The Priesthood of All Believers

At the heart of the Protestant Reformation was a commitment to five key beliefs. We took several weeks last year to look at these doctrines, which are summarized by five Latin phrases:

Sola fide – by faith alone!
Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone!
Solus Christus – Christ alone!
Sola Gratia – through grace alone!
Soli Deo Gloria – for the glory of God alone!

The issues surrounding the Reformation were not just about the beliefs of the church – though that was the foundation. They were also about the practices of the church. These were also held up to the scrutiny of Scripture and found wanting.

As it became clear that Rome would not be changed, the Lutheran and later the Reformed movements began to wrestle with questions relating to the Church. The Roman Church service was organized around the Mass. The Protestant churches sought to root their understanding of “doing church” in the example of the New Testament. Church services began to be teaching times, and in addition Luther emphasized the inclusion congregational singing, believing that, as one writer says, “the vigorous singing of simple hymns could open the hearts and minds of God’s people to embrace the Word of God.”[1]

It would now be good for us to read two passages. The first is in 1 Peter 2:4-10. The second is just a few pages away, in Revelation 5:1-10.

Central to the changes that took place in what the church did when it gathered was a recapturing of biblical ideas about what the church was. It was out of the reformers’ understanding of passages such as the two we have just read that a concept known as the priesthood of all believers was taught. And this – like the five “sola” statements we looked at last year, was a radical departure from what Rome had been teaching.

The Priesthood in the Roman Church & The Protestant Response

The Roman church taught that there was a difference in status between those who were part of the church hierarchy and the common person. The priest stood between the people and God, acting as a mediator. He performed the Mass. He acted as confessor. He could proclaim pardon for sin. But Luther protested on the basis of Scripture:

“It has been devised, that the Pope, bishops, priests and monks are called the Spiritual Estate; princes, lords, artificers and peasants, are the Temporal Estate; which is a very fine, hypocritical device. But let no one be made afraid of it; and that for this reason: That all Christians are truly of the Spiritual Estate, and there is no difference among them, save of office alone. As St. Paul says (1 Cor. Xii), we are all one body, though each member does its own work, to serve the others.” [2]

Luther went on to say that all Christians are consecrated as priests, and this on the basis of what Peter and John had written in the passages we read earlier.

You can’t imagine how radical this was! And it still remains radical to the mind of the traditional Roman Catholic.[3]

The Implication of the Doctrine of the Priesthood of all Believers

Part 1 – What the Reformers Intended

I need to clarify a few things. Luther’s protest against the division between church hierarchy and the layperson was not intended to introduce a spirit of individualism. In an article on the Priesthood of All Believers, Dr. Timothy George quotes Lutheran Scholar Paul Althaus:

“Luther never understands the priesthood of all believers merely in the sense of the Christian's freedom to stand in a direct relationship to God without a human mediator. Rather he constantly emphasizes the Christian's evangelical authority to come before God on behalf of the brethren and also of the world. The universal priesthood expresses not religious individualism but its exact opposite, the reality of the congregation as a community.”

He then comments as follows:

Of course, Luther did believe that all Christians had direct access to God without recourse to "the tin gods and buffoons of this world, the pope with his priests." But for Luther the Priesthood of all believers did not mean, "I am my own Priest." It meant rather: in the community of saints, God has so tempered the body that we are all priests to each other. We stand before God and intercede for one another, we proclaim God's Word to one another and celebrate His presence among us in worship, praise and fellowship. Moreover, our priestly ministry does not terminate upon ourselves. It propels us into the world in service and witness. It constrains us to "show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light" (I Pet. 2:9).[4]

Luther saw from Scripture that the church was a community, and that while there are those who have specific responsibilities for teaching and oversight of the church, everyone who is truly a believer has a share in the work of the church. I like the way John Piper talks about this:

“The main thing here is that we as a church are meant by Christ to be a corporate dwelling of God in the Spirit. It's true that each of us is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). But there is more of God to be known and enjoyed than any one can know in isolation. We are being fitted together, Paul says, for a temple and for a dwelling of God by his Spirit. There is a presence and power and manifestation of the Spirit of God meant to be known in this gathering of worship that we do not know at any other time in isolation.

“We are not just isolated living stones. We are, verse 5 says, being built (by Christ—"I will build my church") as a spiritual house. The stones are meant to so fit together in this house called Bethlehem that something whole, something more than a collection of individuals comes into being—a temple, a dwelling of God by his Spirit.

“And O how jealous I am to see that happen more than it ever has.”[5]

I echo that feeling. How much good we could do, how much stronger we would be, how much more God would be glorified if all of us recognized our God-given responsibility to function as priests offering sacrifices to God.

