# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S228 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 228 II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS A REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS THE LUTHERAN CHURCH—MISSOURI SYNOD SEPTEMBER 2018 The Royal Priesthood IDENTIT Y AND MISSION You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 Abbreviations used: AE Luther’s Works, American Edition, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, Helmut T. Lehmann, and Christopher Boyd Brown, 75 vols., Philadelphia and St. Louis: Augsburg and Concordia Publishing House, 1955–. Ap Apology of the Augsburg Confession ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, repr. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. BDAG Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., ed. Frederick Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). FC SD Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration KW Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confes- sions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000). LC Large Catechism LXX Septuagint NPNF1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: A Select Library of the Christian Church, series 1, ed. Philip Schaff (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). SA Smalcald Articles SC Small Catechism WA D. Martin Luther’s Werke, Weimar 1883–1929 WA-Tr D. Martin Luther’s Werke, Tischreden © 2018 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122 888-THE LCMS • lcms.org All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover Photo: LCMS Communications THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD IDENTITY AND MISSION Introduction................................................................................................................ 2 I. THE OLD TESTAMENT BACKGROUND .......................................................4 THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD: II. “PRIEST” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ............................................................9 IDENTITY AND MISSION III. PRIESTHOOD IN THE EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHURCH ..................21 Introduction IV. LUTHER’S REFORMATION .......................................................................... 30 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9 V. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 38 A t its 2007 Convention, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod adopted Resolution 1–03, reaffirming its commitment to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers1 and directing the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) to prepare a study document presenting the biblical teaching on the royal priesthood along with Luther’s doctrine of vocation “in the light of the mission challenges of today.” The resolution therefore underscored especially the role of this priesthood in witnessing to the Gospel of Christ Jesus in a fallen world.2 The 2016 Convention of the LCMS adopted Res. 5–13, “To Reaffirm Scriptural Teaching re Royal Priesthood and Office of Public Ministry.” While urging the completion of the study requested in 2007 Res. 1–03, this resolution declares: “all Christians, as chosen priests, are the possessors of the keys of the kingdom of God and are called in their Baptism to proclaim the Gospel in their daily lives.”3 1 Quoting the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod (1932), §30. 2 The resolution directed the CTCR to work in consultation with the Board for Mission Services (now Board for International Mission), resolving that the CTCR document “be used by the whole church, its congregations and church workers, and by the LCMS seminaries and universities in instructing students about the royal priesthood, especially in its relationship to the unreached” (third resolve). 3 First resolve. Res. 5–13 also affirmed a 2016 opinion of the CTCR stating that the Gospel is effectual when spoken by a layperson. (See THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD 2019 Convention Workbook | INTRODUCTION The same convention also adopted Res. 13–01A, which includes the reminder that in our new birth in Baptism all Christians, as children of God in Christ Jesus His Son, possess the keys of heaven and are royal priests. Believers are, quoting Luther, “true clerics” whose identity must not be “taken away,” but should be “brought out into the open.”4 Therefore all Christians are to be encouraged in the priestly calling of “evangelism and the task of outreach, as well as mercy, education, visitation, and so forth in our increasingly diverse and challenging cultural context.”5 With Luther, 2016 Res. 13–01A also stresses the complementary nature of the royal priesthood with the Office of Public Ministry since “ministers [are] chosen from among us” to act “in our name.”6 Given the continuing concern expressed in the foregoing resolutions, it seems evident that the LCMS as a whole sees a need to reaffirm the doctrine and the work of the royal priesthood, especially with regard to the ongoing task of outreach to the lost. It is the hope “Opinion on Two Questions about Laity and Clergy” at http://www. lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=4173.) 4 Fourth “whereas,” quoted from Luther’s Works, Vol. 38: The Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests (1533) (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 187–88. Hereafter references to the American Edition of Luther’s Works will provide only the title of the work followed by the abbreviation AE with volume and page numbers, e.g., The Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, AE 38:187–88. 5 Second resolve. 6 Fourth “whereas,” from To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate (1520), AE 44:127. 2