7. The administrators of the public Ministry do not constitute a spiritual state distinct from the Christian state.
Luther also occasionally uses the expressions "spiritual state," "clergy," and "priests" of those who serve in church offices, in accommodation to existing usage.1625)
commissionis et potestatis transitoriae, qualem mandatarius [an agent] aut negotiorum gestor accipit a principali suo. [Google] (Praelect. in libr. Cone., p. 838.)
1621) Trident, De sacram, ord., sess. 23, c. 4.
1622) Trident, De sacram, ord., c. 1-4, unb bte canones 1-8.
1623) Form and Manner of Making, Ordainmg, and Consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Preface. The Book of Common Prayer, Philadelphia, 1854, p. 612.
1624) Cf. Große, Unterscheidungslehren, 1891, p. 13, 8.
1625) St. L. X, 423 ff; XIX, 113 f. etc.
521 > The Public Ministry. [English ed. ~ 456-457]
But Luther also reminds us throughout that this designation is not taken from Scripture and is very misleading. According to Scripture, all in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and works through faith in Christ, that is, all Christians, and only they, are of "spiritual state" or "clergy". It is not to a narrower circle within the Christian Church, but to all Christians, that Scripture attributes the anointing, τὸ χρίσμα, which it teaches all things (1 John 2:27). All Christians are called spiritual, πνευματικοί (Gal. 6:1), the spiritual house, οίκος πνευματικός, and the spiritual priesthood, ίεράτευμα άγιον (1 Pet. 2:5). It is, therefore, really not a scriptural but a scripturally contradictory use of language to call within the Christian church the "spiritual estate," "clergy," and "priests" to a limited number of persons, the ministers in ecclesiastical offices. "The Holy Spirit" — says Luther1626) — "has diligently prevented in the New Testament that the name sacerdos, priest or priest, is not given to any apostle nor to some other offices, but is only the name of the baptized or Christians, as an innate, hereditary name from baptism; for none of us is born in baptism an apostle, preacher, teacher, pastor, but vain priests and pastors are we all born; wherefore from such born priests they are taken, and called and chosen unto such offices, which of all of us shall exercise such ministry."
We express ourselves correctly when we say that the administrators of the public Ministry are the ministers among Christians (ministrantes inter Christianos). Word and Sacrament, in which they minister, are and remain the immediate property of the Christian congregation and are transferred by the congregation to certain persons for the administration of the fellowship. In this sense the administrators of the Ministry are called in Scripture not only God's and Christ's servants,1627) but also the congregation's servants, 2 Cor. 4:6: "We your servants for Jesus’ sake," δοΰλοι υμών διά Ίησοϋν. After Luther said of the appellation "priests" that it was "assumed from either paganism or Judaism to the great detriment of the church," he continues, "But according to the Evangelical Scriptures they would much better be called servants, deacons, bishops, stewards. … Paul also calls himself servum, that is, a servant;
1626) St. L. XIX. 1260.
1627) 1 Cor. 4:1; Tit. 1:7; 2 Tim. 2:24; Luke 12:42
522 > The Public Ministry. [English ed. ~ 457-458.]
he also speaks more than once: Servio in Evangelio, I serve the Gospel. He does this so that he does not establish a rank or order, a right or a certain dignity, as our Scholastics would have it, but boasts of the office and the mark alone and lets the right and dignity of the priesthood remain in the congregation." Walther: "The ministry of preaching is not a special, more sacred state standing in opposition to common Christianity, like the Levitical priesthood, but an office of service."1628) In this sense the Smalcald Articles also say "that the church is more than the ministers";1629) for the church and its ministers relate to each other as incumbents and employees, or those entrusted with the office. In this relationship it is also justified that the congregations have the right and duty to supervise the conduct of their public servants and to dismiss them from office if they no longer have the qualities prescribed by God and are no longer able or willing to carry out the functions of the office.1630) Luther writes about the power of dismissal of the congregation, while at the same time opposing the Roman character indelebilis (X, 1591): "If they are all ministers, then their priestly, indelible mark and the eternity of their priestly dignity also goes with them, and that one must always remain a priest is also only a fictitious thing, but one may well dismiss a servant if he never wanted to be faithful. Again, he may be kept in office as long as he is deserving and pleasing to the congregation, just as any one who administers a common office in secular matters among like brethren; indeed, the minister in spiritual matters is much better to be deposed than any other in secular matters, because if he is unfaithful he is much more unpleasant than any secular one, who would harm only temporal goods of this life, but the spiritual one devastates and corrupts eternal goods also."
