Christ has entrusted the church with the responsibility to identify who is making a credible profession of faith in Christ, based upon their life and testimony, and who is therefore baptized into the visible body of believers known as the church. This is a major aspect of what church membership is all about. It’s about individual believers expressing a desire to be united to a true, biblically sound church, and in turn, that church mutually affirming professing believers as members of the body with all the privileges and responsibilities that come with that reciprocal relationship. 

What authority does the church have in the world? Not only is this an important question, but it’s a question that has been at the center of recent conversations concerning the topic of  Christian Nationalism. Yet, when we consider the purpose of the local church, we must understand that this is also a question that gets to the very heart of the church’s God-ordained foundation and function. Therefore, the more specific question we need to be asking is this: What authority has Christ given the church? 

As we prepare to answer that question, we need to begin in the Old Testament. There, we discover that, under the Old Covenant, three offices comprised the divinely designated representatives of God. Those representatives of heaven included the prophets, who declared, “Thus says the Lord,” as they spoke to the people of God on behalf of God (Isa 4:22). It included the priests, who mediated the Old Covenant through sacrifices (Lev 9:15). And it included the kings, who ruled and reigned over the children of Israel (2 Sam 2:4). But now, through the New Covenant, Jesus has been revealed to be the fulfillment of all three of those Old Testament offices. He was and is the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King. As the Word of God made flesh, Jesus is the Prophet who always proclaims the truth of God (Deut 18:15; John 1:1). As the Mediator of a new and eternal covenant, he is the High Priest, who himself has become our once, for-all-time, sacrifice (Heb 4:14). And as the one who reigns from heaven and will reign on earth, he is the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 9:16).

Like a divine rope with three strands, it is by this three-fold office that the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ now leads his church to carry out the gospel mission, as his ambassadors and representatives upon the earth. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17–21:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The Authority to Make Disciples

So, when was this ambassadorial authority given to Christ’s followers? To see that, we turn our attention to the gospel of Matthew. As we do, it’s worth noting that Matthew’s gospel is primarily focused on helping Jewish believers understand how Jesus, the Messiah and King, has inaugurated his Kingdom and how he expects his Kingdom citizens to live and operate. Of course, as Jesus enters the scene of redemptive history, as recorded in the gospels, he is doing so as the one who has all authority. And, with that authority, he makes a fundamental shift in who represents heaven on earth.

We find that exact moment in Chapter 28 of Matthew’s gospel. Even before his crucifixion, Jesus had commanded his disciples to meet him in Galilee after he was raised from the dead (Mark 14:28). Following that instruction, along with a helpful reminder from an angel at the tomb, the disciples meet the resurrected Christ on a mountain in Galilee (Mark 16:7). As he appears to them, Jesus begins by establishing his all-encompassing authority, declaring, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (v. 18). Notice, that no domain is excluded in this proclamation. Jesus is saying, unequivocally, that everyone and everything, both in heaven and on earth, is within the realm of his sovereign rule and reign. And it will be upon this basis that Jesus grants his disciples the authority to make disciples. 

We see this sacred mantle delivered by Christ in verses 19–20. Jesus says:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

This monumental mission has traditionally been called the Great Commission. Notice that the apostles, who will go on to become the very foundation of the church, are not given a mission to be mercenaries who create converts by force. They’re not called to be vigilantes of law and order who wield the sword of retributive justice. And, they’re not called to obtain political power in order to overthrow the Roman Empire. No, the sacred mantle Christ entrusts to his disciples is the divine authority to proclaim the Word of God and shepherd the people of God for the glory of God. 

In short, disciples are entrusted with the privilege and responsibility to make disciples. We accomplish this, first and foremost, by proclaiming the gospel from our neighborhoods to the nations. Salvation comes only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, so we must share the good news with everyone in our spheres of contact and influence (Rom 10:13–17). From there, as Jesus explains, disciple making involves baptizing believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This public profession of faith and identification with the risen Christ and his church, is the believer’s first act of obedience to Christ. This, then, leads to the culminating portion of Christ’s commission, which is teaching believers to continue submitting to Christ’s lordship in all things, with the accompanying promise that he will always be with us. 

The Authority to Affirm Believers

Thus, it is the church of Jesus Christ, with her Lord as the Head, who now represents heaven on earth (Eph 5:23). As Christ’s ambassadors, the church now bears the weight of the sacred mantle, appointed to fulfill a calling of eternal significance. Yet, one of the great challenges found within the responsibility to make disciples is the existence of imposters. Like Satan himself, who disguises himself as an angel of light, there are imposters in this world who claim to be genuine believers in Jesus Christ, and fellow representatives of heaven, but are not (2 Cor 11:14–15). Jesus warned us of these people and provided the criteria by which to discern their true spiritual identity (Matt 7:15–20).

It is for this reason that the church has also been given the authority to affirm true believers, which we find prescribed in Matthew 16.

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