A.A. Sandoz (1888-1974)
Why Paul? – Unveiling Practical Truth Veiled by Tradition
Bible Student’s Press

One should take particular notice that not once in all five of the “Great Commission” passages does the word “grace” even appear. This is not to say, of course, that God did not have grace during this time, for He did – as He always does – for it is an attribute of God’s Own character and nature. If it had not been for grace Noah could not have been saved (Genesis 6:8). Yet we must remember that there is a difference between the grace of God as a part of His nature, and “the dispensation of the Grace of God” where the administration of all of God’s dealings is conducted in full and total grace (Ephesians 3:2).

In other words, there is a difference between the grace of God in a dispensation and “the dispensation of the grace of God,” a difference between God’s attribute of grace and grace being the ruling principle.

That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto age-lasting life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21).

Grace did not reign in Noah’s day, for God did not at that time show grace to the rest of the world – only to Noah and his family. The world perished. Grace was then, for that time, selective and limited. Only small rays of God’s grace broke through. Now, during this present age, God’s grace is immeasurably released.

Under Israel’s “Great Commission” there is not even one single reference to “grace” – let alone to “the Gospel of the Grace of God.” The fact is that it was still hidden at that time. The free gift of God’s grace, as well as the Jews and Gentiles in one Body were not to be found anywhere in this commission. These were all still yet unrevealed truths. None of them were known or preached until Paul (I Timothy 1:16; Galatians 1:25). Paul received them by revelation (Galatians 1, 2) from the heavenly Christ.

The plain truth of the matter is that God, in Paul’s epistles, has given us a complete and independent body of truth for this dispensation in which we now live (Romans 2:16), and a “much more” blessed commission than that found in “the Gospels” (II Corinthians 5:14-21; Ephesians 3:8-9).

Let us recognize that our position today is not that of being “witnesses” under Israel’s “Great Commission,” but instead of being “Ambassadors for Christ” of the evangel of the grace of God – God’s Grace Commission (II Corinthians 5:20). We have the “ministry of conciliation” given to us (II Corinthians 5:18), and the “Word of conciliation” committed to our trust (II Corinthians 5:19).

There is a two-fold purpose of God: the heaven and the earth. Israel is God’s instrument of His earthly purpose, and we the Body of Christ are the instrument of His celestial purpose.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

You shall be witnesses unto Me (Acts 1:8).

Under the “Great Commission” Israel’s Apostles were to be “witnesses’” but “witnesses” of what? Before we deal with the answer to that question, let’s first find out what a witness is.

Noah Webster defines the word witness as a person who knows or sees anything; one personally present. So, to be a witness, one must have firsthand knowledge concerning the thing which is being witnessed. Of what were the Twelve actually witnesses? On this the Scripture is abundantly clear.

Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day … and you are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:46, 48).

Wherefore of these men … must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection (Acts 1:22).

This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses (Acts 2:32).

Whom God has raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses (Acts 3:15).

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus … and we are His witnesses (Acts 5:30-32).

And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; Whom they slew and hung on a tree, Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly; not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead (Acts 10:39-41).

And He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people (Acts 13:31).

How clear are all these verses! The “Great Commission” was for those who had been actual eye-witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry, death resurrection.

What if you read in your local newspaper of a horrid crime which had been committed in your community, but one that you had not personally witnessed? Then suppose that you showed up at the trial and offered to testify and were subsequently placed on the witness stand. While on the stand you vividly and accurately describe the details of the crime as they had been recorded in the newspaper article. During the cross-examination you are asked, “Where were you when you saw this crime committed?” To which you would respond, “Why, I didn’t see the act, but I did read all about it in the paper.”

Your proclamation of the details of that crime may be true, or not, depending on the accuracy of your source; but one thing is certain: your testimony would not be accepted because you simply did not witness the event. Your witness would be thrown out as inadmissible evidence.

We never witnessed the death, burial or resurrection of Jesus Christ. We heard His Word and believed its message (Romans 10:17). Although we cannot bear witness to the resurrection, we can proclaim it. We are teachers of this wonderful truth and all that it means.

