# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S236
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

236

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Luther penned in that same timeframe, was to the authority of the Roman church. Change that Luther sought
would have resulted in a far different approach and
attitude on the part of the institutional church, but that
church was not interested in retooling its message or in
relinquishing the power and authority it firmly held and
used. The clergy and the ecclesiastical hierarchy were not
interested in what Luther had found in the Word.
The response of the institution was a problem, to be
sure, but it was not ultimately fatal, because as Luther
came to see, the Word he sought to spread with its Law/
Gospel message and the other means of saving grace that
also brought that Word were not the personal possession
of the clergy or the institutional church. Rather the Word
belongs to the Church, understood in a different, biblical
way, namely, the Church as the universal royal priesthood. The Church was the communion of people made
believers by the Spirit, gathered into the body of Christ,
and then moved by that same Spirit to do their work as
priests, proclaiming the wonderful works of God. The
people were not the tail on the ecclesiastical dog that
depended on the clerics. Rather they were Christ’s precious people with voices to give an account of the hope
that was in them (1 Peter 3:15). So while Luther’s main
Reformation focus was on justification, he quickly saw
the importance of the believer-priests making Christ’s
work known to others.
Although Luther added to his concept of the Church
throughout his career, from his early lectures until late
in his life, it was particularly from 1518 to 1521 that
he published many of his ideas on ecclesiology and the
royal priesthood. He unfolded the biblical teachings of
churchly authority resting in the Word of God (not in
the institution itself), the marks of the Church (all tied to
the Word), the fallibility of ecclesial structures (councils
and papacy), the distinction between a spiritual Church
whose members God knew as He saw the hearts of His
pure new creation and a visible church whose members
also are known to God (but which surely exists as a
corpus permixtum, a body that includes both believers
and hypocrites). And, of course, also included was the
priesthood of the baptized, along with a rejection of the
Roman notion that the ordained were “spiritual” and
holy while the baptized were not.116
See also Thomas Winger, “Pastor and People Together in Christ’s
Church” (Lutheran Church — Canada, Commission on Theology and
Church Relations, 2008), http://www.lutheranchurch.ca/ctcr/Study%20
and%20Response/Pastor%20and%20People%20Together%20in%20
Christ’s%20Church.pdf. See also Carl Axel Aurelius, Verborgene Kirche:
Luthers Kirchenverständnis aufgrund seiner Streitschriften und Exegese
116

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While Rome would have trouble with all of these
points, the matter of the priesthood of believers set over
against the clerical hierarchy was a particular problem.
Rome may claim that its polemics against Luther were
necessary to defend the place and role of its ministry, but
the responses to Luther were, in point of fact, defenses
of the authority and power of the Roman hierarchy.
Luther’s preparation for the Leipzig Debate particularly
focused on authority, Scripture and Church. Prior to the
debate Luther had decided that the Roman church was
not equivalent to Christ’s Church.117 Scripture reigns
over popes and all else in the true Church. More, Christ
had given the preaching of the Gospel of forgiveness of
sins — the keys — to the Church, and so the Church
ought to be about the business of feeding the sheep with
Word and Sacrament.118 During the Leipzig Debate, Luther doubled down with his claim that some such as Hus
and the Bohemians had been wrongly condemned by a
church that was itself, in fact, failing in the mission it had
been given by Christ. Clearly there was a disconnect between present practice and what Christ had commanded
His followers to do, beginning with the apostles.
After Leipzig Luther continued down the path
focused on the authority of Scripture and the Church as
the communion of saints. In his Treatise on the New Testament (1520), he first speaks of the Church as the universal priesthood of the baptized, while calling the Pope
both tyrant and Antichrist.119 Speaking of the believers
he writes: “Each and all are, therefore, equally spiritual
priests before God.”120 At the same time Rome continued down its own path, rejecting Luther. Those ideas and
more were condemned in the papal bull Exsurge Domine
(1520), threatening Luther with excommunication that
would come in January of the following year. Luther’s
thinking was not always perfectly consistent, but, above
all, the Church is an assembly of the believers, created by
the Spirit. He knows that in this life there are necessary
institutions and structures that can (or should) see to the
preaching of the Word through which the Spirit works to
make believers. And it is within this structure or institution that people gather to worship and hear the Word, to
1519–1521 (Hannover: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1983).
See Scott Hendrix, Luther and the Papacy (Philadelphia: Fortress,
1981), 81–85; Bernhard Lohse, Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical
and Systematic Development (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1999), 118–22.

