Jesus’ Victory and Commission

GOLDEN TEXT: “Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” —Matthew 28:18-20

MATTHEW 28:1-10, 16-20

JESUS was victorious over the world and its spirit of selfishness throughout the entire period of his ministry. He gained a victory in his crucial trial in Gethsemane. Finally, on the cross, he triumphantly yielded himself up to actual death, saying to his Heavenly Father, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) Then he died. In death he was helpless to do anything for himself, but he was raised from the dead by the power of his Heavenly Father.

Peter testified concerning Jesus’ resurrection, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death.” (Acts 2:24) Paul wrote respecting the mighty power of God “which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.”—Eph. 1:20

The Heavenly Father used one of his holy angels to announce to the women who came to Jesus’ tomb that he had been raised from the dead, even as he had used an angel to announce the Savior’s birth. In both instances the angel’s opening salutation was, “Fear not.” When Gideon realized that he had talked face to face with an angel he said, “Alas, O Lord God!” Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.” (Judg. 6:22,23) Apparently there was a belief among the Israelites that to see an angel meant that one would die. Perhaps this is the reason for the reassuring words, “Fear not.”

Certainly the women at the tomb had nothing to fear. The angel was not there to smite, but to impart the glad tidings that their beloved Master was no longer dead—“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” The empty tomb, as it turned out, was to be among the last convincing proofs that Jesus had been raised from the dead; for, at the instigation of the enemies of Jesus, the false story was circulated that his body had been stolen by his friends to make it appear that he had been resurrected.

But it convinced “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary,” and they were commissioned by the angel to “go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.” Great truths are not given to the Lord’s people merely for their own satisfaction. It was glorious news to these two women that Jesus had been resurrected, but they were to share it with others—“Go quickly and tell.” This commission to “go quickly, and tell” has been upon the Lord’s people throughout the age, and still is. If it has been given to us to know the mysteries of the divine plan, the center of which is the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, then it is incumbent upon us to tell the whole world these blessed tidings.

The instructions from Jesus which the women were to relay to his disciples, were that they should go into Galilee and that there he would meet them. They followed these instructions, going “into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted.”—vss. 16,17

When Jesus met his disciples in the appointed mountain he announced, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”(vs. 18) The disciples at that time were not prepared to grasp the full import of this statement. Previously he had employed divine power to heal the sick and raise the dead; but he had refused to use it on his own behalf. He spurned the temptation to turn stones into bread that he might satisfy his hunger. He had allowed his enemies to arrest and crucify him. He hung helpless upon the cross, growing weaker and weaker until he died.

But now he was changed. “All power” had been given to him. The power of the Heavenly Father who had raised him from the dead was now his, to be used in the further execution of the divine plan. Nothing now could stand in the way of his establishing the mighty government of promise.

But the “due time” for this kingdom work had not yet come. There was still another preparatory feature of the divine plan to be accomplished. Representatives from among mankind were to be selected and trained to be associated with him in his kingdom work, their worthiness of this exalted privilege to be determined by their willingness to suffer and die with him. The invitation, or “calling”, of these was to be by means of the Gospel, and this meant that the Gospel was to be preached in all the world.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (vs. 19) The thought is that those who responded to the Gospel, regardless of nationality, and consecrated to do God’s will, were to symbolize the burial of their wills by water immersion. This has been the divine plan for the Gospel age.

QUESTIONS

Was Jesus victorious in death, or before his death?

By what power was he raised from the dead?

What is the responsibility of those to whom truth is given?

What has been the divine plan for the Gospel age?

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