[JSM17]

The Great Commission
Before Christ ascended into heaven following his death, he gave to his disciples a charge that is designated commonly as “the great commission.” It is found in three forms that are not precisely parallel in format, but certainly are complementary when taken together.

Matthew’s record contains the admonition to “make disciples of all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…” (see 28:18-20). “Into the name of” is an expression signifying ownership1.

Mark simply has it, “preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is immersed shall be saved; but he who disbelieves shall be condemned” (16:15-16).

Luke’s version is more condensed yet. It merely states that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations” (24:47).

A synthesis of these texts leads to the general conclusion that the following obligations are essential to gospel obedience:

preaching or teaching
belief (and an acknowledgement of such)
repentance
immersion in water

[Marc]

All are to be water baptized but this does not necessitate that it is salvific.

[JSM17]

Matt 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
NASU

How is one made a disciple of Christ?

How is it that baptism is not "Salvic", yet Jesus requires it for discipleship?

[Marc]

Have you ever or will you ever obsereve ALL things that are commanded of you?

[JSM17]

I will observe the things that God has allowed me to be able to obey, of course God only knows, but when it comes to belief as a command can someone do this? Of course he can then, can he do other plain and simple things that God wants him to do? Sure he can, Jesus did not say go ye into the world and be God. He said go into the world and teach all the things in which I have commanded you. Is Christ asking for something that is impossible? Is it impossible to believe, repent, confess, be baptized, to live faithful in Christ, is it impossible to love, to obey, to walk in a way that is pleasing to God. It seems to me that this answer of "can anyone keep all the commands of the Lord" is really a way out for people who do not want to the things the Lord has commanded. Within the context of the Great Commission there are a few things we are commanded to do, is it to hard for us to do these things?

When Christ says all that I have commanded you it must fall within the realm of the subject of things that we are capable of doing, has God asked you to do something that you cannot, or are you impling that Jesus did not intend for you and I to fulfill this scripture?

[Marc]

Just as a person can be saved without obeying ALL the commands of God so too they can be saved without being water baptized. If you insist on one then you must hold the other to be true.

[sledford]

[Marc]

You know the commands of God but have you sinned? Yes. That is despite knowing it was wrong you sinned anyway.

[JSM17]

Matthew’s record contains the admonition to “make disciples of all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…” (see 28:18-20). “Into the name of” is an expression signifying ownership1.

Mark simply has it, “preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is immersed shall be saved; but he who disbelieves shall be condemned” (16:15-16).

Luke’s version is more condensed yet. It merely states that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations” (24:47).

A synthesis of these texts leads to the general conclusion that the following obligations are essential to gospel obedience:

preaching or teaching
belief (and an acknowledgement of such)
repentance
immersion in water

[Marc]

No problem that people are to be water baptized for it pictures our salvation because the Gentiles in Acts 10 were clearly saved before thry were water baptized.

[JSM17]

The context of these verses clearly show use that in order to make disciples they would have to be baptized, if they were not baptized then they would not be disciples of Christ. Why is this so hard for you? There must be an understanding of the clear bible commands that man can easily follow, baptism is not a hard thing, it has become an enemy of the church because of people like Luther and Calvin who started a trend among men to do away with it important of making disciples of men.

[Marc]

Disciple simply means a learner. There were some "disciples" who were not necessarily saved (John 6:66).

[JSM17]

Make Disciples
In the Greek text, Matthew 28:19 begins with a participle, literally, “having gone.” But participles may sometimes be used in the imperative (command) sense (see Friberg, pp. 809,810), hence, it is not improper to render the term as “Go” in this passage. Christ thus admonished his men to go forth and “make disciples.”

The expression “make disciples” (“teach” KJV) is also a command. The basic form of the word is mathetes, which is actually “a learner.” The word derives from the root math, which indicates “thought accompanied by endeavor” (Vine, p. 221). Etymology thus suggests that a disciple is one who “stands in relation to another as pupil and is instructed by that person” (Balz & Schneider, p. 372).

There is a clear implication in the use of this term. One who is subject to baptism is one who is capable of being a student, a learner.

[Marc]

That didn't disprove at all what I wrote. One can be a learner but not necessarily saved.

[JSM17]

Not everything is a war, I out together the truth in which I see and have learned not everything is charge against you.

When a disciple becomes saved is he no longer a disciple? It seems to me that Jesus is asjing us to help people learn what it means to be saved, if one become a learner but never gets saved then it would serve no purpose.

The question is then who do we baptize, if we are not baptizing people to become disciples then who are we baptizing and why?