117

118
See Explanation of Proposition Thirteen Concerning the Power of the
Pope, WA 2:183–240.

In The Freedom of the Christian, while making a
number of other comparisons, Luther distinguishes
between the priesthood of believers and the ministry of
the Word (the public office filled by the clergy). Luther
writes, “Although we all are equally priests, we cannot
all publicly minister and teach. We ought not even if we
could.”126 Clearly clerics are not given higher status over
the priests, that is, over the believers. (Indeed, the clergy
are not separate from the believers. They themselves are
believers, called to the task of public ministry for the
sake and good of the others.) All believers, all priests,
could fill the public office, yet they don’t. (This is not
simply a pragmatic matter — that not all could fit into
the pulpit, or if all baptized on Sunday, the child might
drown for all the water poured. There are additional
biblical expectations and qualifications in the pastoral
epistles to be honored that include one’s sex, the condition of one’s family life, one’s ability and reputation, and
so forth. Luther elsewhere talks of these.)

Let everyone, therefore, who knows himself to
be a Christian, be assured of this, that we are all
equally priests, that is to say, we have the same
power in respect to the Word and the sacraments.
However, no one may make use of this power
except by the consent of the community or by
the call of a superior. (For what is the common
property of all, no individual may arrogate to
himself, unless he is called.) And therefore this
“sacrament” of ordination, if it is anything at all,
is nothing else than a certain rite whereby one is
called to the ministry of the church. Furthermore,
the priesthood is properly nothing but the ministry of the Word — the Word, I say; not the law,
but the gospel.125
Luther’s teaching is clear. He fully opposed the
clericalism of Rome with its claim to a higher status
for the ordained than the laity. Indeed, he charged the

AE 44:123–39.

124

AE 36:112–13.

AE 35:101.

123

AE 44:129.

125

AE 36:116.

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important because Luther repeats his argument that all
believers share in a common priesthood. Church and
ministry relate to that, with the Word as the foundation
and authority. Luther’s description in this piece of what
the church is was then followed by another making clear
what the church is not. In Against the Spiritual Estate of
the Pope and the Bishops, Falsely So Called, Luther again
rejects ecclesiastical orders as a sacrament and maintains
that clerics are not a separate spiritual estate within the
church.129 The clerics do indeed have a responsibility
given them to feed God’s people with the Gospel and
to set right things around them that are wrong in the
church, but they have failed on all counts. Fortunately, God’s people are not dependent on such priests but
rather are buoyed up by the Word that they have in and
among themselves.
Decades later Luther still held to this line when
preaching on Matthew 18:15–20. He was more than
happy when the Gospel was used within the institutional
structures, but unfortunately, it too often was ignored
while sacerdotal privilege was defended. But because
the church was not fixed to a particular ecclesiastical
expression (Rome), the priests, those baptized believers, could and should do their work of proclaiming the
Gospel wherever they were found. Luther said of the
Matthew verses:
Here Jesus is saying that he does not only want
[the condemnation of sin and proclamation of the
forgiveness of sins] to take place in the church,
but he also gives this right and freedom where
two or three are gathered together, so that among
them the comfort and the forgiveness of sins
may be proclaimed and pronounced. He pours
out [his forgiveness] even more richly and places
the forgiveness of sins for them in every corner,
so that they not only find the forgiveness of sins
in the congregation but also at home in their
houses, in the fields and gardens, wherever one of
them comes to another in search of comfort and
deliverance. It shall be at my disposal when I am
troubled and sorry, in tribulation and vulnerable,
when I need something, at whatever hour and
time it may be. There is not always a sermon being
given publicly in the church, so when my brother
or neighbor comes to me, I am to lay my troubles
before my neighbor and ask for comfort. ... again I

AE 31:356; WA 7:58.

127

Hendrix, Luther and the Papacy, 133–34.

head, prompting Luther to nickname him “the Leipzig Goat.”

128

AE 39:121–224; WA 7:271–83. Emser’s coat of arms featured a goat’s

129

2019 Convention Workbook

He then adds this:

120

126

IV. LUTHER’S REFORMATION

To the Christian Nobility is in AE 44; Babylonian Captivity in AE 36;
Freedom of a Christian in AE 31.

