The Commission
It is God’s purpose that His people shall be a sanctified, purified,
holy people, communicating light to all around them. It is His purpose
that, by exemplifying the truth in their lives, they shall be a praise in
the earth. The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about. But
let God’s people remember that only as they believe and work out
the principles of the gospel can He make them a praise in the earth.
Only as they use their God-given capabilities in His service will they
enjoy the fullness and power of the promise whereon the church has
been called to stand. If those who profess to believe in Christ as
their Saviour reach only the low standard of worldly measurement, the
church fails to bear the rich harvest that God expects. “Found wanting”
is written upon her record.
The commission that Christ gave to His disciples just before His
ascension is the great missionary charter of His kingdom. In giving it to
the disciples, the Saviour made them His ambassadors and gave them
their credentials. If, afterward, they should be challenged and asked by
what authority they, unlearned fishermen, went forth as teachers and
healers, they could reply: “He whom the Jews crucified, but who rose
from the dead, appointed us to the ministry of His word, declaring,
‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.’”
Christ gave this commission to His disciples as His chief ministers,
the architects who were to lay the foundation of His church. He laid
upon them, and upon all who should succeed them as His ministers,
the charge of handing His gospel down from generation to generation,
from age to age.
The disciples were not to wait for the people to come to them. They
were to go to the people, hunting for sinners as a shepherd hunts for
lost sheep. Christ opened the world before them as their field of labor.
They were to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
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creature.”
Mark 16:15
. It was of the Saviour that they were to preach,
of His life of unselfish service, His death of shame, His unparalleled,
unchanging love. His name was to be their watchword, their band of
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