In the reality of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus as the King of the heavenly kingdom has charged us to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Divine Trinity (Matt. 28:19).
The Lord Jesus as a God-Man passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, and resurrection, and in His resurrection He was given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Hallelujah, a Man, Jesus, has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He is our glorious King, the King of the heavenly kingdom, while we are the many subjects and citizens of this kingdom!
Now because all authority has been given to this resurrected Christ, He commissions us, He charges us, and He sends us to disciple all the nations, and we go with His authority!
When we go to preach the gospel, we go with the Lord’s authority; yes, we do go to impart the divine life into people, and we want to bring them to know Christ and receive forgiveness of sins, but above all, we desire to make them part of the enlargement of the kingdom of the heavens.
There is the aspect of life, in which Christ in His resurrection came to breathe Himself into His believers to regenerate them and make them the many members of His Body, but there is also the aspect of the kingdom, in which Christ as the King commissioned His disciples to disciple all the nations.
How do we disciple the nations? It is not only by preaching the gospel of the kingdom for them to believe into the Lord and become citizens of the kingdom of God, but by baptizing them into the Triune God!
We have been sent by the Lord not only to save people from hell and eternal perdition but also to disciple the nations to make them citizens of the kingdom of the heavens!
To disciple the nations is to make the heathen the kingdom people for the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth, which is the church today. And the way we disciple the nations is by baptizing them into the Triune God, that is, by bringing them into an organic union with the Triune God.
The kingdom of God is simply God Himself; to bring people into the kingdom of God is to bring them into God, into an organic union with God, by immersing them into the reality of all that God is. Hallelujah! What a great commission we have!
We are Charged to make the Heathen the Kingdom People by Baptizing them into the Triune God
The Lord’s great commission is that we go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
To baptize people is to bring the repentant ones out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ for them to become kingdom people.
John the Baptist came preaching the baptism of repentance, which was the baptism in water only, and the Lord Jesus also baptised people, baptizing those who repented for the kingdom.
After the Lord Jesus as the heavenly King accomplished His ministry on earth, He passed through the process of death and resurrection and became a life-giving Spirit.
Now in resurrection Christ charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. We are charged to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the Triune God!
This baptism has two aspects, one being the visible aspect by water and the other the invisible aspect in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48).
On one hand we baptize people in the water as the expression and testimony of the invisible reality; on the other hand, there’s an invisible reality of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible by water is vain, just a formality; without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical.
After Christ as the last Adam had accomplished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and had become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection to charge them to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Divine Trinity.
First, He Himself baptized His disciples and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17), and then based upon this baptism, the disciples went on to baptize others.
The disciples as the citizens of the heavenly kingdom baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38) not only visibly in water but also invisibly into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).
When the Lord charged us to disciple the nations to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the Triune God, this meant that we need to put people into God Himself with all that He is – with His death, Christ, and the Body of Christ.
On the negative side through baptism the old life is terminated, and on the positive side their new life begins, for the new converts have the divine life of God to be members of the Body of Christ and live the kingdom life on earth.
The baptism obtained by the Lord is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.
Thank You Lord for giving us the authority to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the Triune God. Hallelujah, Christ as the last Adam passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into resurrection, and became a life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into man, and He charged us to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the reality of the Divine Trinity! Praise the Lord, we were baptized into the Triune God, and now we are preaching the gospel of the kingdom to baptize others also into the Divine Trinity!
Baptizing People into the Triune God to bring them into an Organic Union with Him
The gospel preaching today is not bad, but it is mainly a preaching at the cross, for it is only with the crucified Christ in view.
But Christ is no longer on the cross – He exists in resurrection, even in ascension! And in His resurrection He has given us all authority in heaven and on earth to preach the gospel of the kingdom and make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the Divine Trinity! Amen!
We need to preach the gospel in this atmosphere, in the atmosphere of resurrection, and we even have to charge the unbelievers to repent, believe into the Lord, and be baptized.
Sometimes we are too timid when we preach the gospel, asking people gently if they want to be baptized… – but all authority has been given to us, for we are one with Christ, and we can stand one with Christ to command others to repent and be baptized into the Triune God!
We need to exercise the authority of Christ in a proper way; it’s time to recover not just the power but also the authority of the gospel as we preach the gospel of the kingdom.
This word, “into” in Matt. 28:19 indicates union; to baptize people into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is to bring them into an organic union with the Triune God.
To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
There is one name for the Divine Trinity, and this name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. So when we preach the gospel and people believe, we should baptize them into the Triune God, putting them into the person of the Triune God.
We have been charged to snatch people out of the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of God, putting them into the person of the Triune God. Our commission is to transfer people from rebellion into obedience, out of the authority of Satan into God Himself.
Amen, to baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is.
From the very beginning of the gospel of Matthew the Divine Trinity is revealed for the kingdom of God; there is one name, but three in the Godhead, and these work as one for the kingdom of God.
In Matt 1:18 we see the Holy Spirit and Christ the Son, and in v. 23 we see God the Father who work together for the producing of the man Jesus (v. 21) as the embodiment of the Triune God.
When Christ was about to start His ministry on earth, He as the Son was standing in the water, the Father spoke from the heavens (vv. 16-17), and the Spirit descended as a dove upon Him. In ch. 12 the Son cast out demons by the Spirit to bring in the kingdom of the Father (v. 28).
Now in Matt. 28, the last chapter in Matthew, we see that Christ in resurrection came back to His disciples to charge them to cause the heathen to become the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality of the Divine Trinity. Hallelujah, what a great commission we have!
Lord Jesus, we go on Your name with Your authority to preach the gospel of the kingdom and baptize people into the Triune God so that heathen people can become citizens of the kingdom of God. Amen, Lord, keep us in You, immersed in You and saturated with You, so that we may also bring others to be immersed into the Triune God and enter into an organic union with Him. Yes, Lord Jesus, we want that even today we would bring many into this spiritual and mystical union with the Triune God by preaching the gospel of the kingdom and baptizing people into the Divine Trinity!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Facem din păgâni oameni ai împărăției botezându-i întru Dumnezeul Triunic.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 72 (Witness Lee, 1957), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 8, Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and Discipling All the Nations for the Spread and Development of the Kingdom of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
# After He had risen, Jesus appeared to His disciples, declaring unto them: / Go, now go into all the world and proclaim the gospel there! / He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; be saved and not condemned! / Preach and proclaim unto all creation, going everywhere. (Song on, Go, Now Go!)
# We’re baptized unto Thy dear name, / No more our own are we; / Thy steps we’d follow, for Thee live, / And e’er be one with Thee. (Hymns #937)
# What a happy day / When I no more could turn away, / When Jesus took my heart from the black of night / Into the kingdom of His light. / Now my life’s begun, / The “really life” that’s in the Son. / No more am I enthralled by earth’s empty dreams; / Deep in me flows a living stream. (Hymns #1333)
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