Matthew 28:18 meaning

There are no clear parallel Gospel accounts of Matthew 28:18.

However, it is possible that Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, Acts 1:4-5, and /or 1 Corinthians 15:6 are parallel accounts of Matthew 28:18.

Matthew 28:18-20 represents the closing remark of Matthew’s Gospel. It is a brief set of enduring instructions for Jesus’s disciples to fulfill “even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). This enduring commandment is known as “The Great Commission.”

The Great Commission consists of only two sentences. The first is:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (v 18).

The second is: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Great Commission is loaded with meaning. This section of commentary addresses verse 18, which encompasses the first of two sentences in the Great Commission. The next section addresses the second sentence of the Great Commission and is The Bible Says’ last commentary for Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew introduces the Great Commission with a simple clause: And Jesus came up and spoke to them (v 18a).

At a minimum, the pronoun them in verse 18 refers to Jesus’s eleven disciples (Matthew 28:16-17). It is also possible that Jesus was speaking to a larger group of followers beyond the core eleven apostles. According to 1 Corinthians 15:6, at one point after His resurrection, Jesus was seen by over five hundred disciples at one time. It is possible that 1 Corinthians 15:6 describes the headcount of the crowd of followers to whom Jesus spoke the Great Commission.

The context of Matthew 28:16-17 further implies that the disciples were in Galilee when Jesus came up and spoke to them.

Each of the following three facts underscore the importance or “greatness” of the Great Commission which He spoke to them in Galilee.

1. Matthew 28:18-20 describes the most significant event that happened in Galilee, which took place in the location where Jesus repeatedly instructed them to go after His resurrection (Matthew 26:31-32, 28:7, 28:10).
   
   
2. Matthew 28:18-20 is the only direct teaching of Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection that is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel.
   
   
3. The Great Commission concludes Matthew’s Gospel. It asserts that 1) Jesus is, indeed, the Messiah and King of Kings and 2) articulates the King’s instruction for His followers.

After telling us Jesus came up and spoke to His disciples after they saw Him in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-17), Matthew tells us what Jesus said when He came up and spoke to them.

The first sentence of the Great Commission is a profound, yet simple, declaration:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (v 18b).

The word: authority, describes power or control. Authority refers to who has rightful or legitimate control over something. The adverb—all—quantifies the degree of authority as total control or influence. All authority means exclusive and absolute authorization and dominion over something. In this case, Jesus’s authority is over all that is.

Jesus identifies jurisdiction where He has all authority— i.e. the place or places His authority had legitimacy or standing. The jurisdiction of Jesus’s authority are the domains of heaven and earth.

Jesus has all authority in heaven. And He has all authority on earth.

The terms in heaven and on earth are best understood to mean in the spiritual world (heaven); and on the physical land—or throughout the physical cosmos (earth).

This means Jesus has absolute authority in all places. There are no other places or dimensions beside heaven (the spiritual world) and earth (physical world). In other words, there are no limits to Jesus’s jurisdiction. Jesus has unlimited power and influence everywhere and in every dimension of existence.

The things Jesus has authority in heaven over include all authority over all the angels, all the demons, Satan, etc.

To name just a few of the things Jesus has authority on earth include all authority over all political empires and leaders (including the Roman Emperor and the Jewish High Priest and Pharisees), as well as over all the laws of nature (including death).

Jesus said: All authority (total control/reign) has been given to Me.

This phrase means that all authority was transferred to Jesus by His Father. Moreover, it implies that all authority was recently given to Jesus. In other words, a short while before He said this, Jesus did not have all authority, but then something happened and He was given all authority, and now He has all authority.

The recent events that happened were His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Jesus was granted authority to reign over all as a human because He overcame all obstacles and faithfully obeyed His Father in all things (Revelation 3:21).

Jesus was saying to His disciples that He was now in complete control. He was informing them that He has been put in charge of heaven and earth.

Jesus’s declaration poses a host of questions because Jesus was God and God already had all authority in heaven and on earth.

How was it then that Jesus did not already have all authority? How could any additional authority be given to Him, since He was already God? Who gave Him all authority? When was this authority granted to Him? What did Jesus mean by declaring: All authority has been given to Me?

The answer to these questions touches upon Jesus’s dual natures as fully God and fully Human.

What Jesus’s Declaration Meant for His Humanity and Humanity at Large

First, we will consider what this declaration meant as it pertained to Jesus’s humanity.

The short answer to this question is that as the Son of God, Jesus had always had all authority in heaven and on earth, but as a human Jesus was not given all authority in heaven and on earth until He had lived in perfect obedience to God unto death. Jesus was rewarded for His faithfulness unto death by being granted the authority of God, as a human (Revelation 3:21).

