Martin Luther and the Priesthood of All Believers

By: Scott Armstrong

The following is the second in a series based on a Reformation lecture by theologian H. Ray Dunning and re-formatted for the Holiness Today podcast. The first article dealt with Martin Luther and his understanding of justification by faith alone.

Martin Luther revolutionized the Christian faith through the concept of the universal priesthood of all believers. What does that mean? Well, any beginning student could tell you that this means that every Christian can go to God on his own without the necessity of a human mediary.

But really that point was secondary to Luther. What he really meant to convey in this idea was that the priesthood was not limited to the hierarchy: the parish minister was not the only one who could hear confession and speak the human word of absolution. That was the prerogative of every believer. His striking way of putting this truth was that each one is to be a Christ to his brother. In relation to his neighbor, no person or groups can claim to be special channels of grace. We are all priests in mediating Christ to our fellow men, neighbors in the deepest sense of the term.

This idea became Luther’s basis for revolutionizing the concept of ministry. Before, the clergy had been thought of as more holy than laymen or conversely that laymen were secondary Christians with only ministers doing the work of God. Luther’s transformation of this is what is commonly called as the doctrine of vocation. Now, one can be equally Christian in every decent calling. No calling is higher than another. The cobbler who exercises his calling with Christian responsibility is doing his task under God with the same significance as the minister which functions in the church. The difference between cobbler and minister is one of function: they stand equally under God, and both are called upon to think out their Christian faith, to nourish it, and to witness to others by being Christians in their tasks.

Let me pursue this Protestant concept of the ministry. Since it is not a call to higher holiness but a call to perform a particular function in the church, it implies that a man is not placed in the pulpit primarily because of his spirituality (though this cannot be lacking), but rather, because he is qualified to carry out that function. In other words, the Protestant concept of ministry excludes the idea of an uneducated or untrained minister. The very fact that you are reading these words is an indication that you are taking that calling seriously.