Go And Make
Every born-again person on this planet has Jesus’s DNA. Just as a baby shares the DNA of its father, we who have come to Christ by grace through faith have His DNA.
The more time a child spends with their father, the more of his characteristics they tend to pick up. The same is true when it comes to knowing Jesus. Scripture indicates that the more time we spend with Him, the more like Him we become.
2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
There are a couple of things about Jesus that stand out to me—first, His closeness with the Father, and second, His desire to do His Father’s will. It was the DNA of Jesus to make doing His Father’s will a number one priority in His life here on earth. He desired to reflect His Father in all that He spoke and all that He did. Through this desire, we witness the heart of the Father toward us. Jesus understood that during His time on earth, His Father had all authority, and He submitted Himself to His Father out of love for Him.
After embracing death on the cross, being raised from the dead, and preparing to ascend to heaven, Jesus revealed that there had been a shift in who has authority in heaven and on earth. He then revealed His heart to His disciples.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the 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 have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Jesus understands the idea of being sent because He was sent from heaven to earth to do the Father’s will. The Father, possessing all authority, sent Jesus to destroy the works of the devil by making Him a perfect sacrifice and to bring eternal life to all who would believe in Him. In doing His Father’s will and dismantling the power of the enemy, Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth.
A centurion soldier who wanted healing for his servant asked Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus was willing to go to his house to heal the servant, but the man explained that he understood authority and felt unworthy of Jesus coming to his house. Therefore, if Jesus simply spoke the word, he knew his servant would be healed. To this, Jesus declared,
Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
This shows me that great faith is that which understands who is truly in authority and is, therefore, prepared to trust what that authority says and act on what it decrees. Jesus exemplified this by submitting to the will of His Father, even to death on the cross. We see this kind of faith in the centurion, who understands how authority works, and it is attributed to his great faith. Jesus, having received all authority, has made known His desire for His disciples. It is to go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that He commanded. Disciple-making is His DNA, and it is supernaturally supported by Him according to His authority. This is the mandate of the church in every generation. It is the vision for the church according to the one who is the head of the church. I want to be in step with the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth because I love Him and trust Him. I want to be a disciple-maker like He was.