Jesus was declaring that a decisive turning point of human history had just occurred. Now the authority previously assigned to humans (Genesis 1-2), which was then lost at the Fall (Genesis 3), had just been restored to Jesus as a human when He was raised from the dead (Matthew 28). Humans were originally granted the “glory and honor” of reigning over the earth (Psalm 8:5-6, Hebrews 2:7-8). But that “glory and honor” was lost through the Fall (Hebrews 2:8b).

Now Jesus was crowned with the “glory and honor” of having all authority through the “suffering of death” on the cross (Philippians 2:8-11, Hebrews 2:9). As such, Jesus had now paved the way for humanity to be restored to God’s original design.

When God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26a, 27), He imparted to Adam and Eve authority over all the creation. “God said…‘let them rule over the fish…the birds…the cattle…and over all the earth…” (Genesis 1:26:b). To rule over something is to have authority over it. Some translations of Genesis 1:26 uses the phrase “have dominion” instead of the phrase “rule over.” Dominion is a synonym for authority.

God commissioned man and woman “to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28a). God told them that He had given them all this authority (Genesis 1:29-30a). “And it was so” (Genesis 1:30b).

These key scriptures in Genesis 1 reveal that considerable but limited authority over the earth was given to humanity by God by design and from the beginning, “And God saw all that He had made (including the bestowed authority), and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a).

The poetic language of Psalm 8 further reveals how it was God’s intent to give humanity authority over the earth:

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!”
(Psalm 8:3-5)

The end of Psalm 8:5 says that God crowned humanity “with glory and majesty” of having dominion/authority over the earth. Kings wear crowns as a visible symbol of their authority. And in the poetic context of Psalm 8:5, “glory and majesty” are synonymous with authority.

Psalm 8:6-8 makes this apparent as it echoes Genesis 1:26-30 when authority over the earth was given by God to the man and the woman:

“You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.”
(Psalm 8:6-8)

From these scriptures it is clear that God created men and women in His image for the purpose of sharing some of His authority with them as humanity served as God’s authoritative agents over creation. Humanity’s authority was derived from God’s complete authority. Men and women were to steward their given authority by trusting God and collaborating with Him in the creation project as His partners on earth.

But Psalm 8:1-2 alludes to something even greater. It alludes to God’s ultimate plan for humanity in heaven,

“O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.”
(Psalm 8:1-2)

As humans demonstrated their faithfulness on earth they would be given a measure of authority in heaven as members of God’s administration over the angels. 

Psalm 8:2a metaphorically describes humanity as “infants and nursing babes” because men and women are newborns and only babies in the grand scheme of eternity. Angels have existed much longer and are of a higher order than humans.

From these infants (humans), God will establish “strength”—i.e. give His power and delegate His authority. And according to Psalm 8:2b, the reason God has given power and authority to humanity is to humiliate His adversaries—Satan and his legions—and put an end to their rebellion. God will shut up Satan’s boasts by empowering comparatively weak and frail humans to replace Satan to reign over the earth.

Satan apparently had a previous role as a highly exalted administrator in heaven (Ezekiel 28:12-17). However, it seems that he fell due to his rebellion (Ezekiel 28:16-17, Isaiah 14:13-15). Humans were put in his place. In effect, weak and frail humans living in dependance on God were to replace and outperform the powerful but rebellious Lucifer—to his shame and humiliation.

God intended and created humanity to have great but limited authority. But the first man and woman abdicated away their authority to have dominion. Humanity’s delegated authority apparently reverted to Satan when they listened to the serpent’s lies instead of obeying God’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). We can see this because Jesus called Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). As Jesus asserted:

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
(John 12:31-32).

In this passage from John 12, Jesus predicts that His death and resurrection will unseat Satan and place Jesus over all the earth. Now in Matthew 28:18, Jesus asserts that this has, in fact, taken place.

Through his deception, Satan had usurped humanity’s dominion over creation. This unleashed death into the world, and turned the divine image bearers against their Creator. However, God’s intent and plans for humanity to have authority in heaven and on earth endured through the promise of the Messiah.

God promised that the offspring of Eve would crush Satan (Genesis 3:15) and ultimately redeem humanity and restore them to their destiny designed by God (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 60:3, Amos 9:11-12). Matthew 28:18 declares that this has now taken place.