(To be continued)

[1] http://www.thirdmill.org/newfiles/joh_barber/PT.joh_barber.Luther.Calvin.Music.Worship.pdf. Quotation is taken from page 2.
[2] Found quoted in numerous places on the Internet, from the opening paragraphs of Luther’s To the Christian Nobility.
[3] http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Eucharist/Eucharist_022.htm. This article or sermon identifies Luther’s ideas as heresy.
[4]http://www.founders.org/FJ03/article1_fr.html. Source for the quotation from Paul Althaus is found there as well.
[5]http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1994/865_Becoming_a_Spiritual_House_and_Holy_Priesthood

Reformation Day 2006

Last year I presented a six-part series on the key doctrines of the Reformation. It is not always easy to measure the effectiveness of a sermon or sermon series (and you hate people telling you, "That was such a nice sermon!"), but as near as I could tell, it was both edifying and educational, which was what I hoped for.

I have spent my life in non-denominational churches, and one of the flaws of being an independent church or coming from an independent church background is that it can create a sense of independence on a variety of levels, one of which is a sense of independence from Christian history. I suspect that most Christians have an awareness of the early church that comes from the study of Acts and the NT epistles. But any sense of history ends there. As a result, "our" way of doing things is the only way of doing things right. "Our" kind of music is representative of how music ought to be done in Church.

My teaching through the five Solas of the Reformation last year made me realize several things afresh, and these have continued to motivate my ministry this year.

1. The doctrinal issues that the Reformers fought for remain the main issues theologically and are at the root of a lot of practical issues that the church continues to face nearly 500 years later.
2. Our people need to understand the significance of the things we believe. What does it mean, for example, to not believe in justification by faith alone? What are the implications of rejecting Sola Scriptura? I think it is easy for a layperson to assume that these things are often trivialities that have no bearing on "real life" but that theologians and scholars bandy about. Not so!
3. Our people, especially those who were raised in an "salvation by grace through faith shown by a raised hand and then coming forward" environment need to hear these doctrines taught and taught and re-taught. And we don't need to go outside of the realm of regular systematic exposition of Scripture to cover them. They fill the pages of the New Testament letters.
4. That teaching doctrine does in fact relate to life. The division between "doctrinal" and "practical" is artificial, misleading, thoughtless and . . . irrelevant.

I have deliberately exposed our people to more church history in the last year and plan to do so as an ongoing part of pastoral ministry. Who can listen to John Piper's sermon/lecture on William Tyndale and not be moved? Who can hear that believers were put to death for teaching their children to pray the Lord's Prayer in English - and not come to the conclusion that holy things have become too common for us and that we take for granted the rich privileges we have, even for things so simple as owning our own copy (in reality copies) of the Bible?

The Reformers were not perfect people, but that is not the point. We owe much to them, and much of what they worked for has been so watered down in our day that it needs to be regularly reviewed and taught afresh.

It is the clarity of the Gospel and its implications that will secure the church, not methods, visuals, skits, or attempts to be culturally relevant (while lacking clear biblical conviction). So to Martin, John, and the rest of you faithful men, here is one 21st century pastor's thanks. And thank you, Lord, for your grace which was shown to them, and through them to us.

Unnecessary Creativity

Maybe I'm just grumpy . . .

I received an email promotional (which means advertising) for a series of about a dozen video clips that can be played 2 minutes before the worship service starts to let people know that the service is, in fact, about to begin. They feature biblically focused, Christ-exalting, heart preparing activities such as ninja fighting, hamburger eating, etc. I wonder if after they get shown the Pastor of Comedy comes out to warm up the crowd a bit more.

I'm teaching on Romans 12:6-8 this week, and as I am considering spiritual gifts, someone sent me a copy of a church bulletin advertising someone who has a Gospel Trick Pool Shot ministry. I'm glad that I was able to learn about that before I confined myself to the somewhat drab list of gifts in the New Testament. I know, I know: all things to all men. Got it.

Tim Challies asked the other week for a definition of discernment. I don't have one to contribute, but I can pretty safely say that the exercise of such a quality might preclude using these kinds of things that get pushed at us.

But then I am thankful . . .

Sovereign Grace recently put out a CD of songs based on the Valley of Vision book of Puritan prayers and meditations. We have no record of the puritans having partaken of trick pool shots or comedy warm-ups, but they nevertheless appear to have been deeply spiritual and pretty effective. I would highly recommend the CD, available via Sovereign Grace or downloadable via iTunes. This is not so much news as a recommendation. It is both God-honoring and pleasant to listen to.

Influential Books

Christianity Today has a list of the 50 most influential books in the last 50 years on their website. Several bloggers have commented pro and con on the selection of titles.

During the early 1970's I worked in a large Christian bookstore that my church ran. What made it unusual then (and I think the standard holds true today) is that while they serviced the entire area, they carried only those books that fit the doctrinal beliefs of the church. They would order anything that was published by an evangelical publisher, but would only stock those books that fit the church doctrinal statement.

Based on that time and seeing what people were reading, I'd suggest a few other titles for the list as well. I'm not necessarily recommending any of them, but as I recall they shaped Evangelicalism in the 1970's in particular.

Harold Lindsell's The Battle for the Bible was a defense of biblical inerrancy.

Ray Stedman's Body Life was the book that unleashed a new understanding of how Christians should view their role in the local church, and created an interest in discovering and using spiritual gifts.

