world may rage against her and kingdoms fall, the Church remains unshaken, for her foundation is not in stone or empire, but in the living Christ, the Rock upon whom all creation is sustained. As Moses lifted up his staff over the Red Sea to part the waters and lead Israel to freedom, so now Christ raises the Cross as the sign of victory over sin and death, leading His new Israel, the Church, through the waters of Baptism into the freedom of eternal life. “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16, KJV).

The unity of the Church mirrors the unity of the Holy Trinity. As the Lord prayed before His Passion, “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent” (John 17:21, KJV). The oneness of the Church, therefore, is not organizational but ontological, a sharing in the divine communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In her sacraments, her truth, her worship, and her doctrine, she participates in the life of God Himself.

The Church is thus both ark and temple: like Noah’s ark, she preserves life amid the flood of sin and corruption; like the Temple of Solomon, she is filled with the glory of the Lord, for her true cornerstone is Christ, “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:20 to 22, KJV). Through her, divine grace flows into the world, sanctifying time and space, and transforming fallen humanity into the dwelling place of God.

Her mission is to bring light where there is darkness, to call every soul from the tomb of sin into the life of the Resurrection. As St. Paul declares, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6, KJV). Each baptized believer becomes a living stone in the new creation, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9, KJV), called to proclaim the mighty works of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

The Great Commission, therefore, is not a command to mere outward preaching, but a call to manifest the very presence of the Risen Christ in the world. The apostles, and through them the whole Church, are bearers of the divine life, ambassadors of the Kingdom, witnesses of the Resurrection, and ministers of reconciliation. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to” (2 Corinthians 5:20, KJV). Through them, and through the succession of faith and grace that followed, the light of Christ spread from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, fulfilling the prophecy: “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:4, KJV). As Saint Paul spoke, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18, KJV).