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The United Free Church of Scotland General Assembly 2001 Panel on Doctrine Report on Baptism, chapter 2.

This page is a copy of the text of www.ufcos.org.uk/ga01/panel02.htm

The institution of baptism

In view of the fact that Baptism has its immediate origin in the command of Christ as found in Matthew's Gospel it seemed appropriate to begin there: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded" (Matthew 28.19,20).

An important matter reflecting on the authenticity and therefore the authority of these words should be noted. Some scholars regard "the direct institution of Baptism through Jesus, as it is recounted in Matthew 28, (as) historically untenable". The arguments put forward are mostly of a subjective nature. We are satisfied that the command to baptise is authentic and has its origin in Jesus. Certainly there is notextual evidence against the verses in question.

Because the traditional understanding of the Commission has been questioned and various interpretations have been given, it will be helpful to take a more careful look at the Commission in so far as it relates to baptism.

1. Disciples

Baptism has to do with the making of disciples. Precisely what the relationship is between baptism and the making of disciples has been much debated. Do we make disciples through baptism? Do we baptise those who have become disciples? This raises an evenmore fundamental question. What is a disciple?

Originally, in the Greek world, a disciple was a man who bound himself to someone else to acquire practical and theoretical knowledge. In the Hebrew world a disciple was a man who bound himself to the Torah with the Jewish rabbi as his teacher of the Torah. This gave rise to a variety of Rabbinic schools and to rival groups of disciples, each centred upon a teacher. Within the New Testament the word 'disciples' is used of (a) the disciples of John the Baptist (Matt 11.2), (b) the disciples of Moses (John 9.28), (c) the disciples of the Pharisees (Mark 2.18) and (d) the disciples of Jesus. With respect to this latter group the word is used to describe both an inner group of disciples (the Twelve) and, in a much looser sense, a larger group which followed him during part of his earthly ministry.

It is important to establish that there was a radical difference between discipleship as it related to Jesus and discipleship as it operated in either the Greek world or the world of the Rabbis. "There is a marked difference between a life dedicated to study at the feet of a Rabbi, in which the aim was an increasing knowledge of the Law, which would eventually 'qualify' a student himself to become a rabbi, and the life of the Christian disciple (often not markedly studious by nature!) called to personal loyalty to Jesus in His way" [W D Davies: The Sermon on the Mount, Cambridge 1966, p133]. I H Marshall says much the same when he observes that discipleship "involved personal allegiance (to Jesus) expressed in following him and giving him an exclusive loyalty … Such an attitude went well beyond the normal pupil/teacher relationship and gave the word 'disciple' a new sense" [The Illustrated Bible Dictionary vol 1, IVP 1980]. The disciple of Jesus not only learns from Jesus he learns about Jesus. Whereas in the world of the Jewish rabbi prospective disciples sought out a teacher, Jesus called his disciples. Becoming a disciple committed a man not only to a learning process but also to a life of unconditional sacrifice (Matt 10.37; Luke 14.26f) for the whole of life (Matt 10.24f; John11.16). Nowhere is this more clear than in Matt 16.24f where Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." It is well to remember that Jesus warned of the need for a man or woman to sit down and count the cost before becoming a disciple.

Too often the word 'disciple' has been defined solely in terms of its Greek or rabbinic background. The result has been an over-simplistic equation: disciple equals learner. This has provided a basis for some to advocate a wholly indiscriminate baptism, both of adults and children, the only requirement being a willingness to learn and not a whole-hearted commitment to Jesus. There is a failure here to recognise that Jesus poured a whole new meaning into discipleship in so far as it related to him – as he did with everything he touched. If indiscriminate baptism is to be a possibility, biblically, we must seek grounds other than the equation, disciple equals learner.

