This redemptive plan focuses on the glory of God, but not in an abstract, self-focused sense. Instead, the glory of God finds its expression in the incarnation, atonement, and exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth. The entire sweep of redemptive history finds its goal in the glory of God in Christ. God is glorified when his messianic king is recognized as the rightful governor of the entire created universe (Phil 2:7-11). For this reason, the apostle Peter is able to speak of God’s glory as focused particularly on the Kingdom inheritance of Jesus as Messiah (1 Pet 4:11), a doxological theme that is in line with Old Testament messianic promise (Ps 2:4-12; 110:1-7). In the new covenant, God unveils the identity of the redemptive focus, Jesus of Nazareth, and commands all nations to surrender to his kingship.
This Christocentric focus of the Great Commission is imperiled as perhaps never before. Religious pluralism, now rampant in mainline denominations, insists that Christ is one path, among many possible paths, to the divine.[1] More subtle, and thus more deadly to the Great Commission fervor of the church, is the emergence among so-called evangelical theologians and missionaries of “inclusivism,” that is, the idea that persons may be saved through Christ without explicit faith in him.[2]
Some argue that the unevangelized may express faith through the testimony of general revelation. Others argue that the Spirit is at work in the other world religions, with an agenda of his own that is wider than the mission of Jesus.[3] Still others appeal to the example of Old Testament believers, who were saved without knowing the name of Jesus, as hope for the salvation of those who never hear the gospel. Some missiological fads seek to “build bridges” with existing world religions as “preparation for the gospel,” with some even suggesting such things as evangelizing Muslims with the proclamation that “Allah became flesh and dwelt among us.” And, of course, many of our churches are filled with the popular notion that it would be “unfair” of God to condemn someone who was never confronted with the gospel.[4]
Such notions cut the heart out of the Great Commission, both in terms of its urgency and its focus on the kingship of Christ. After the ascension of Jesus, it would have been quite uncomplicated for the apostles to call for Jews to hope in the future messianic empire, consistent with Old Testament prophetic hope. The apostles could have warned their contemporaries that their works or tribal identities could not save them. They could have pointed to the righteousness of an unnamed Davidic Messiah as the source of salvation.
And yet, their commission from Jesus would not allow for generic sincerity, or even “faith” in a generic Christ. The Book of Acts explodes with a passionate call for explicit faith in “this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). This is precisely what Jesus meant when he compared salvation to Moses’ lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-15). Even as the Israelites saved from the venomous bites were to look to the emblem, so must those rescued from the death-bite of the serpent of Eden look in faith to this particular One who was sacrificed outside the gates of Jerusalem.
But what if, one may ask, the hypothetical “man on an island” acknowledges the Creator God revealed in general revelation, and is convicted by the Spirit of sin, a sin uncovered by the law written on his heart? What if he then throws himself on the mercy of this God for forgiveness?[5] This is somewhat like asking whether someone would need to call on Christ if the individual never sins and perfectly obeys the law of God. Such a situation never happens. The apostle Paul anticipates such questions, and answers them decisively: one cannot call on Christ without faith, one cannot come to faith without preaching, and one cannot hear preaching unless the church is faithful to the Great Commission (Rom 10:14-17).
The Spirit does not work independently of God’s purpose to glorify Christ through the new covenant witness of the church. It is not unusual that Jesus should tell his disciples that the mission of the Spirit is to testify to his messianic identity, and to glorify him (John 15:26; 16:14), if in fact the goal of God’s Kingdom purposes is to see to it that Christ “will come to have first place in everything” (Col 1:18). Calling on Jesus as Lord is not a hoop through which one jumps to reach the goal of eternal life; instead, Jesus himself is eternal life, and the confession of Jesus as lord is the goal (Phil 2:9-11).
A “sinner’s prayer” is a part of coming to faith in Christ, but it is not a formula. The confession of Jesus as lord is an acknowledgment that Jesus is the Creator God who alone can save (Isaiah 45:23; Rom 10:9). It is the sinner bending the knee before the tribunal of God and confessing in the present what one day the entire creation will acknowledge, that Jesus of Nazareth is the just and righteous ruler of the cosmos.
That is why the Great Commission focuses on the identity and mission of Jesus, and why that stirs such controversy from first-century Jerusalem to twenty-first century Baghdad. And that is why the evangelistic task of the church must focus on Christ, and not simply on avoiding hell or healing one’s marriage or finding purpose in one’s life. This is also why the Great Commission centers on preaching and teaching. In the Commission, the proclamation of the gospel comes with the authority of Jesus himself, and the Bible promises that the Spirit will convict of sin through the preaching of the Scriptures (1 Cor 1:18-25).
Effective and compassionate social ministry is part of the Great Commission (Matt 25:31-46), but a social ministry that dispenses with gospel proclamation is no longer Christian. In the same vein, videos, musicals, and dramatic presentations may have their place, but they do not carry with them the authority of Jesus, an authority that is present every time the oracles of God are proclaimed in simplicity and in truth.[6]
