Ministry Is Being a Priest to God and One Another

One of the most significant errors facing the Protestant reformers was the view that there were two classes of Christians. One was “ordinary Christians,” the other was “truly spiritual Christians”—that is, those who worked full-time for the Lord in the priesthood, monastery, and nunnery. Ordinary Christians may do vital work, but their vocation could never measure up to the “truly spiritual” work of full-time vocational ministry.

Returning to sola scriptura, the reformers disputed the biblical basis for this distinction. Instead, they emphasized the priesthood of all believers, the idea that all service rendered to the Lord—from pastors to laity—is vital to the spread of the gospel. In other words, all believers are called to work for gospel advance, because God has made them all priests.

In his new book, Created to Draw Near Our Life As God’s Royal Priests, Ed Welch traces the theme of the priesthood from the first pages of Genesis. He writes, “The garden was the first tabernacle, and humanity’s home was in the presence of God, in his Most Holy Place. . . . Priests are the very offspring of God and share in his likeness” (21, 26). In the garden, we learn not only of the perfect creation the Lord made, with man at the pinnacle, but also of the serpent and man’s fall. “The serpent’s goal,” Welch observes, “is for humanity to be remade in his image and imitate him” (39). Read More