«　WEEK 8　DAY 6　»

　　Acts 19:5 And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

　　Gal. 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

　　Rom. 6:3 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

　　In the Acts and the Epistles, it is disclosed that to baptize people into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit is to baptize them into the name of Christ (Acts 8:16; 19:5), and that to baptize them into the name of Christ is to baptize them into Christ the person (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), for Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and He, as the life-giving Spirit, is available any time and any place for people to be baptized into Him. Such a baptism into the reality of the Father, Son, and Spirit, according to Matthew, is for the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. The heavenly kingdom cannot be organized with human beings of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50) as an earthly society; it can only be constituted with people who are immersed into the union with the Triune God and who are established and built up with the Triune God who is wrought into them. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 830)

　　In Matthew 28:20 the Lord told His disciples, “Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.” The heavenly King is Emmanuel, God with us (1:23). Here He promised to be with us in His resurrection with all authority all the days until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age. Hence, wherever we are gathered into His name, He is in our midst (18:20).

　　In the four Gospels, the Lord's ascension is recorded only in Mark (16:19) and Luke (24:51). John testifies that the Lord, as the Son of God, even God Himself, is life to His believers. As such, He can never leave them and would never leave them. Matthew proves that He, as Emmanuel, is the heavenly King who is with His people continually until He comes back.

　　As the King in the kingdom with the kingdom people, the Lord is with us all the days until the consummation of the age. Today is included in all the days....Not one day will be an exception. He will be with us until the consummation of the age. This refers to the end of this age, which will be the time of the Lord's parousia, the Lord's coming. The consummation of the age, the end of the age, will be the great tribulation. We do not want to be here during that time. Rather, we prefer to be raptured into the Lord's parousia, into His presence. This is a matter of the kingdom.

　　In the Lord's resurrection with His righteousness the kingdom is present, and we have the authority, commission, and position to disciple the nations. In this way the kingdom is spreading. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 830-831)

　　On the one hand, the Gospel of Matthew speaks about the gospel of the kingdom, Christ being the King, and the reality, appearance, and manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, telling us that if we live in this reality today, it will be our reward in the future. On the other hand, Matthew tells us about the Triune God being processed. It reveals that He entered into a virgin's womb and was born as a man to be Jehovah our Savior, God with us. Then He went through death and resurrection and eventually sent His disciples to “go,” bringing Him with them, to transmit and dispense Him into all the nations. Whoever would believe into and receive such a transmitting and dispensing One would be baptized into the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In this way they would become the reproduction, duplication, multiplication, and increase of the Triune God. This is the mystery of the Divine Trinity revealed in the Gospel of Matthew. (CWWL, 1986, vol. 2, “The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity,” p. 414)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1986, vol. 2, “The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity,” ch. 8; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 5; CWWN, vol. 8, pp. 15-21