As the Messiah, Jesus was the promised seed (Genesis 3:15) who would crush Satan (Romans 16:20). He was also the Servant who would bring the light of salvation to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Jesus, the Messiah, was born to save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

But Jesus was not only the Messiah, He was also God born as a human (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:35, John 1:1, 14). He was already the Son of God, being the very image of God (Matthew 16:16, Colossians 1:16-17). But He was “begotten” as a Son, meaning that He was rewarded, as a human, by being given all authority over heaven and earth. This was a reward for His obedience (Philippians 2:5-9, Hebrews 1:5, 8, 13, 2:9).

To be made a “son” in ancient tradition was to be granted authority from a superior authority (see our article on Suzerain-Vassal Treaties). Jesus was granted the authority of the throne of His Father because He overcame temptation and learned obedience, even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:5-9, Revelation 3:21). Incredibly, Jesus desires to bring “many sons to glory” and similarly reward those who believe in Him and overcome as He overcame (Matthew 25:21, Hebrews 2:10, Revelation 3:21).

The Son of God lived a sinless life in perfect obedience to God the Father as a human. In so doing, Jesus reclaimed all the authority God bestowed upon humanity which Adam had abdicated when he disobeyed God in the garden of Eden. Accordingly, He gained the right to grant authority to those whom He chooses.

It is Jesus’s desire that “many sons” will regain the “glory and honor” of reigning with Him. Jesus desires to have faithful servants that “enter into the joy of your Master” and put them “in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21). This comes through faithful service to Him, obeying His commands. The Great Commission lays out a direct path to gain this greatest of fulfillments as a human.

As God, Jesus had all power and authority within Him from before the beginning (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-19). But as a human, Jesus was not given all authority until He overcame sin by perfectly trusting God through the end of His life. God gave Jesus, the Human, all authority in heaven and on earth.

Paul explains all this in his letter to the believers in Philippi. First, Paul explained why Jesus was deserving of gaining the reward of all authority as a human:

“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2:8)

Jesus was deserving of this reward because He was obedient to the point of death on a cross.

Then Paul explained Who gave Jesus all authority for His incredible obedience:

“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.”
(Philippians 2:9)

God “exalted” Jesus with all authority and gave Him the name above all names as a reward for His obedience.

And then, Paul described this authority and name above every name:

“so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
(Philippians 2:10)

Every person’s knee will bow not merely in worship, but in sober recognition of Jesus’s absolute and perfectly good authority over their lives. Bowing before a king or authority figure was an expression demonstrating that person’s loyal obedience to follow and perform that king or authority figure’s command. It was a public recognition of the king’s power and right to rule over one’s life.

And notice how the language Paul employed to describe Jesus’s authority reflects the language of Jesus’s declaration in the Great Commission: “every knee will bow…in heaven and on earth…” (Philippians 2:10b).

When Jesus announced to His disciples, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me, He was declaring that God had accepted Him as worthy to receive all the authority in heaven and on earth which humanity had lost in Adam. Jesus was also inferring what is overtly stated elsewhere in scripture, that He can also grant authority to others.

Because Jesus was given all of humanity’s lost authority in heaven and on earth, it is now possible for everyone who believes in Jesus (receives the Gift of Eternal Life) and follows Jesus in obedience to have an opportunity to be restored to his own divine destiny to reign with Jesus on the new earth (Matthew 19:28, 2 Timothy 2:12a, Revelation 3:21, 5:10) and join in His administration over the angels in heaven (1 Corinthians 6:3a, Ephesians 1:9-12). Thus, each believer now has the opportunity to be fully restored to God’s original design for humanity. Scripture indicates that this is the greatest possible fulfillment for humans, and is God’s great desire for His people.

The author of Hebrews writes that as Jesus was crowned with glory and honor because He experienced suffering and tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9b), “it was fitting for Him…in bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10a). In other words, because Jesus was bestowed glory (authority) as a man, the sons of men can share in His glory (authority).

This is how Jesus was given all authority as a human, through His obedience to His Father.

The New Testament describes regaining our divine destiny to reign with Jesus various ways, including:

• “Entering the Kingdom”
  (Matthew 7:21, 8:11-12, 19:23, 21:31, 2 Peter 1:10-11)

• “Inheriting and/or Obtaining Eternal Life”
  (Matthew 19:16, 19:29. Luke 10:25, Romans 8:17-18)

• “Winning the Prize”
  (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Philippians 3:12-14)

• “Receiving the Crown”
  (2 Timothy 4:7-8, James 1:12, Revelation 2:10)

To learn more about how believers can regain their divine destiny, see The Bible Says article: “Eternal Life: Receiving the Gift vs. Inheriting the Prize.”

This concludes what it means for Jesus to have been given all authority in heaven and earth as a human.

How Jesus’s Declaration is to be understood in relation to His Divinity
Next we will consider what it meant for Jesus to be given all authority in heaven and on earth as God. Jesus also received all authority in heaven and on earth as a human, as covered in the previous heading.

