# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1852_S203
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 203 —

taken, giving the keys directly to her, and not to the clergy.
    We believe this in indissoluble connection with the chief doctrine of
the Christian Church: namely, that Christ, through His one sacrifice, has
redeemed the whole world, reconciled it to God, and made perfect all who
are sanctified through Him. — That the Word, with its holy Sacraments as
seals, is the only means by which the Lord offers to the redeemed the
treasures He has won — forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, heaven,
and Himself — and also works the faith that lays hold of Him with all
His grace and gifts, goods and treasures; and this regardless of whether
this Word is proclaimed by a layman or a preacher, or even, as Luther
says, by the devil himself, were he pious enough and willing to do it.
That everyone who grasps this Word in true, living faith — however and
through whomever it may have come to him — is one with Christ; that
Christ Himself, indeed the whole Holy Trinity, dwells in him; and that he
thereby, as a child of God, has a share, in fellowship with all the saints,
in everything, and power and authority over everything that Christ's
kingdom contains; indeed, that he, as a king, priest, and prophet born of
God, is clothed with the highest dignity and the highest office, than
which there is no higher office or dignity in all Christendom. — So that
between Christ and His redeemed there lies nothing but the Word and the
faith that takes hold of it, as Luther says (Halle edition, vol. XIX, 1545):
"Where God's Word is pure and certain, there it must be everything —
God's kingdom, Christ's kingdom, the Holy Spirit, baptism, sacrament,
the pastoral office, the preaching office, faith, love, the cross, life and
salvation, and everything the Church is to have; as Christ says, John
14:23: 'We will come to him and make our home with him,' and
Matthew 28: 'Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the world.'"
    There, then, the clergyman surely cannot in essence be higher than
the layman; he can hold no higher or different dignity and office than
the latter; he is, in fact, nothing other than a king, priest, and prophet
himself — except that he has, in addition, been deemed worthy by the
Lord and His congregation to be appointed steward, manager, watchman,
and governor within this divine, heavenly household of grace: a
fellow-worker of God among equally entitled and equally glorious
brothers, whom the Lord has equipped with the necessary gifts, and
whom the congregation, for the sake of those gifts, has called according
to Christ's ordinance, so that, through the office he publicly exercises in
the congregation, the saints themselves may be equipped for the work of
that same office — even if not in the same way, that is, not through a
publicly exercised office — so that the body of Christ may be built up
through it, until we all attain to one faith and knowledge of the Son of
God, and become a perfect man, measured by the full stature of Christ.
    There can, indeed, be no talk of masters and servants, since they are
all masters and at the same time all servants alike; only of brothers,
where one shows deference to the other, though the servant of Christ in
the Word is owed double honor for the sake of this his service.
    There, indeed, no dominion of a privileged estate can assert itself,
since they are all kings and rulers alike; only the dominion of the Word
can, to which all submit, because they all acknowledge it as the Word of
the Lord, through which He speaks and through which He makes them
blessed, exalted, and glorious. By this alone does the under-shepherd
comfort, admonish, warn, rebuke, feed, and govern the flock entrusted to
him,