# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S362
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

362

IX. 2016 RESOLUTION 13-01A TASK FORCE REPORT

try of the Word that, similarly, ties together the offices mentioned
in Ephesians 4:11: “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
pastors and teachers.”
The epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus are rightly referred
to as “pastoral.” Like the aforementioned references, they too affirm the Office of Public Ministry that God establishes and, in addition, emphasize the chief work of that Office—teaching the Word.
In all three of these epistles, Paul is exhorting Timothy and Titus
to carry out the ministry of the Word just as he has as a preacher,
apostle, and teacher (1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). He never gives either
Titus or Timothy a title121 other than to call them his true children
(1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4). Nevertheless, it is evident that
both men are also preachers and teachers of the Word themselves
(1 Tim. 4:6–16; 2 Tim. 2:14–15, 2 Tim. 22–24; 2 Tim. 4:1–5; Titus 2:1–8, 15; Titus 3:1–11) and are charged with oversight of the
teaching of others (1 Tim. 1:3–7; 2 Tim. 2:1–2, 14). Moreover, they
were not only to do this themselves as teachers, but they were to see
that others were also appointed to this same ministry (1 Tim. 1:3–7;
1 Tim. 3:1–7; 2 Tim. 2:1–3, 14; Titus 1:5).122
Only members of the royal priesthood are called to the Office of Public Ministry. Thus, the Office implies no superiority of
persons. The Gospel is the call to repent, be baptized, and trust in
Christ alone for our salvation. Such truth is irreconcilable with arrogance of Office, for the preacher is also a hearer of the Word that
kills and makes alive. Yet, even as the officeholder remains a royal
priest and individual member of Christ, the Office he holds is distinct from the priesthood. Not all are called to shepherd, teach, feed,
oversee, and serve Christ’s flock in the public ministry of the Word,
although all are called to share the Word of God, yes, to proclaim
it, in their daily lives at home, at work, and in society. All are not
apostles, prophets, teachers (1 Corinthians 12:29). Not all are sent
to preach and teach in this office (Rom. 10:15). Indeed, although
to aspire “to the office of overseer” is to desire “a noble task,”
Scripture actually discourages the majority of Christians from such
aspiration and desire: “Not many of you should become teachers,
my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with
greater strictness” (James 3:1).
b.

The Office of Public Ministry in the Confessions
(AC V; XIV; et al.)

Article V of the Augsburg Confession flows directly from the
fourth article, on justification:
[IV. Concerning Justification]
Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain
forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God
through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that
we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous
before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through
faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for
us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God
will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness
in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3[:21–26]
and 4[:5].
[V. Concerning the Office of Preaching]
To obtain such faith God instituted the office of
preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments.
Through these, as through means, he gives the
2019 Convention Workbook

Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when
he wills, in those who hear the gospel. It teaches
that we have a gracious God, not through our merit
but through Christ’s merit, when we so believe.
Condemned are the Anabaptists and others who
teach that we obtain the Holy Spirit without the external word of the gospel through our own preparation, thoughts, and works.123
That faith which justifies—belief in the promise of forgiveness for Christ’s sake—depends on the promise being given.124
The promise comes first—it is the power of salvation (Rom. 1:16)
and the only ground for faith. God reveals His grace and mercy in
Christ Jesus in the promises of forgiveness—and faith is no more
than believing Him as He makes these promises. Thus, God gives
the Gospel and Sacraments, that is, the Gospel promise spoken and
also the promise as it is given in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
He deigns to make these promises externally! That is, He uses real
words that people hear as they flow from living persons (either laity
or pastors); words that accompany a washing with real water, and
words declaring real bread and wine to be Christ’s real body and
blood for the forgiveness of sins—really! So graciously does God
make His promises in ways we lowly ones can believe—by the
Spirit’s mysterious power.
This, says Melanchthon, is the Office of Preaching. The condemnation at the end of Article V suggests that the central concern was to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is at work bringing faith
through such an “external word” and not by human initiative and
action of any sort. A certain process or priority is clear. God’s Spirit
alone works faith by providing an external Word of promise—the
Gospel and Sacraments—and to that end God provides the Office
of Preaching.125
Luther’s Schwabach Articles was the direct predecessor to
the AC. There also he moves from justification to proclamation:
“In order to obtain such faith, or to give it to us people, God has
instituted the preaching office or oral Word, namely the Gospel,
through which he has such faith and its power, benefit, and fruit
proclaimed.”126 The terms “preaching office,” “oral Word, and
“Gospel” are all equivalents. The understanding of preaching office here is on proclamation itself—God’s work through external
means—and not on the man doing the proclaiming.
To speak technically regarding AC V, then, this is the office of
preaching considered abstractly (in abstracto), the message which
can alone enable faith and salvation, as it is made known or delivered. It is, as Luther noted in the Schwabach Articles, synonymous with “the oral Word, the Gospel” itself (das Predigambt oder
mundlich Wort, naemlich das Evangelion). This is not the Office
concretely conceived as we see it in the person of a pastor in public
worship (in concreto).127 Walther adds that the Formula also speaks
abstractly condemning the false teaching of the Schwenkfelders
who held, “That the church’s ministry—the Word as it is proclaimed and heard—is not a means through which God the Holy
Spirit teaches human beings the saving knowledge of Christ and effects conversion, repentance, faith, and new obedience in them.”128
This distinction is potentially confusing since it compels us to
negotiate between three languages—Latin, German, and English.
Nevertheless, it is of great practical importance because it distinguishes the Gospel from the public minister of the Gospel. Christ
Himself calls public ministers of the Gospel for the sake of the Gospel. The public ministry of the Gospel is required because the Gos-