The Priesthood of All Believers

"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen." Revelation 1:6

Jesus is the one who loves us and made us to be priests. As the High Priest, Jesus offered the final sacrifice of himself on the cross and then ascended into heaven to continue his priestly work. That work is to pray for us for whom he offered the sacrifice.

This scripture tells us that this High Priest made us to be priests, too. We are to offer ourselves as sacrifices to God and pray for one another. One of the teachings of Martin Luther and other reformers more than 500 years ago is that we do not need a special order of ordained priests to be between God and us. They taught the priesthood of all believers.

Years ago when my daughters, Lauri and Jan, attended Immanuel Lutheran School in Waterloo, Iowa, they were taught a children's song about the Reformation. It goes like this:

There is something to remember on October 31
Live by faith and read the Bible and the crown will be won.

Unafraid was Martin Luther as he went to church that day
To post on the door his writings that men might know God's way.

On this day we celebrate the Reformation of the church.
So for peace and joy and blessing in God's Word we now search.