LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 103

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104 DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

Lord’s Prayer” (WA—T 2, No. 2128b). This fact just
overwhelmed Luther, and in his lectures on Galatians
he breaks out and says, “Who will reconcile these utterly
conflicting statements, that the sin in us is not sin, that
he who is damnable is not damned, that he who is
rejected will not be rejected, that he who is worthy of
wrath and eternal death will not receive these punish-
ments?” And he answers, “Only the Mediator between
God and man, Jesus Christ” (LW 26, 235 f.).

Simultaneous saints and sinners. We can’t empha-
size that first word too much. This does not mean that
we are sinners most of the time, but then, when we have
sinned and sinned and sinned some more, we hear the
Gospel or go to confession and receive absolution or
come to the Lord’s Table for forgiveness and then we’re
saints, only to walk out of church, have an evil thought
and then become a sinner again until we have once more
heard the Gospel promise. No, there is continual cleans-
ing and peace with God, as the apostle says in Romans
5, by that “grace wherein we stand.” We are always
sinning, in spite of our best efforts, always forgiven
through Christ our Lord.

“Simultaneous” also destroys any idea that we are
most of the time saint, winning this battle over evil,
showing love and compassion, reading the Word, wit-
nessing, giving, praying, but now and again lapsing for
a moment or two into sin, as though we had only little
“timeouts” in our sainthood when we lie, cheat, lust,
gossip or doubt, only to turn it all around again and thus
return to sainthood. No, even in our best works there is
always sin, and we can only praise our God that He
overlooks that sin for the sake of Christ and is pleased
with our tainted works and in fact sees no taint in them.

Priests Before God

(Wednesday Morning Devotion)

Dear Fellow Disciples of Our Lord, Jesus Christ:

One of the great legacies of the Reformation was the
rediscovery of the Biblical truth that all who truly
believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Lord and
Savior are priests before God. Such believers are
described in the New Testament Scriptures as members
of Christ’s body. As members of His body all believers
before God are equal in rank; none is more privileged or
more important than another. All are priests before
God; all have equal access to the Father through the
Head of the body, even Jesus Christ.

This year as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of
the birth of Dr. Martin Luther, we honor him best by
letting him speak to us and by listening to his exposi-
tions and applications of the Word of God. We seek to do
that today through our devotional essay topic, which is
“Priests Before God.”

In the early days of his Reformation writings, Dr.
Luther did not clearly enunciate this theological truth of
the universal priesthood of all believers. For example, in

Simultaneous saints and sinners, we live at the Cross
and there find both peace and power.

It is because we are simultaneous saints and sinners
that we also go through such testing, trial, temptation,
those untranslatable Anfechtungen. The devil would
have us look at the outer man, the sinner, and cause us
to doubt God’s goodness. When we listen to him, we
become fearful, wondering whether we have done
enough, whether God will indeed forgive such a poor
wretch who stumbles so easily. Then we must turn
again outside ourselves to Christ, whose blood
“cleanseth us from all sin.” What does this mean?’
Luther explains: “Thus a Christian remains in pure’
humility. He really and truly feels that there is sin.in
him and that on this account he is worthy of wrath, the:
judgment of God, and eternal death. Thus he is humbled.
in this life. Yet at the same time he remainsin a pure and‘
holy pride, by which he turns to Christ. Through Him he‘
strengthens himself against this feeling of divine wrath
and judgment; and he believes that he is loved by th
Father, not for his own sake but for the sake of Christ
the Beloved” (LW 26, 235).

Here then is the key to orthodoxy, the way. te
preserve theological soundness, by a right understand
ing of the doctrine of justification and that we ar
simultaneous saints and sinners. Let Luther have th
final word: “The doctrine of justification must.
learned diligently. For in it are included all the ot
doctrines of our faith; and if it is sound, all the others:
sound as well” (LW 26, 283).

Soli Deo Gloria
Karl L. Barth, D.D.

the 95 theses, which initially attracted wide attention
the Augustinian scholar, no direct reference to
doctrine of the universal priesthood is made. The p'
focus of the renowned theses was on the abuse of"
practice of the sale of indulgences. Underlying man:
the theses, however, is the germ of the truth that no:
neither pope, nor bishop, nor ordained priest,
rightfully place himself between the penitent si
and God. For example, in Thesis 6 he writes, “The?
himself cannot remit guilt, but only declare and con
that it has been remitted by God.” In Thesis 21 hesta
“Hence those who preach indulgences are in error WA
they say that a man is absolved and saved from aves
penalty by the pope’s indulgences.” i.
In Theses 36 and 37 Luther comes closer
pressing the doctrine of the priesthood of all beliet
than in any of the other theses when he writes,’ 2
Christian whatsoever, living or dead, participates#
the benefits of Christ and the church; and this Pp!
pation is granted to him by God without let