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After Christ as the last Adam had accomplished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and had become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection to charge them to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Divine Trinity (v. 19):
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Into in Matthew 28:19 indicates union; to baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
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There is one name for the Divine Trinity (v. 19):
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The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person.
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To baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.1 Cor. 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.
Baptism is to bring the repentant people out of their old state into a new one, by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ, that they may become the kingdom people. John the Baptist's recommending ministry began with the preliminary baptism by water only. Now, after the heavenly King accomplished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of death and resurrection, and became the life-giving Spirit, He charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect; whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible aspect by water is vain; and without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 828)
Today's Reading
Not long after the Lord charged the disciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based upon this, the disciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38), not only visibly into water, but also invisibly into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered as a tomb to terminate the old history of the baptized ones. Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, since Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God, and since the Triune God is one with the Body of Christ, so to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ is to do just one thing: on the negative side to terminate their old life, and on the positive side to germinate them with a new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord here is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.The word into in Matthew 28:19 indicates union....To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
There is one name for the Trinity. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize anyone into the name of the Trinity is to immerse him into all the Triune God is.
Matthew discloses the reality of the Trinity in the one name for all three, for the constitution of the kingdom. In the opening chapter of Matthew, the Holy Spirit (v. 18), Christ (the Son—v. 18), and God (the Father—v. 23) are upon the scene for the producing of the man Jesus (v. 21), who, as Jehovah the Savior and God with us, is the very embodiment of the Triune God. In chapter 3 Matthew presents a picture of the Son standing in the water of baptism under the open heaven, the Spirit as a dove descending upon the Son, and the Father out of the heavens speaking to the Son (vv. 16-17). In chapter 12, the Son, in the person of man, cast out demons by the Spirit to bring in the kingdom of God the Father (v. 28)....In the closing chapter, after Christ, as the last Adam, had passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples, in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection, to charge them to cause the heathen to become the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Trinity. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 828-830)
Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msg. 72; CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” ch. 20