Matthew 28:18-20 The Great Controversy

I call this the great controversy, but not because everybody is talking about it.  They aren’t.  Nobody is talking about it except a few denominations that nobody pays attention to.

I call it the controversy great, because it involves what we call the Great Commission.  And if we get this part wrong, then I would say that we are making what I would call a GREAT mistake.

And I call it a controversy, because probably most people would disagree with this article, but I suspect they hadn’t really thought about it before either.

The controversy involves baptism.

The great commission is found in various forms in the different gospels and Acts, but let me mention two and focus on one. 

Mark 16:15,16 says: And He [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has not believed shall be condemned.

We all know of course of verses like John 3:16, where baptism isn’t mentioned.  Yes, salvation is by faith and faith alone.  Nobody is disputing that. 

The point I do want to make is that I believe God puts an emphasis on baptism that we don’t, and whether or not we fully understand all the reasons why, we should put the same emphasis on it that He does.

The second passage is Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came up and spoke to them [the disciples], saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The command is to make disciples of all the nations.  This is done by doing two things: first baptizing people and then teaching them to keep everything that Jesus had commanded the disciples. 

Baptism is the first step.  Not one way down the road. 

On the day of Pentecost, the first day that the apostles got to start their work, the crowd asked Peter what they needed to do to respond to his message.  He said to repent and be baptized.  Acts 2:38

In Acts chapter 8, Philip had gone to Samaria to preach the gospel, and when the people believed the message that Philip gave, they were all baptized.  Acts 8:12

Later in the same chapter, Philip was preaching the gospel to a man he met in the desert.  They passed some water, and the man asked to be baptized.  Acts 8:36

In Acts 16, a jailor believed on Jesus in the middle of the night, and Paul baptized him and his family then and there.  Acts 16:33

In Acts 19, Paul met a group of new believers who needed some direction, which Paul promptly gave and then he baptized them.   Acts 19:5

Yes, there are some times when baptism isn’t mentioned when the gospel was preached and people responded, but I think it’s more likely that it was regarded as not necessary to mention that rather than that their practice of baptizing was more haphazard.

There are two Bible passages that make more sense now when we see baptism as an introduction to the Christian life rather than a later event.

I Corinthians 12:12,13 says: 12  For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Many Bible teachers say that this baptism by the Spirit into the body of Christ is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, mentioned in the gospels and Acts, but in those passages, Jesus is the one doing the baptizing, and the Spirit is what He is pouring out onto believers.  In Corinthians, the Spirit is the one doing the baptizing, and He is incorporating believers into the body of Christ. 

Someone might ask: but what if a person wasn’t baptized?  Are they then not a member of the Body of Christ?  I would say that if you are a Christian and haven’t been baptized, then I would think that you have some explaining to do, and not to me.

Another passage like this is Romans 6:1-4, which reads: 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  3  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  4  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Those who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death.  Is Paul talking about something that automatically happens to believers when they accept Christ, or does a physical act actually affect spiritual realities?

I think if you were to ask Paul a question like this, he might first give you a strange look and then verbally chastise you like you had never heard before.  He would think you are mocking God and making light of His commands.  That question would probably never have come up to him, because they never would have imagined a Christian who wasn’t baptized.

I think a lot of Christians will read this and think, what’s the big deal?  What was the big deal about the Israelites walking around Jericho for seven days?  When we do things that God says only when we understand why completely, we will miss the will of God.  And that’s not how you want to live the Christian life.