"We are all priests." These are the words of Martin Luther. But he did not invent this revolutionary idea. He discovered it in the Bible. When the Bible says, "You are a royal priesthood" and "He made us to be priests," it is not speaking about ordination but about every Christian man and woman. In rediscovering the gospel, Luther also rediscovered the principal means by which the gospel operates, the priesthood of all believers.

What does it mean to be a priest? It means to be consecrated to serve. That is the calling of every Christian. He is a God-appointed channel through which the power of Christ flows into the common life of humanity. To be a Christian is to be a member of the Christian fellowship. But to be a member of the fellowship is to be consecrated to a royal mission. It is i…