Of course, there are spurious disciples as there is spurious faith (John 2.23-25) but there can be no question as to the kind of disciples Jesus had in mind when he gave the command to "make disciples … baptising them …".

make disciples

We must now ask what it means to "make disciples". A number of alternative approaches have been suggested. According to some we make disciples either by baptising and teaching them, or by baptising them (with the teaching following). By that is meant that baptism is the effective instrument in the making of disciples. The person baptised is a disciple, the person not baptised is not a disciple. Baptism becomes the crucial thing. Others have argued that while baptism is not the effective instrument in the making of a disciple it does have a role to play. The role it plays will depend partly on whether baptism is primarily an expression of grace or faith. According to Beasley-Murray "it is when a hearer believes and is baptised that he becomes a full disciple; which is the same as saying that a disciple is made such in baptism by faith." The emphasis here seems to be on baptism as an expression of faith. Moreover baptism seems to be essential for full discipleship, which raises the question as to whether it is legitimate to make a distinction between full and partial discipleship. This would not appear to be the case according to Jesus' teaching on discipleship which is not at all conditional on baptism. If on the other hand baptism is primarily an expression of grace it is not difficult to see how baptism may have a role to play as a means of grace. We are not made disciples through baptism, but we are assisted in our discipleship through baptism.

There is another approach possible. Those who have embraced a strong doctrine of the grace of God may struggle a little in coming to terms with a commission which lays upon them the responsibility of making disciples. It would be difficult to quibble with such people when they insist that it is God and not man who makes disciples. We can however respond in two ways. In the first place we can point out that we are "workers together with God" (1 Cor 3.9; 2 Cor 6.1). There is a strong element of mystery in so many aspects of our labouring for God, e.g. in the ministry of preaching. So, at the very least, we can say that God uses his people in the making of disciples. In the second place we can point out that for the Reformers our contribution to the making of disciples was in fact through the preaching of the Gospel. John Calvin states, "The Lord, when he sent out the apostles, gave them the command to preach the Gospel and to baptise those who believe unto forgiveness of sins (Matt 28.19)" [Institutes of the Christian Religion IV 6, Westminster Press 1977, Vol 2, p1058]. J M Boice writes: "Jesus not only commands us to evangelise, he also tells us how to do it. First, we are to make disciples of all nations. We are to preach the Gospel to them so that through the power of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit they are converted from sin to Christ and there after follow him as their Lord …" [Foundations of the Christian Faith, IVP 1986, p653].

On this basis it is simply assumed in the Great Commission that disciples are made through the proclamation of the Gospel which is received through faith. As Beasley-Murray rightly observes: "the kerygma precedes the didache, the offer of grace before the ethics of discipleship, and it is when the gospel of grace is received that the ethics of gratitude may be learned and applied" [Baptism in the New Testament, Paternoster 1962, pp89f]. So, those who become disciples, through the proclamation of the gospel, are then baptised, and after they are baptised they devote themselves to the teaching of the apostles. That is precisely the pattern we find on the very first occasion that the Great Commission was put into operation, as recorded in the Book of Acts: the preaching of the Gospel, the response of faith, baptism, devotion to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2.14-47). Unless we adopt the position that the apostles misunderstood Jesus and got it wrong we must conclude that the correct exegesis of Matthew 28.19 is to be found in Acts 2. The apostles were certainly in a better position to rightly understand Jesus' meaning than we are two thousand years later!

What was true on the Day of Pentecost was true throughout the New Testament era. How did the apostles make disciples of the Gentiles (i.e. the nations)? They did so by preaching the Gospel. The Lord told Ananias concerning Saul: "This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles …and before the people of Israel" (Acts 9.15). It was this same man, Saul become Paul, who subsequently cried out, "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" and who also informs us that he hardly baptised anyone (1 Cor 1.14). That is not to detract from the importance of baptism but to emphasise that in Paul's view it was not the essential thing in making disciples.

While there is nothing explicit in Matthew's Great Commission which adds decisively to our understanding of the essential meaning of baptism we have discovered that baptism is inseparably bound up with costly discipleship. It is for those who are committed, without reserve, to the lordship of Christ. We have also considered the commission as it was understood and implemented by the Twelve in the Book of Acts, i.e. the pattern in Acts anticipated by this commission: the proclamation of the Gospel, the response of faith, baptism, forgiveness, the gift of the Spirit, and devotion to the apostles' teaching. Baptism is inseparable from these ingredients. Moreover it is clear that the making and baptising of disciples is unaffected by distinctions of race or nationality, and that the inclusion of 'all nations' is the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham and the outworking of his covenant purposes.

Second half of this chapter: Baptism "in the name of".

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This web page was last updated on 15th April 2004.