121

If they were forced to grant that all of us that have
been baptized are equally priests, as indeed we
are, and that only the ministry was committed to
them, yet with our common consent, they would
then know that they have no right to rule over us
except insofar as we freely concede it. For thus
it is written in 1 Peter 2[:9]: “You are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, and a priestly royalty.”
Therefore we are all priests, as many of us as are
Christians.124

122

After Worms, Rome ramped up the pressure through
polemicists such as Augustine Alveld and Jerome Emser,
and Luther responded with several sharply worded
rebuttals. One in particular is his Answer to the Hyperchristian, Hyperspiritual, and Hyperlearned Book by
Goat Emser in Leipzig.128 Luther’s answer to Emser is

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There are echoes here of Old Testament kings providing for right theology for Israel, even though those
kings were not Levites. Closer to his own time, Luther
could point to the right claimed by emperors already for
several centuries, who saw themselves as patrons and
defenders of the church in their lands. But Luther has an
added twist: Rulers have the right to step in if necessary
because they are baptized priests who find themselves

Luther’s charge against Rome in The Babylonian
Captivity of the Church is that the institutional hierarchy
bolstered its claim of authority not only by claiming to
control sacraments that were not sacraments, but also
when it held true sacraments hostage, treating them as
a work and thereby failing to offer comfort and peace
through free grace that forgives. Holding sacraments
captive meant that people were captive. In fact, those
gifts had been given not to the magisterium but to the
Church. All believers possess these gifts and, as priests,
can see to their exercise.

AE 35:79–111; WA 6:353–78.

Clearly Luther and the church of Rome were not
on the same page when it comes to understanding the
nature of Church and the locus of spiritual authority.
His stand at Worms has been called “pastoral and not
political” while standing up against an “unfaithful
hierarchy on behalf of the faithful people.”127 Although
there were obvious ecclesiastical implications, Luther’s
primary focus and intent were spiritual. He spoke out for
the good of the true holy Church, the people of God, not
the good of Rome. Although reform of the institution
would be welcome, his concern was for the good of the
community of believers.

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

Luther’s expulsion came in no small part because of
his 1520 writings. To the Christian Nobility of the German
Nation, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church and The
Freedom of the Christian all hit at institutional authority and false views of the ordained ministry in different
ways.121 Behind his arguments for what the Church
was not lay the idea of what the Church was and is: the
priesthood of all believers. All Christians are priests even
though not all are pastors or ministers. The difference
lies not in status but in the office or call they have and its
particular responsibilities. In To the Christian Nobility
of the German Nation, Luther demolishes three “walls”
that the Roman church had erected: the division between
“spiritual” (clergy) and “secular” (laity) classes; the papal
claim that only Rome (not ordinary Christians) could
rightly interpret Scripture; and that the pope was not
subject to reproof from the rest of the church.122 Therefore, “secular” rulers too are spiritual and they rightly
may intervene in order to make provision for the preaching of the Gospel. How can they do this when they are
not clerics? They are baptized Christians, they are priests.
“Since those who exercise secular authority have been
baptized with the same Baptism, and have the same faith
and the same gospel as the rest of us, we must admit that
they are priests and bishops and we must regard their
office as one which has a proper and useful place in the
Christian community.”123 Why do rulers do this and
not others? Because while rulers and their people are all
baptized priests, rulers have an oversight role, rather like
fathers for children. They have a particular office, thereby
determining the specific ways that they serve as members of the royal priesthood. The first to provide for right
preaching should be the bishops and clerics themselves,
but when they fail then rulers might intervene.

in a role where they have opportunity to do right in
providing for the Word. Rome had thrown up walls of
different sorts of clerical privilege and authority. Luther
saw authority in the Word wielded by priests, that is, by
baptized believers.

119

IV. LUTHER’S REFORMATION

Roman church with establishing a counterfeit priesthood
— priests who did not do the chief work of the New
Testament priesthood, to proclaim the Word of God.
This does not put every Christian into the public office,
but it emphasizes the clergy’s role as servant rather than
ruler. More importantly, it emphasizes that the work of
the public office — a work done by the consent of the
community — is the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel.

have the keys exercised and sins forgiven. Where faith is
worked by such means, those who hear and believe are
priests, that is, Church in the primary sense.

