“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Federal Visionists love this passage because they think that Jesus is commissioning the disciples to preach the gospel. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
The Reformed faith has always insisted that justification is the heart of the gospel. A gospel presentation that neglects justification is not good news. In this passage, Jesus says nothing about justification; thus, he does not intend the disciples to preach the gospel.
Jesus was commissioning his disciples with the message of sanctification. A careful examination of the content of Jesus’ charge reveals this. Look at what Jesus instructs his disciples to do: “make disciples”, “baptizing”, and “teaching”. These are all part of sanctification.
For instance, “make disciples” is when you urge Christians who have received Jesus as Savior through faith alone to take the next step and receive him as Lord through repentance, as described in this Reformed journal. Also, baptizing and teaching are obviously part of sanctification, not justification. Thus, the Great Commission is not about the gospel.
The key to Reformed hermeneutics is the ability to rightly divide the word of God. You must divide law from gospel. You must divide the two Kingdoms. You must divide faith from repentance. Most importantly, you must divide justification and sanctification.
Those who cannot properly divide justification and sanctification should just run off to Rome or one of her johns (Moscow, Canterbury, etc).
