The Priesthood of All Believers?
It (the church) is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by men divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment.
In my own tradition, Baptist leaders like Francis Wayland (1796–1865) and even E.Y. Mullins (1860–1928) argued that each individual person was independently competent to determine matters of religious importance. This logic inevitably led to the idea that every believer has the absolute right to private judgment about biblical doctrine and the liberty to interpret Scripture with complete autonomy. The practical effect, as historian Winthrop Hudson famously said, was “to make every man’s hat his own church” (Baptists in Transition, 142). - Ryan Griffith (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
This will be the last article in this series dealing with our current discussion of the Church. We began our discussion by pointing out that over 45,000 different Christian denominations have been identified. This reflects not only great division in the body of Christ, but great confusion as well. How are we to know what is right? And furthermore, how are we to know who is right about what is right?
“The five solas of the Protestant Reformation, which distinguished the Reformers from the teachings of Rome (concerning what is authoritative and how salvation is received), include sola scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone).”1
These statements in effect are saying that we don’t need the magisterium of a corrupted Roman Catholic Church (which taught that we are saved by a combination of our faith, our works, and by belonging to the Roman Catholic Church) in order to be connected to God in a saving relationship. But as lofty as these statements are, they have to deal with writings from scripture itself that seem to contradict these ideals, such as:
James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
But then you also have other scriptures that seem to contradict such a teaching from James that need to be dealt with:
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
What do we make of this?
Then there are other problems with the Protestant “solas”. So you say that we only need scripture in order to be saved? Well where does scripture tell us what scripture is? Hint, it doesn’t. Church tradition tells us what scripture is. So in order to be properly connected to God in a saving relationship, at the end of the day, we don’t just need scripture alone, we also need the tradition of the church to inform us as to what is and is not scripture. We all rely upon the tradition of the church, the body of Christ, in addition to scripture alone and faith alone for the completion of our salvation. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
Don’t get me wrong, the Roman Catholic church has its problems. But they aren’t any greater than the problems presented by the Protestant Reformers. I’m also not saying that the Protestant Reformation wasn’t valid, it was. But it doesn’t invalidate the tradition of the church preserved, up until the time of Martin Luther, for some 1,000 years by the Roman Catholic tradition. The saving grace of God was and is at work through all of this mess.
The current Roman Catholic Pope has recently come under criticism for claiming that “It’s an absurd dichotomy to think one can live with Jesus, but without the Church, to follow Jesus outside the Church, to love Jesus and not the Church.” Protestants are up in arms on social media crying “heresy!” But the Pope (who also calls Anglicanism “our sister Church”) is simply remaining within a tradition that existed even before the formation of what we call “Roman” catholicism.
Here is how a more reasonable representative of Christendom, Eastern Orthodox theologian Kallistos Ware, explains this statement:
“Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. All the categorical strength and point of this aphorism lies in its tautology. Outside the Church there is no salvation, because salvation is the Church” …. Does it therefore follow that anyone who is not visibly within the Church is necessarily damned? Of course not; still less does it follow that everyone who is visibly within the Church is necessarily saved. As Augustine wisely remarked: “How many sheep there are without, how many wolves within!” (Homilies on John, 45, 12) While there is no division between a “visible” and an “invisible Church”, yet there may be members of the Church who are not visibly such, but whose membership is known to God alone. If anyone is saved, he must in some sense be a member of the Church; in what sense, we cannot always say.”2
So just who does run the church? Where does authority lie if not in “scripture alone?” It’s an oversimplification to say “Jesus of course, duh!” The reason being, he accomplishing his rule through people, and people are messy. That’s why the church is messy. While all people are created equal, that equality is erased very early in their development. And the same is true of churches and various traditions. There are levels to this, and those levels are determined by people who are divinely called and who duly administer the sacraments of the church commanded by Jesus Christ.
Just like the bible itself, the divine call of God in people is sifted and sorted out by the church, which came to us from Jesus Christ through his apostles. The sacraments are “duly administered” by people who have been not only called but properly trained to maintain order and structure (1 Corinthians 14:40 “But all things should be done decently and in order.”)
Not all churches are the same. Not all traditions (if you even have one) are equal. There are levels to this. And while God can use anyone to bring the lost into a saving relationship with himself, a finished product can only be produced by participation within his body, the Church.
Based upon what God revealed through Old Testament Israel, the church has been structured upon three levels of order. According to prescribed Old Testament worship, you had a designated high priest, then after that the Levitical priesthood charged with serving the temple and instructing the people, then what Exodus 19:6 calls “a royal priesthood and a holy nation” comprised of every Jewish citizen. Levels.
The church is structured in a similar way. We have our designated great high priest, Jesus Christ. But in addition to that we have “the ministerial priesthood, referred to in Romans 15:16, where Paul speaks of how he is a minister of Christ “in the priestly service of the gospel of God.” The ministerial priesthood is also referred to in passages that speak of ordained Church leaders known as “elders” (Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14).”3
The third order of this structure is comprised of properly baptized believers referred to in 1 Peter 2:9 which echoes the previous verse from Exodus:
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.
In the Old Testament, God required a properly trained and chosen priest to offer sacrifices. That priest had to come from a certain lineage. According to church tradition (it isn’t necessarily spelled out in scripture) it is necessary to maintain “decency and order” by having properly selected, called and trained “priests” (a word derived from the Greek word “presbuteros” also translated “elder”) to administer the sacraments in remembrance of the once and for all priestly sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ. Both of these sacraments which represent membership, or citizenship in the body of Christ and the newly organized kingdom of God.
Now, going back to the original paradox we presented, how do we reconcile the scriptures which seem to teach both Protestant doctrine and Roman Catholic doctrine? Are we saved by faith alone or by works as well? Are we just saved by a private personal decision or also by participation in the body of Christ?
I would argue, that participation in the sacramental life of the church demonstrates an act of obedience providing evidence of genuine personal faith in the divine identity and message of Jesus Christ. Acting out obedience, again which is evidence of faith in Jesus Christ, is the primary means by which we receive the saving grace of God the Holy Spirit and which will bring us to the completion of our salvation. That is what the scripture refers to as “works”. Works are required as evidence for the authenticity and completion of our salvation. It is a both and, not an either or solution to the problem.
We need to respect and honor church tradition more than we typically do (especially in the independence loving Western world) and we need to accommodate for bold, courageous and conscientious reformers to provide for a more refined body of Christ.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-five-solas/
https://catholicherald.co.uk/pope-francis-is-under-attack-for-saying-that-outside-the-church-there-is-no-salvation-its-a-poke-in-the-eye-says-one-presbyterian-why-hes-wrong/
https://www.catholic.com/audio/ddp/the-priesthood-of-all-believers