The members of the Christian Church enjoy the high privilege of being subject only to Christ, their divine Lord and Master, 1 Cor. 3, 23; Matt. 23, 8, and not to any human teacher, 1 Cor. 7, 23; Matt. 15, 9. The Pope at Rome is the Antichrist for the very reason that he sits in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that is called God, 2 Thess. 2, 3. 4, that is, because he makes his own word the rule and standard of faith and life. It is true, God at all times bestows special gifts upon certain members of the Church and calls these as teachers of their fellow-believers, Eph. 4, 11-13. But such teachers of the Church are to inculcate only His Word, 1 Pet. 4, 11; Jer. 23, 16. 18, and not their own.
According to Scripture all teachers who preach their own word and doctrine are "proud know-nothings," or "conceited dolts," whom the Church should reject and shun as perverters and corrupters, 1 Tim. 6, 3-5, indeed, as seducing spirits, teaching doctrines of devils, 1 Tim. 4, 1-3; Col. 2, 18-23. Even the holy apostles did not command obedience in so far as they were human beings, 1 Cor. 3, 21-23, but their word must be heard and heeded solely because of its being God's Word, given by divine inspiration, 1 Cor. 4, 1; 2, 12. 13.
Christian ministers are not mediators between God and the believers (priests); for all Christians have access to God's throne through the one Mediator, Christ, in whom they believe, Rom. 5, 1. 2; Eph. 3, 12; Heb. 4, 16. In fact, all believers are the immediate possessors of all gifts and blessings which Christ has secured for His Church, such as the means of grace and the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 16, 19; 18, 18; John 20, 23; 1 Cor. 5, 3--5. 13. Theirs alone is the privilege to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, in short, to execute the entire Office of the Keys, so that the called and ordained pastors exercise their ministerial functions only in the name of the church which has called them.
To the objection of the Romanists that in Matt. 16, 18 Christ builds His Church on Peter, Luther rightly replies that "all Christians are Peters on account of the confession of Christ which Peter here made; this confession is the rock upon which Peter and all Peters are built." The above words of our Lord cannot be referred to the person of Peter either as the primary apostle or as the representative of the apostles; for, as the context shows, Peter here did not act as an apostle at all, but only as a believing Christian. That not Peter himself was meant to be the rock upon which the Church is built, but his Christian confession, is unmistakably indicated by the words of the text (Πέτρος, πέτρα).
Luther is right in saying that in this passage Christ clearly distinguishes between Peter and his confession; for had He meant to make Peter the rock of the Church, He should have said : "Thou art Peter, and upon thee will I build My Church." (Cp. Luther, St. L., XX, 282; XVIII, 1375 ff.)
Among modern Protestant exegetes some (e. g., Meyer) refer the term πέτρα to the person of Peter, as if this apostle were here given the primacy among the apostles (prim us inter pares), though they deny the conclusions which the papists draw from this premise with reference to the Roman Pontiff. Other modern exegetes rightly refer the words to Peter's confession (Lange, Ewald, Wieseler).
Whether the term πέτρα refers to Christ Himself or to the confession of Christ is immaterial, since the Church that is built upon the confession of Christ is built upon Christ Himself.
As believers possess all spiritual gifts and blessings of God in Christ Jesus, so they possess also all temporal gifts and blessings of God, so that indeed all things present and things to come are theirs, 1 Cor. 3, 21-23, as children of God and coheirs with Christ, Rom. 8, 14-17.