As for the expression that congregations "transfer" the public ministry by calling to persons competent to do so, one can only wonder that the same has been contested even by Lutherans. The expression is to be called adequate as long as the teaching of Scripture is held that Word and Sacrament are given to all Christians for their possession and handling
1628) Kirche und Amt, p. 221. [Walther and the Church, p. 73; ]
1629) 342, 72 [Trigl. 507, 11 🔗]: ecclesiam esse supra ministros.
1630) Col. 4:17; Joh. 10:5; Rom. 16:17. 18; Matt. 7:15.
523 > The Public Ministry. [English ed. ~ 458-459.]
by Christ. If it is now further conceded that there should be an office among Christians in which individual doctrinally competent persons serve the congregation with Word and Sacrament, this office can only come about by transfer. Even Hase describes as "Evangelical church doctrine": "In Christ and in the congregation is the source of all church authority. Therefore every church office is only transferred, reverts to the congregation in case of abuse, and in case of emergency every spiritual act can be performed by every member of the congregation."1631) In addition, the term "transfer" has also been abundantly used by the old Lutheran theologians.1632)
Quite correctly, Hase says that according to "Evangelical doctrine" the source of all church authority is in the congregation. Everything that the pastors of a congregation do as pastors is delegated, that is, they do only on behalf of the congregation. This is especially true of the imposition of excommunication.1633) According to the Smalcald Articles (340, 60. 74), "all pastors" should have the jurisdiction (iurisdictio) to "banish those who lie in public vices". But this is not to be done "without legal knowledge". To this "legal knowledge" belongs above all the proceedings of each case before the congregation and the judgment of the congregation. Luther's coarse designation of excommunication pronounced without knowledge and judgment of the congregation is well known.1634) He says: "The congregation that is to hold such an excommunication should know and be certain how he deserves the excommunication and how
1631) Ev. Dogmatik3 , p. 494 [4th ed., p. 498].
1632) Cf. the quotations in Walther, Kirche und Amt, p. 327 ff. [Church and Ministry, p. 280 ff.] Brenz in commentary on John 20: "The church has its ministers to whom the public handling of the gospel, that is, of the forgiveness and retention of sins, is transferred (demandata est)." Polycarp Leyser in Gospel Harmony, ch. 92, p. 1748: "This power" (to loose or bind) "is in Matt. 18:18 given by Christ to the Church, which the same may properly transfer (deferre) to persons lawfully called to it." Hülsemann, Praelect. in libr. Conc., p. 838, says that the power of ordination is also with the congregation and only belongs to other people on a transferable basis (per modum commissionis). Balduin, Tractatus de cas. consc., p. 1104: "As the keys are given by the householder to the housewife, so also Christ, as the Lord of His house, which is the church, has given the keys to His bride, who commits (committit) the same to her servants, who are called stewards or stewards of the mysteries of God."
1633) The whole doctrine of church discipline and excommunication is set forth in detail in Walther, Pastorale, pp. 315-354.
1634) Schrift von den Schlüsseln, 1530. St. L. XIX, 950 ff.
524 > The Public Ministry. [English ed. ~ 459-460]
here the text of Christ (Matt. 18:17-18) states; otherwise it would want to be deceived and accept a lying ban and thereby do injustice to the neighbor.... Here, since it concerns souls, the congregation should also "be with judge and mistress" (landlady)." Very correctly Löscher describes as Lutheran the doctrine according to which the congregation recognizes and decides the excommunication and the pastor, in his capacity as public servant of the church, has the proclamation of the excommunication.1635)