Individual believers can go directly to God without the aid of any intermediary. Being a believer priest is a gift from God, not a human achievement it comes with salvation.Įach believer priest is responsible for his or her own actions. A decision to follow Christ as Lord and Savior is an individual decision no one can make it for another. Each person has a God-given competence to know and follow God’s will. The priesthood of each believer in Baptist thought is tied closely to another concept, that of soul competency. On the basis of various New Testament passages, Baptists have insisted that every person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has access directly to God. However, the concept of the priesthood of believers for Baptists does not come from the teachings of Luther or any Christian group but from the New Testament. Even before Luther burst on the European church scene, various Christian groups had stressed the priesthood of believers. He did not call for the elimination of the role of pastors but indicated that all persons, not just pastors, had a priestly function. Luther insisted that every believer was a priest, with direct access to God. Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s emphasis on the special role played by the Roman Catholic priests. Martin Luther, a leader in the Protestant Reformation, is often linked with the concept of the priesthood of believers. Where Did the Concept of the Priesthood of Believers Come From? This responsibility is carried out in various ways by Baptists, such as in evangelism, missions, ministry and social action to benefit others. The believer priest has responsibility to bear witness to God’s love as shown in Jesus Christ and to demonstrate God’s love by ministering to persons in his name. Today, the believer priest has responsibility to share his or her knowledge of God with other persons, both in word and in deed. In the Old Testament, a priest in a sense represented God to the people. What an opportunity!īut being a priest also carries responsibility. We can go directly to God in prayer, confession, praise and worship. Indeed, all who believe in Jesus become priests with direct access to God. No longer were priests of the Old Testament variety needed. This was a once-and-for-all act.Īt the crucifixion of Jesus, the great veil in the temple “was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51 NIV), indicating that Jesus, the great High Priest, now mediated between God and humankind. No longer was the sacrifice of animals appropriate, because Christ, the Lamb of God, had given himself as a sacrifice for sin.
With the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, all of this changed.
This especially sacred place was separated from the rest of the temple and from the other priests and worshippers by a great curtain or veil. The High Priest, the head priest, was the only one, however, allowed to enter the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple. They served as mediators between the people and God.
Priests were responsible for certain aspects of worship, such as the sacrifice of animals. In the Old Testament, a priest held a special place in the worship of God. As with some other beliefs important to Baptists, we have varying interpretations of what the concept means, but we all treasure the biblical truth of the priesthood of believers.īeing a priest involves both opportunity and responsibility. The concept of the priesthood of believers is basic for Baptists. In fact, Baptists insist that all who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior are priests, believer priests. To say that a Baptist is a priest sounds strange to some persons. “Each believer is a priest, both before God for oneself and by caring for fellow believers and for persons in the world for whom Christ died.”įrom We Baptists, James Leo Garrett Jr. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”