We can give witness and testimony to God’s wonderful work of salvation in our own lives, but we can never fulfill the “Great Commission’s” duty of being “witnesses chosen before of God.”

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them (John 20:23).

How many messages have you heard on this part of the “Great Commission”? Again this passage is clear; and was in perfect harmony with Christ’s earthly teaching ministry. For the Lord Jesus told Peter,

And I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:19; c.f. Matthew 18:18).

Many believers, and even preachers, have been left perplexed and confused by failing to follow Paul’s instruction that we are to be “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (II Timothy 2:15).

Once again we are dealing plainly with the message of Israel’s Kingdom, during which the Twelve Circumcision Apostles would have authority in the Messiah’s absence.

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

Both Luke chapter 24 and Acts chapter 1 make the geographical procedure of the “Great Commission” known. The twelve apostles were to start at Jerusalem – Israel’s capitol city – it was to the “Jews first.” The Jews were first, over the Gentiles, because they were in covenant relationship with God, and in the Kingdom gospel the Gentiles could be blessed only in Israel’s national rise (c.f. Genesis 22:17- 18; Isaiah 2:4; 60:1-3; 62:1-3). Therefore, under the “Great Commission” Israel must first accept the message before the Gentiles could be blessed.

All is different under the evangel committed to Paul for “the dispensation of the grace of God.” In “the gospel of the Grace of God” the Gentiles were to be blessed, not through Israel’s rise, but through Israel’s fall.

… Through their [Israel’s] fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office (Romans 11:11-13).

How many of us have heard the interpretation “where you are is your ‘Jerusalem?’” What type of interpretation is that? If this is our “Great Commission” and we are to follow it literally, we would have to sell all of our possessions and go to Jerusalem with “the gospel of the Kingdom” (c.f. Acts 3:25-26; 13:46).

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

These signs shall follow them who believe (Mark 16:17).

Again, the words of the “Great Commission” are unmistakable. Signs would follow the Jewish believers. It is not that they could follow them, but that they “shall.”

The Bible is explicit in its teaching that miraculous signs were for Israel.

The Jews require a sign (I Corinthians 1:22).

The signs belonged to Israel and their land.

We see not our signs (Psalms 74:9).

… for signs and for wonders in Israel … (Isaiah 8:18).

References to signs in the Scriptures are always found in a Jewish setting. The first mention of miraculous signs should give any student of the Scripture a clear message of its relationship to Israel (Exodus 4:8).

The “Great Commission” had water baptism as a requirement for salvation with miraculous signs following. This is exactly what happened in Acts chapter 2 and in the early part of the Acts period.

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

He who believes and is baptized shall be saved: but he who believes not shall be damned (Mark 16:16).

Could this be any clearer? In the gospel of the “Great Commission,” baptism was essential for Israel’s salvation from that “untoward generation.”

Israel’s baptismal salvation was also found in John the Baptist’s message.

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4).

Peter understood well what the “Great Commission” said, because water baptism for salvation is exactly what he preached on Pentecost.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Because of the problems which many preachers have trying to make Israel’s “Great Commission” ours, they must begin to alter the text. This involves changing or explaining away certain words in some of the other passages.

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

Preach the gospel (Mark 16:15).

Which “gospel” were Israel’s Apostles commissioned to preach? There are, in fact, a number of evangels in the Scriptures: “the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven,” “the gospel of the Circumcision,” “the gospel of the Uncircumcision,” “the age-lasting gospel,” “the gospel of the Grace of God,” etc.

The gospel mentioned in the “Great Commission” is denoted simply as “the gospel,” showing that it had already been defined in the so-called “Gospels” (i.e., Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

This “gospel” could not be “the gospel of the Grace of God” which was later revealed and committed to Paul (i.e., “my gospel” – Romans 2:16; 16:25-26; II Timothy 2:8), for it was still hidden at this time.