Jay Adams' Competent to Counsel was an effort to restore biblical counseling and exhortation to pastors and church leaders. Adams was wrongly chided for being simplistic and harsh, blaming everything on sin. But there is a whole movement that followed in his steps and refined his ideas.

Merlin Carothers' book Prison to Praise was a huge influence on the Charismatic Movement in the early 1970's. We (the bookstore I worked in) did not carry it, but we did tons of special orders for people who wanted it. I'm not charismatic, nor did I appreciate the way people who were charismatic felt the need to try to infiltrate non-charismatic churches at that time, but the book was nevertheless highly influential.

The Living Bible made CT's list, and it certainly made its mark. But surely any list that includes translations should include the New International Version. The NIV became almost THE standard text to preach from and was the foundation for numerous reference sources, both academic and popular in nature. The New American Standard Bible, while not enjoying the popularity of the NIV, was released at somewhat the same time and provided people with a choice other than the KJV and the RSV (which did not enjoy favor with American evangelicals).

Growing up in an independent church culture, I would have to suggest 1967's New Scofield Reference Bible as one of those books that shaped my part of the evangelical world. The New Scofield included updated notes, plus some changes in the wording of the KJV text. Most dispenationalists loved it, some KJV-only types saw it as a perversion of the truth. Regardless of your theological slant, the NSRB was THE study Bible until they began putting one out for every segment of society.

What books are influential depends on a lot of factors. These were books that shaped the evangelical world during a time of great change.

Luther and Preaching

I was listening to John Piper's talk on Martin Luther last night as I was going to bed. I was deeply impressed by Luther's prayer, and felt that it often reflects the need I feel as I prepare to preach:

Piper writes about Luther that: He was driven by a passion for the exaltation of God in the Word. In one of his prayers he says, "Dear Lord God, I want to preach so that you are glorified. I want to speak of you, praise you, praise your name. Although I probably cannot make it turn out well, won't you make it turn out well?"

This lecture is available at www.desiringgod.org as in both print and as an mp3 download. I have several of Piper's biographical talks on que for the next week or so.

News, Links and Resources

Thanks to the people who commented on the previous post. I appreciate their insight.

I've caught up with a few good articles, resources and books over the last few weeks. Here are a few worth looking at:

Led By the Spirit, by Jim Elliff, is a brief but very helpful booklet on how to discern the will of God. It is available via the publisher (www.joshuapress.com or via Amazon.)

A great article by John Piper on the will of God can be found here. Also, Dr. Piper had a recent article on the Pope Benedict remarks about Islam here.

An excellent online Bible program from the makers of the NET Bible is worth bookmarking.

Young, Restless, Reformed looks at the resurgence of Reformed Theology, and at conferences such as the Together for the Gospel conference that was held in April.

Do you do any research writing? Check out Ottobib - an online bibliography formatter.

The Missions Atlas Project has a great interactive site that might be helpful to those of you who do work with your church missions program. Thanks to Ron Smith, our Student Pastor, for pointing this out to me.

I was asked to point out a link to a site that provides information on retreats for Pastors. Maybe someone will find the opportunity to take some time aside from the demands of ministry.

Commentaries, Quotations and Sermon Preparation

I've been around computers long enough to remember paying $450 for a hard drive that would hold a whopping 50 megabytes of data. That's right. 50 megabytes. That hard drive ran WordPerfect, a database program, a spreadsheet and a few utilities on an MS-Dos (non-graphical) operating system. Plus it held the various data files that I created with those programs. I was thinking about the small capacity and huge financial outlay for that initial hard disk drive this afternoon when I picked up a 1 gigabyte memory stick for $16. Times have changed.

Many pastors and Bible students use an electronic library and/or the internet for their study. I have, over the last decade, accumulated a pretty substantial collection of books to use with my Logos Bible software. In fact, I've been able to purchase a few sets that have enabled me to pack up the hardbound editions and get them ready to be sent to pastors who lost their libraries in the hurricane last fall. Some may debate the wisdom of parting with a paper copy, and to be honest, the more empty spaces on the bookcases in my office are kind of hard to see, but it was hard to hang on to both paper and electronic versions of the same book when there are guys who are doing without. Plus, if the Communists ever do invade, I probably would be better of grabbing my laptop than trying to stuff a few choice volumes in a backpack as I ran for the hills.

But the fact remains that Bible study is done with both electronic and print resources. And I'm wondering what system or process other pastors use to pull info out of print-and-paper books. I am preaching from Romans still, and have 10-12 commentaries on Romans in print, plus several others in electronic format. Pulling a quote from an electronic resource is a piece of cake, but I'm wondering how other guys treat their printed resources. It is easy to underline, but of course, you need to be able to remember what you underlined. Do you type out or write out info that you find in a commentary or other reference? How do you keep track of information you've found so that you can go back and use it (directly or indirectly) in your sermon prep? I have a method, but I'm finding it kind of tedious.

Any suggestions?