As God, Jesus has always had all authority in heaven and on earth. But when the Son of God chose to be born as a human, He set aside His divine privilege and did not to exercise His own authority, in obedience to God the Father. Jesus only acted in the authority of His Father (John 5:19, 5:30, 8:28).

The author of Hebrews says the Son of God “was made for a little while lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:9a). The phrase “lower than the angels,” referring to Jesus in Hebrews 2:9 is taken from Psalm 8:5, which refers to humanity. While still being fully God, Jesus set aside His divine privilege and functioned as a human while on earth.

It was in His humanity that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18. That passage speaks of the time when, out of fear, Israel asked God to speak to them through Moses rather than hearing Him directly at Mount Sinai. Moses then prophesied that God would raise up another prophet like Moses (a human) who would have God’s words directly in His mouth (like God at Sinai) and speak to them directly, as a human. This would be so they could hear without dread and fear. Sadly, when God fulfilled that promise through Jesus, Israel did not heed Him.

Likewise, Paul writes to the Philippians that even though Jesus “existed in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped” and was willing to set His divine privilege aside (Philippians 2:6). Paul continues saying that Jesus “emptied Himself” (Philippians 2:7) of His divine prerogative.

In other words, the Son of God humbly emptied Himself of His divine authority in heaven and on earth from the time He was born into the world until He died on the cross. He came not as a ruler but as a servant (Mark 10:45). Then, because Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient” God the Father exalted His Son above all names, giving Him all authority (Philippians 2:8-10).

Scripture does not tell us the precise timing of when all authority was granted to Jesus. But it had to be some time between when Jesus was crucified and said “It is finished” and when He gave the Great Commission roughly a month later. Hebrews 1:5 indicates Jesus received all authority at a particular time (“today”). Perhaps Jesus was coronated with all authority while He was with God in paradise after dying on the cross, and before He was resurrected (Luke 23:43).

What the Disciples Assumed about Jesus’s Declaration
When the disciples heard Jesus declare that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him, it seems they assumed that Jesus was about to overthrow Israel’s oppressors (Rome), destroy His enemies (including the corrupt religious leaders of Israel), and usher in the everlasting golden age of the Messiah’s kingdom. We know this was their hope, as this was what they asked Jesus when He took them to the Mount of Olives just prior to His ascent (Acts 1:6).

The disciples’ heads and hearts were likely filled with visions of Jesus fulfilling triumphant Messianic prophecies such as:

• Genesis 49:10, describing how the scepter shall not depart from the tribe of Judah (Jesus’s tribe) and the nations obeying the Messiah’s rule.

• Isaiah 11:4, describing the Messiah’s righteous judgments and His slaying the wicked with His words.

• Isaiah 63:1-6, describing the radiant garments of the Messiah soaked in the blood of His defeated enemies.

• Jeremiah 23:5-6, describing the security of Judah and Israel during the Messiah’s just and righteous reign.

• Daniel 2:44 and 7:13-14, which describe the Messiah’s eternal kingdom and everlasting dominion which will not pass away.

• Zechariah 9:10, describing the Messiah’s dominion from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth. In Genesis 15:18, God promised Abraham that his descendants would have a land that extended from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. This Zechariah passage extends the Messianic kingdom to encompass the entire earth.

A few days or weeks after hearing Jesus declare His freshly given authority in Galilee, the disciples ask Him in Judea: “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6b).

Their question and the apparent assumptions behind it were not unreasonable. Jesus the Messiah will do all that scripture prophesied of Him. But destroying all of His enemies and visibly establishing His kingdom were not among the things which Jesus was about to do in that particular moment.

Instead, Jesus was about to do something beyond their expectations.

• He was about to ascend into heaven (Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:9-12).

• And He was about to commission them to do the work of establishing His kingdom in ways that they did not yet imagine.

Jesus’s declaration of authority establishes the framework for what He was about to command His disciples to do. What His disciples are commanded to do extends from the authority Jesus was granted. Jesus’s commission to make disciples in all the earth should be viewed as a spiritual application of the same journey Jesus took: serving first then having His reign established by God because of His obedient service.

Jesus never seized authority. He received it as a reward for being a faithful servant.

As His disciples we too are to serve first, and be exalted later (Matthew 20:16, 25:21). We are not to demand authority (Matthew 20:20-22), nor use the authority we have been given to lord it over others (Matthew 20:25). We are to become great in His kingdom by following Jesus’s example of serving others in love (Matthew 20:6-28).

Jesus’s command to make disciples is the subject of the next commentary. It is the final commentary for the Gospel of Matthew.