Now as we look at this commission, we see three parts to it. First, there is an announcement of Christ’s authority, which we find in verse 18: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Second, we find a command: “Go ye therefore and teach [make disciples of] 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” (vv. 19-20). And then third, we have a great promise: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (v. 20).
Notice that each one is linked to the resurrection. Christ has authority because He is the victor over death and all other enemies. He gives the command, which is to make disciples, centered in His death and resurrection. And finally, He gives the promise of His presence with us unto the end of the age; and that, too, is based upon His resurrection because it is the living Christ who makes this promise.
First, there is this announcement of Christ’s authority. “All authority,” He says, “is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” We can’t overestimate how important that authority is because it is that authority that makes the missionary enterprise of the Church of Jesus Christ possible. Jesus spells it out in two different areas. He says, first of all, that all authority is given unto Him in heaven, and then, secondly, that all authority is given unto Him on earth.
What does it mean when He says that “all authority is given unto me in heaven”? Well, it could merely mean that His authority is recognized in heaven. He is the second person of the Godhead, equal with the Father in majesty and might, and therefore, as authoritative as Jehovah Himself. All that is true. And yet as I think about this phrase “in heaven” and I begin to put it into the context of other verses which also refer to the powers in heaven, in Paul’s writing and elsewhere, I sense that what the Lord is talking about here is not so much simply an acknowledgment of that authority that is His but a declaration that His authority is superior to and over all other authorities—including spiritual or demonic powers.
We think, for example, of Paul’s statement in the last chapter of the book of Ephesians, where he is writing to Christians of their spiritual warfare and says to them, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12). And what he refers to here is spiritual demonic power that would resist the proclamation of the Gospel. And then we go back to the first chapter of that book where he declares that the Lord Jesus Christ was lifted up above all these principalities and powers in His resurrection and ascension. His resurrection is that which demonstrates His authority over every power you can possibly imagine. And therefore we don’t fear the resistance of Satan or any other power either.
Second, He says that He has authority not only over everything in heaven, but He also has authority over everything on earth. What does that mean? One thing it means is that He has authority over us. Certainly, He must have authority over us if we are His people. If we come as Christians professing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and to follow Him as Lord, that is hypocrisy if it doesn’t include His authority over us in every area of our lives.