Upon further study, one will note that the “gospel” of the “Great Commission” clearly is Israel’s “gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Mark 1:14). It is the “good news” of the coming of their prophesied, literal, physical, earthly, kingdom. This gospel, which during this age has been put on hold, will be preached again one day by Israel after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (c.f. Matthew 24:14).

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

As we have mentioned earlier, the “Great Commission” is usually dealt with devotionally and not doctrinally; therefore its contents are obscure to the average church-goer. The size of this work will not allow us a full study of each passage but what follows are a few of the sections for our consideration.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you … (Matthew 28:20).

In the “Great Commission,” Israel’s Apostles were to teach their converts all of the commandments that Christ gave while He was here on earth so that they might observe them. Honest individuals, even while deceived into believing that this commission is theirs, usually do not teach others to observe all of Christ’s commands. Note the following example:

Christ commanded a total disregard for the physical and material things even to the point of bare subsistence.

Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body, what you shall put on … and seek not what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind … sell what you have, and give alms … (Luke 12:22-33).

So likewise, whosoever he is of you who forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:33 – c.f. Matthew 6:19-34; 10:8-11; 19:21).

Jesus taught His Jewish followers to sell all that they had – forsaking all – and to take no thought for their physical sustenance. This is exactly what the Twelve Apostles did. They forsook all and followed the Lord.

Then answered Peter and said to Him,

“Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed You; what shall we have therefore?”

And Jesus said to them,

“Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon Twelve Thrones, judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel. And everyone who has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit age-lasting life” (Matthew 19:27-29).

Obviously the Twelve Apostles took the commandments of the Lord to them literally. It is also obvious that He intended them to do so. Under Israel’s “Great Commission,” these Apostles were to teach “whatsoever” the Lord had commanded them, and they did just that.

They continued steadfastly in the Apostle’s doctrine … and sold their possessions and goods (Acts 2:43, 45).

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none …” (Acts 3:6).

… As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them … (Acts 4:34).

Barnabas … having land, sold it … (Acts 4:36-37).

Could anything be clearer? What Jesus commanded, the Twelve observed. What Jesus commanded, the Twelve taught under the “Great Commission” to their converts. What Jesus commanded, the converts of the “Great Commission” observed.

Now let’s note the contrast between these things that Jesus commanded during His earthly teaching ministry, and what He later taught in His heavenly ministry through Paul. The Lord does not teach members of the Body of Christ to sell all that we have – forsaking all – and to take no thought for our physical sustenance.

If any provides not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (I Timothy 5:8).

The children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children (II Corinthians 12:14).

Even in the passages of Scripture where the Lord Jesus Christ instructs us through Paul to give, He does not instruct us to sell all that we have, but that they we have a proper attitude toward material possessions and make good use of our resources (e.g. I Timothy 6:17-19).

Now, all of this is just one example of what Jesus commanded during His earthly teaching ministry to Israel (while He was “a minister of the Circumcision” – Romans 15:8). All of Christ’s earthly commands to Israel were incorporated into the “Great Commission.”

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010

Most people clearly understand who is speaking in the so-called “Great Commission,” but it seems only a very few know to whom Jesus was actually speaking. This is of utmost importance in properly understanding the Scriptures. Let’s read the passages closely and notice who was being addressed.

The eleven disciples went away into Galilee … and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying … “Go you therefore …” (Matthew 28:16-19).

Afterward He appeared unto the eleven … and He said to them, “Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:14-15).

And you are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:48).

The disciples were assembled … then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be to you: as My Father has sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:19-21).

He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen … He said to them … “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:2, 7-8).

Clearly, in every passage Israel’s Apostles are the only ones present. Now, by what strange rule of scriptural study do we interpret these passages to be “commissions” to anyone but to whom it says that they are?

This then is indisputably not our “Great Commission,” but rather the commission of Israel’s Apostles. It might also be noted that this is not our Lord’s last command, for He spoke from heaven through Paul giving us a Grace Commission (c.f. II Corinthians 5:14-21).

(To be continued …)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies™
© 1989, 2010