# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2001_S461
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 46]

eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that

Great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for

doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him,

through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen”
(Heb. 13:20-21).

— Dr. A. L. Barry

President

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

October 2000

Notes

1. This paper was originally delivered to a Missouri Synod pas-
toral conference. The primary audience for this paper is therefore
pastors, but it was also given with a view toward it being read and
studied by laypersons. Since it was delivered, additional material
has been added. A condensed version of the paper appeared in ser-
ial form in two issues of The President’s Newsletter in April 2000
and in October 2000. The text of this essay is available at
www.lcms.org/president/literature.asp. Permission is granted to
copy and use this essay, provided no changes are made to its con-
tent.

2. It has been popular recently to use this verse to imply that the
task of the pastor is merely to train others to “do the ministry” in a
parish. However, the Greek at this point does not imply this. Rather
the verse is best translated as we find it in the King James Version
of the Holy Scriptures, with a comma after each clause, thus read-
ing, “...for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ ...” For examples where
Luther used this verse to explain that the task of the office is “the
work of the ministry” see AE 13:332 and AE 27:1-3. George
Stoeckhardt, the leading exegete in the Missouri Synod’s early his-
tory, comments on this verse, “Teachers of the church are given
and appointed for ‘the work’ or ‘the business of the service,’ and
this service is ‘the upbuilding of the body of Christ,’ the church,
and consists just in doctrine and preaching. The preaching of the
divine Word is the only means by which the church of Christ is
built. But the purpose of this service is ‘the readying of the saint,’
the consummatio (Vulgate), the perfecting of the saints” (Kommen-
tar tiber den Brief Pauli an die Epheser, 199; translated in Mar-
quart, The Church and Her Fellowship, Ministry, and Governance,
p. 106). Note also the Lutheran Confessions interpretation of this
verse in the Tractate, par. 67 which states, ““He [Paul] enumerates
pastors and teachers among the gifts belonging exclusively to the

church, and he adds that they are given for the work of the min-
istry and for building up the body of Christ” (Tappert, p. 331).

3. Johann Wilhelm Baier, Compendium of Positive Theology,
Edited by Dr. C.F.W. Walther (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1877), Chapter Fourteen: On the Ecclesiastical Ministry.

4.C. F. W. Walther, Essays for the Church, 2 Volumes, St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1992, 1:7.

5. Walther, Essays, [:56.

6. Theodore Laetsch, ed. The Abiding Word: An Anthology of
Doctrinal Essays (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1955).11:476.

7.C. F. W. Walther, Church and Ministry: Witnesses of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church on the Question of the Church and
the Ministry, Translated by J. T. Mueller (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1987), p. 161.

8. Walther, Church and Ministry, p. 161. Note also the numer-
ous quotations from Luther and other fathers of the church on this
point.

9. John Gerhard, Loci Theologici, Translated by Richard Dinda,
Unpublished manuscript, p. }74-175.

10. Walther, Essays for the Church, 11:60-62.

11. Martin Luther, Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After
Trinity (1533) in Sermons of Martin Luther: The House Postils,
Trans. and ed. by Eugene Klug et al. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1996), IL[:80; Original in St. Louis edition, 13b. 2432ff.
Note that in this sermon Luther certainly does not restrict absolu-
tion only to the mouth of the pastor. How much more clearly can
matters be than when we read in this sermon, “From today’s
Gospel [Matthew 9:1-8) we learn about the wondrously gracious
ministry of the word which God has given to mankind here on
earth, a word we can speak to one another, namely, Your sins are
forgiven unto you! Wonder of wonders to every God-fearing per-
son and something for which to thank God from the bottom of our
hearts, because he has given such power to people! It is truly a
mighty power when on Christian can say to another, ‘My Dear
Brother, be unafraid, you have a gracious God; only believe what
he promises, as I declare it to you in Jesus name, for it is as valid as
if God himself were saying to you, Your sins are forgiven.” op. cit,
p. 79.

12. Luther, p. 84.

13. Luther, p. 85.

14. Luther, p. 86.

2001 Convention Workbook