The Great Commission did not suddenly begin in Matthew 28. The roots of the command to “make disciples of all nations” reach back to Genesis 12, to God’s promise when he called one man, Abraham: “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” This article follows that single red thread running through the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The Great Commission stands at the center of that thread, and when we see it, we realize that evangelism and missions are not programs of the church but God’s eternal plan.
The Starting Point — Genesis 12:1-3, Why God Called One Man
The English Scripture quotations in this article are from the World English Bible (public domain).
1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
(Genesis 12:1-3, WEB)
We need to remember where this call came. After the fall in Genesis 3, the flood in Genesis 6-9, and the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, at the very point where the whole earth lay under curse and scattering, God calls one man. This is not a scene where he gives up on the nations, but where he lays down a bridgehead to save them. In verses 2-3, the word “bless” appears with striking concentration five times. God’s answer to the curse spreading through Genesis 1-11 is the declaration of blessing. And the final destination of that blessing is not Abraham alone, but “all the families of the earth.” Abraham was called not to be a reservoir of blessing, but a channel of blessing, one who would “be a blessing.”
The Confirmation of the Covenant — “In Your Offspring All the Nations of the Earth Will Be Blessed”
This promise is repeated and expanded within Genesis. After Abraham’s obedience on Mount Moriah, God confirms the covenant with an oath: “All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:18, WEB). The key word is “your offspring.” Paul says that the secret of the whole Bible hangs on the fact that this word is singular: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, ‘To descendants’, as of many, but as of one, ‘To your offspring’, which is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16, WEB). The channel through which blessing flows to all peoples is, in the end, Abraham’s one offspring, Jesus Christ. That is why Matthew begins, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).
The Covenant and the Gospel — The Gospel Preached in Advance to Abraham
Paul goes one step further and makes a remarkable declaration: “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you all the nations will be blessed.’” (Galatians 3:8, WEB). In other words, Genesis 12:3 is not merely a preview of the gospel. It is the gospel itself, proclaimed beforehand to Abraham. Peter also preached from this same text in Jerusalem after Pentecost: “You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.’” (Acts 3:25, WEB). For the apostles, evangelism and missions were not a new enterprise, but the carrying out of a covenant two thousand years old.
The Covenant and the Great Commission — “Make Disciples of All Nations”
18 Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
(Matthew 28:18-20, WEB)
The risen Jesus, Abraham’s promised “offspring,” now gives the command: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” The phrase “all the families of the earth” in Genesis 12:3 echoes again in Matthew 28:19 as “all nations.” “All the nations” in Galatians 3:8 and “all nations” in Matthew 28:19 are the same expression in Greek (panta ta ethne). The disciples are now laying the channels through which the blessing promised to Abraham will flow. The Great Commission is the order to carry out the Abrahamic covenant. What God promised four thousand years ago, the church now delivers through gospel proclamation and disciple-making.
The Fulfillment of the Covenant — From Every Nation and Tribe and People and Language
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
10 They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
(Revelation 7:9-10, WEB)
In the final vision John saw, the covenant stands fulfilled. A countless multitude has come “out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages.” This is the scene in which the promise that Abraham’s descendants would be like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17) is fulfilled before our eyes. The languages scattered at Babel (Genesis 11) now join in one voice before one throne in praise. History is moving toward this scene, and every act of evangelism and mission done in obedience to the Great Commission is part of filling up this great multitude.
Theme — The Whole Bible Is a Book of Mission
What this red thread running from Genesis 12 to Revelation 7 makes clear is this: mission is not an appendix at the back of the Bible, but the storyline of the whole Bible. God called one man in order to embrace all peoples, sent one offspring to open the door of blessing, and established the church to carry that blessing outward. So when we stand before the Great Commission, we are not people burdened with a heavy assignment, but people invited into the final chapter of a covenant that will certainly be fulfilled. “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” This promise is still in force, and we who have become Abraham’s offspring in Christ (Galatians 3:29) are the channel through which it flows.
Application — Living as Channels of Blessing
- Am I someone who stores up the blessing I have received like a reservoir, or someone who lets it flow out like Abraham, becoming “a blessing”?
- Among “all the families of the earth,” which one people, one nation, or one person has God placed on my heart?
- When evangelism feels burdensome, how does the truth that it is “the carrying out of a covenant that will certainly be fulfilled” change my heart?
- If I picture the day when I will stand among the great multitude of Revelation 7:9, what should change today in my prayers, my finances, and my time?
References
- Korean Revised Version (KRV) Genesis — Korean Wikisource
- Genesis 12:3 Commentaries — Bible Hub
- Genesis 12:3 Hebrew Interlinear — Bible Hub
- Galatians 3:8 Greek Interlinear — Bible Hub
- Matthew 28:19 Greek Interlinear — Bible Hub
- Revelation 7:9 Commentaries — Bible Hub
- What Is the Great Commission? — GotQuestions (Korean)