The Great Commission
Jason Cherry
Mar 24, 2025
Introduction
The problem with the gospel-centered movement is that it lathers people up with the suds of grace and then sends “believers” away still dirty; almost like they haven’t been cleaned; almost like they haven’t been baptized. The reason this is a problem is that God’s grace transforms the leper (Lk. 5:12-16); it makes the blind see (Mk. 8:22-26) it casts out the demon (Mk. 5:1-20); it cleans the house (Mk. 11:15-19); it feeds the hungry (Mk. 6:30-43); and it washes people clean (Is. 1:16; Titus 3:5).
Gospel Obedience
Paul’s missional goal was not to spread an ineffectual gospel around the world. The goal was to bring about “the obedience of faith … among all the nations” (Rom. 1:5). Preachers must be sent out to proclaim Christ’s grace because “they have not all obeyed the gospel” (Rom. 10:16). The goal of preaching the gospel outside of Israel is “to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed” (Rom. 15:18). Then Paul ends the letter to the Romans in the way he began it, saying, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ … and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:25f).
Paul insists that the gospel is something to be obeyed. Salvation “depends on faith” (Rom. 4:16), a faith that obeys. It’s why Paul speaks of the Thessalonians “work of faith” (1 Thess. 1:3). It's why Peter warned that judgment awaits those “who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Pt. 4:17) and that “obedience to the truth” purifies your souls (1 Pt. 1:22). It’s why Paul warned that eternal judgment is for “those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thess. 1:8). It’s why John defines love as obedience to God’s commands (1 Jn. 2:3; 3:21-24; 5:1-3). It’s why the author of Hebrews says that Christ “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb. 5:9). It’s why James says that faith without works doesn’t lead to salvation (James 2:14-26). It’s why Peter testified to the high priest that the Holy Spirit has been “given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32).
Jesus told the apostles to teach the nations “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:20). It's not just the Great Commission where Jesus emphasizes the obedience of faith. Workers of lawlessness, even if they profess faith, are excluded from Christ (Mt. 7:21-23). Then Jesus says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Mt 7:24). Jesus said elsewhere, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk. 11:28). Jesus told Judas, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me” (John 14:23f).
Why does Jesus talk this way? Jesus’ Great Commission is the complete fulfillment of what is anticipated in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 4:40, “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today.” Deuteronomy 8:1, “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.” Deuteronomy 10:12-13, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” So Jesus’ Great Commission, which emphasizes obeying God, comes from the Old Testament. But Jesus isn’t just repeating the old words. Jesus is strengthening the commanding power of the law through his death and resurrection.
The New Testament’s emphasis on the obedience of faith sheds light on the meaning of the New Covenant. The promise of the New Covenant is, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33). The internalization promise of the New Covenant highlights the weakness of the Old Covenant (Heb. 8:8). The source of internalization in the Old Covenant was unfulfilled (Dt. 10:12-19; 30:1-10; Jer. 4:4; 9:26; Ez. 18:31; Rom. 2:28). The source of internalization in the New Covenant is Christ crucified and resurrected. The gift of the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ to his people (Phil. 2:12f). Christians obey the law, not because of intrinsic moral ability, but because of Christ’s resurrection power applied through the Spirit. By faith in Christ, the triune God applies the gospel inside out. The Father (1 Jn. 4:12f), the Spirit (Rom. 8:11), and the Son (Eph. 3:17) together fulfill the internalization promise of the New Covenant. The triune God abides in his people, empowering obedience, granting assurance, and giving comfort. God convicts people of sin, establishes repentance, and transforms the elect. This internal work of God manifests through outward good works (Eph. 2:10).
The New Testament’s emphasis on the obedience of faith also sheds light on evangelism. The book of Titus is, in part, a pastoral manual on how to evangelize Crete (Titus 1:1-5). Cretans deny God by their lack of good works. “They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work (Titus 1:16). They “are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). Since this testimony is true (Titus 1:13), we can say that Titus’s task is to plant a church in a den of iniquity. Can the gospel transform such a society? Yes! There is a “knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness” (Titus 1:1). The truth in this case is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The godliness is obeying God’s commands. So, the hope for Crete is the ethically transformative power of Christ’s grace.
The way to demonstrate such a thing is to proclaim Christ and live in obedience to Christ. This way, the Cretans could hear the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16f) and see how it transforms the lives of the barbarians (Rom. 1:14). That’s why Paul’s letter to Titus emphasizes good works. Six times Paul urges good works as the proof of faith (Titus 1:16; 2:7, 14; 3:1, 8, 14). This is godliness manifested. This is grace demonstrated. This is resurrection disclosed. Salvation is unequivocally based on God’s mercy (Titus 3:5f). And it teaches people to live a distinctive life of good works (Titus 3:8). What is the effect of obedience to the Lord in a place like Crete? The gospel is not reviled (Titus 2:5) but made attractive (Titus 2:10-14). Indeed, Paul’s strategy, which was learned from Christ (Mt. 5:14-16), to let the Cretans see the good works of the church and give glory to God, worked. The gospel did make a difference in Crete so much so that “today the name of Titus is honored in many villages, churches, and monasteries.”¹
Conclusion
Why does the Great Commission include teaching obedience (Mt. 28:20)? It is because Christ’s resurrection grace demands more, not less. Faith in the gospel requires obedience. That’s why any gospel preaching—even if it is labeled “gospel-centered”—that doesn’t teach believers to obey God, is preaching only a half-gospel. Preachers must not preach justification at the expense of sanctification. John Colquhoun, the old Scottish pastor, explains that the law is not given for justification but for sanctification, that the law may “direct and oblige them to walk worthy of their union with Christ.” Colquhoun goes on to say that “the command of the law as a rule is ‘Love and do.’” Sill further he says, “The promises of the gospel, as far as they are embraced, secure their walking in the right way.”²
John Calvin wrote that true Christians “Observe the law, not as if constrained by the necessity of the law, but that freed from the law’s yoke they willingly obey God’s will.”³ To preach the full gospel of grace requires teaching practical obedience to the Lordship of Christ. Teaching obedience is not a replacement for the gospel but the application of it. God’s grace transforms lives, which means, God’s people must learn to live the outworking of the gospel. This is true for the old and young; the men and the women. And in this way, the Cretans will be attracted to Jesus Christ.
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https://trinityreformedkirk.com/collection/thirty-theses-about-good-works
Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of the books The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.
Footnotes
¹ Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 333.
² John Colquhoun, The Law and the Gospel (Reformation Heritage Books, 2023), 34, 148.
³ John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battle (Westminster Press, 1960), 3.19.4.