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

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IV. LUTHER’S REFORMATION

should comfort others, and say, “dear friend, dear
brother, why don’t you lay aside your burdens. It
is certainly not God’s will that you experience this
suffering. God had his Son die for you so that you
do not sorrow but rejoice.”130
Luther’s defense of the priesthood of believers, of
the baptized, should not be understood as a rejection of
the ministry, the public office, the pastor/minister. The
priesthood and ministry are not mutually exclusive. The
pastor is also a priest/believer who happens to serve in a
particular way because he is asked to do so by the priests
or by others on behalf of the royal priesthood. What
happens when the ecclesiastical institution and its clergy
see things differently as if they have the authority in
themselves rather than pointing to the Word where authority lies? There were no organizational flowcharts in
that day, but had there been, it would have been easy to
plot things as the ecclesiastical institution saw them: The
power arrows would begin with and flow from clerics
to the people, who are on the receiving end. Luther saw
cases of that in Bohemia and Leisnig in Saxony, both of
which sought Luther’s advice and support as they tried to
fill the pastorate with someone who they thought would
preach the Gospel. This was unacceptable to Rome, who
wanted to guard its prerogatives and control the appointment and so remind all concerned, people and pastor,
who was really in charge and where authority lay.
Luther responded with That a Christian Assembly or
Congregation has the Right and Power to Judge Teaching
and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established
and Proven by Scripture (1523).131 Once the title is read,
there is no doubt about Luther’s position. Not only, said
Luther, does the congregation have the right to call its
own pastor, it had the responsibility to depose one who
spoke contrary to the Word of God. While all baptized
believers have the right and duty to proclaim the Word,
were someone to be called to Leisnig, that person then
would have the office of preaching, the public office that
serves the congregation, and that person by faithfully
fulfilling the office deserves respect.
As an aside, there is much here that is helpful both
to a congregation that does not quite understand this
relationship and to clerics who balk at the priesthood
of believers because they believe it is simply a cover for
a “hire and fire” mentality. The pastor has respect not
because he demands it or because he is owed it by virtue

AE 39:247–99; WA 10/II:105–58.
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of filling a slot on an ecclesiastical flowchart, but rather
because he serves the priests with the Word. Any variation of “pray, pay and obey” has no place. Rather because
he loves Christ’s people and loves what he does, he would
rejoice that baptized believers carry the Word with them
in hearts and minds and use it wherever and whenever
they can. This is no threat to the office, but speaks well
of the upbuilding of the body in which the holder of the
office takes part with his own use of the Word. Conversely, with such a faithful ministry where people are fed and
comforted by the Word, the “hire and fire” problem is
diminished. And when the people understand that the
public preaching office is not their creation but something Christ gave His Church for their good, they see
things in a different light and hold a faithful occupant in
high regard.
The relationship Luther outlines in his 1523 defense
of the congregation’s “right and power” is not extraordinary but fundamental. Extraordinary, which one hopes
is the exception to the rule, is when those entrusted with
administration fail to do their duty and so necessitate
what looks to be an innovation but in fact is simply exercising the relationship between priests and minister that
should always exist.
Another case of the power arrows on the flowchart
being misdirected prompted Luther in 1523 to send to
Prague his treatise Concerning the Ministry.132 This is another look at the relationship of the baptized priesthood
and the public office. Luther returned here to ideas he
had earlier expressed in The Address to the Christian Nobility. All Christians are priests and all priests are Christians, equal because of their Baptism. All priests have the
full right to exercise the functions of their priesthood,
namely, “to teach, to preach and proclaim the word of
God, to baptize, to consecrate or administer the Eucharist, to bind and loose sins, to pray for others, to sacrifice,
and to judge of all doctrine and spirits.”133 That is one of
Luther’s “marks of the church” lists. Different lists made
on different occasions vary in what is included, but every
item rests upon the Word. (This is true even when there
are but two items, the Word preached and Sacraments
rightly administered, as Luther understood the Sacraments to be another form of preaching the Word.) The
Word, in turn, makes all those on the list possible and
efficacious.

130

Sermons on Matthew 18–24, AE 67:407–8, 1539–40; WA 47:297–98.

132

AE 40:7–44; WA 12:169–95.

131

AE 39:305–14; WA 11:408–16.

133

AE 40:21; WA 12:179–80.

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

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