16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As we come to the final verses of Matthew's record of the gospel, we may well recall how John sums up, surely on behalf of all four evangelists, the purpose of their having written: 'These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ...' (John 20:31). It will be fitting, then, in our closing meditations, to point out the nature and implications of faith and belief, and it can be done in two words. The first is: Committal. Faith is not an intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel, but a surrender of the will to the Lordship of Christ, and this is implied in the attitude of the disciples in 16, 17. The true parallel to this chapter is Romans 12:1ff, which tells us that consecration and committal to God is our reasonable service in face of the mercies of divine redemption. And for this reason: His victory entitles Him to the allegiance of our hearts. As C.T. Studd, the founder of W.E.C., once put it, 'If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, no sacrifice is too great for me to make for Him'.