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| Home > Books > The Lord's Service Questions - The Priesthood of All Believers, Part 2 |
| The Lord's Service Questions - The Priesthood of All Believers, Part 2 | | Date Created: Dec 01, 2005, 08:34 PM |
The fact that the church as a whole is a priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) is not exactly the same thing as saying that each and every believer is his own priest, which is often what the “priesthood of all believers” is mistakenly thought to denote. Lesslie Newbigin is right about this: The difference between the priesthood of the one who is authorized to preside at the Eucharist and the priesthood in which all share through their incorporation into the body of Christ is not an ontological one but a relational one, not the difference between two different kinds of priesthood, but a difference of role within the ordering of the body . . . . the primary priesthood is that of Christ himself. Into this priesthood all the baptized are incorporated by their baptism and are called to exercise it in the power of the Holy Spirit. This priesthood is exercised by the baptized in the course of their daily life in the world. The one who is described as ‘a minister’ is part of this same priesthood and is called to a special responsibility to cherish, nourish, and enable the priesthood of the whole body (“Lay Presidency at the Eucharist,” Theology 99 (Sept/Oct 1996): 366-370 [emphasis mine]). T. F. Torrance explains the relationship between the royal priesthood (the congregation) and the servant priesthood (the Ministry):In the Old Testament Church there was a twofold priesthood, the priesthood of the whole body through initiation by circumcision into the royal priesthood, although that priesthood actually functioned through the first-born. Within that royal priesthood there was given to Israel an institutional priesthood in the tribe of Levi, and within that tribe, the house of Aaron. The purpose of the institutional priesthood was to serve the royal priesthood, and the purpose of the royal priesthood, that is of Israel as a kingdom of priests, was to serve God’s saving purpose for all nations. So with the Christian Church. The real priesthood is that of the whole Body, but within that Body there takes place a membering of the corporate priesthood, for the edification of the whole Body, to serve the whole Body, in order that the whole Body as Christ’s own Body may fulfill His ministry of reconciliation by proclaiming the Gospel among the nations. Within the corporate priesthood of the whole Body, then, there is a particular priesthood set apart to minister to the edification of the Body until the Body reaches the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4.13). Thus in the time of the ascension, in the eschatological reserve between the beginning of the Christian Church at Pentecost and what the Apocalypse calls ‘the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb’ (Rev. 19.9; cf. 20. 1f; 22.17) the Church is served by a ministry in Word and Sacrament. This Ministry is as essential to the Church as Bible and sacramental ordinances, but like them, this order of the Ministry will pass away at the parousia, when the real priesthood of the one Body, as distinct from the institutional priesthood, will be fully revealed (T. F. Torrance, Royal Priesthood: A Theology of Ordained Ministry [Scottish Journal of Theology; Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1955], 81). I don’t have any problem at all with the fact that all the people of God perform a general “ministry” or “service” to each other and to the world. I simply go back to Paul’s statement in 1 Cor. 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” You can find the same kinds of exhortations all through the NT (see the last half of Phil. 2, for example). The ministers may be the chief public servants of the flock, but they are there to model the way that all believers should act. All the members of the church don’t preach, read the Scriptures publicly, lead the people in worship, preside at the Table, etc., but they all do have some priestly ministry to each other and the world to perform. Jesus is the Minister and Pastor. Jesus appoints pastors in his Church to minister under him and in his Name. Moreover, all the people learning from Christ through their ministers also serve each other and the world. That's what priesthood entails - helping and serving others. Being a priest is not about our individual right to do things alone. Nor is it about our not needing others to help us worship and serve Christ.
There was a controversy among Lutherans in the nineteenth century that relates to this. Wilhelm Löhe taught that only the minister could declare forgiveness effectually. In the mouth of a laymen any absolving words he/she may speak to another “have only the force of consolation,” not forgiveness itself. What the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod said was, no, God may and does mediate his forgiveness through the words of any of his saints. We cannot restrict the comfort of absolution to the minister. The minister’s words on Sunday morning declaring the forgiveness of sins are not of an entirely different order, even if they do come with more authority and power than from a layman. Some people’s faith can be restored by the words of a faithful layman, while others need more assurance, and so they rightly approach their minister for comforting words. After all, the minister has been ordained, set apart to speak for Christ to the people. So what we have is not an either/or, but a both/and answer to questions about who does ministry/service in the church, specifically the question: through whom does God communicate the forgiveness of sins? I do, however, oppose those who would argue that the minister does not have a distinct “ministry” among God’s people. The fact that Jesus has called men to a special ministry does not negate the priesthood of all believers; rather, it enables and strengths it.
Go to Part 3. |
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