‘A Royal Priesthood’

by Matthew C. Harrison

All Christians are “priests.” There’s a wonderful lithograph photo of Dr. Walther (he looks pretty good in this one) in the front of his postils, or sermon books, long ago published by Concordia Publishing House (CPH). Every pastor has seen it. He signed the photo with a quote from 1 Peter 2:9. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

Walther came to emphasize this text for a reason. He was one of the leaders of the Saxon emigrants to Perry County, Mo. Having finally settled in Missouri, the Saxons were traumatized by the removal of their “bishop” for cause. It threw 800 people and a dozen pastors into total turmoil. Walther dug into Luther and the Lutheran Confessions. There, he learned clearly that “Peter’s statement also confirms this, ‘You are … a royal priesthood’ [1 Peter 2:9]. These words apply to the True Church, which certainly has the right to elect and ordain ministers, since it alone has the priesthood” (Tr 69). And: “Here belong the statements of Christ that testify that the Keys have been given to the Church, and not merely to certain persons, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name [there I am]’ [Matthew 18:20]” (Tr 68).

All Christians are spiritual priests. Priests offer sacrifices of prayer, praise, speaking the Gospel, love and service. Luther strongly emphasized that each Christian has the right and use of the Keys. In fact, he specifically rejected the idea that “the right of the Keys belongs to the Church but the use thereof to the bishops.” Instead, “Christ here gives the right and the use of the Keys to any Christian.”1

Luther says a lot on this subject. Pastors are not in a separate higher class from lay persons. Laypeople have a right and responsibility to speak the Gospel and Word of God, forgive sins, judge doctrine. Pastors are not a caste closer to God. Laypeople may baptize in an emergency, because Baptism is what constitutes the church and what the church (the priesthood) possesses as a gift. Luther says the same of the Supper, though does not admit an emergency use with lay administration. The church chooses a qualified man as pastor, confirms that call by ordination, and places him into an office to administer Christ’s gifts in its life publicly. And this happens both in the name of Christ and in the name of the spiritual priests.

Lutheran doctrine teaches that the Office of the Ministry has two aspects. The ways the pastor turns in the Divine Service gives a nice example of these two aspects: The office is both from below (the priesthood of all believers), and from above (the divine institution of the pastoral office). Pastors choose to carry out the office mandated by Christ. When the pastor is true to Christ’s mandate and Word, his mouth is indeed Christ’s mouth. His hands, Christ’s. Luther says this over and over.

Not every spiritual priest is a pastor. “What we have not been mandated to do, we must leave undone. … It is true: All Christians are priests, but they are not all parish pastors, for [pastors] must not only be Christians and priests, but they must also be entrusted with an office and a parish. It is the call and mandate that makes parish pastors and preachers. … God does not want to have anything done by our own choice or devotion, but everything only by His mandate and call, especially in the preaching office, as St. Peter says in 2 Peter 1:20–21: ‘Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, … but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.’”2

But Luther and Walther assert that all Christians have a “general vocation” to speak the Gospel and, even more, to speak forgiveness to their families and neighbors in the context of their lives and many vocations. A layperson does not take over altar, font and pulpit, or meddle by acting like a junior pastor, absolving shut-ins or trying to do the Sacrament at home. But each of us carry on what Luther called “the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.” In fact, Luther says that the absolution in the mouth of a good friend, spoken in God’s name, is just as valid as that of the pastor.3 Luther even told someone to confess to a lay brother: “If your conscience torments you, consult a godly man, cast your burden before him. If he forgives you, you should accept it; he needs no papal bull for that.”4

None of this takes away from the pastor’s ministry. It rather takes what he gives and gives it to others in need of it. This is done when a mother forgives a child or when a teacher says, “You are forgiven by Jesus, and I forgive you,” to a student. We live in an era of tortured consciences. Those consciences need the clear reality of the Law which condemns, but all the more they need the very Gospel of Jesus Christ to be spoken to them.

And the Gospel is much more than information. It’s action. Salutary action. You as spiritual priests have the right and authority to speak forgiveness. Your vocations put you in a relationship of love and service to many around you in home, church, work and community. Pray, serve, love, speak the Gospel. Forgive and invite to church. First Peter says you are a royal priesthood. You have a royal vocation, and one with a life-giving and life-changing purpose: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

In Christ,

—Pastor Matthew C. Harrison

1 WA 12.184, as quoted in Hellmut Lieberg, Office and Ordination in Luther and Melanchthon (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2020).

2 C.F.W. Walther, The Church and the Office of the Ministry (St. Louis: CPH, 2012), 155–156.

3 Lieberg, 53.

4 WA10/3.398 as quoted in Lieberg, 52.