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What do you think of when you hear the word ordination? Some of us think of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome teaches that ordination is a sacrament that gives grace to the man ordained. Since the Reformation, Protestants have rightly objected on biblical grounds to that teaching. Some of us don’t think of anything at all. We may even have witnessed services in which elders or deacons were set apart for their ministries, but we didn’t think much about it at the time.
In between these two extremes lies the Bible’s teaching about ordination. Ordination is not a term that the Bible uses, but it is an idea that certainly appears in Scripture. In brief, ordination is the authoritative admission of a man to an office in the church of God.
We see examples of ordination in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we read of the ordination of Aaron to the priestly ministry (Ex. 40:12–15; compare Lev. 8–10), of Joshua the successor of Moses as leader of Israel (Deut. 34:9), of David to the throne of Israel (2 Sam. 5:1–5), and of Elisha to his ministry as prophet (1 Kings 19:16, 19–21). In the New Testament, we find examples of men being ordained to church office (Acts 6:6; 13:3; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6) and commands to ordain men to church office (1 Tim. 5:22; Titus 1:5).
Let’s take a closer look at ordination. Ordination is not for everyone in the church. It is for men who have been gifted and called by the church to the office of elder or to the office of deacon. The church has identified men with the gifts for these offices, and it has then elected them to those offices. But these men are not yet church officers. They must be set apart by the elders of the church to that office. This admission to ministry comes with prayer and the laying on of hands. In this way, these men are set apart to office in such a way that they are committed to the Lord for His blessing in their labors.
We have an example of ordination to office in Acts 6. This chapter likely records the origins of the office of deacon in the New Testament church. The “twelve” Apostles “summoned the full number of the disciples”—that is, the church in Jerusalem (v. 2). They instructed the church to “pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” The men who will enter into the office of deacon, then, must be both recognizably gifted and chosen by the church. At that point, the Apostles told the church that “we will appoint [them] to this duty” (v. 3). The Word-officers of the church (the Apostles) would ordain these men to the office of deacon.
And that is what happened. The church elected seven qualified men (v. 5) and presented them to the Apostles (v. 6a). The Apostles then “prayed and laid their hands on them” (v. 6b). That is to say, the Apostles ordained these men to office.
Reading further in the New Testament, we see that this same pattern is true for men who are entering the office of elder. Paul reminds Timothy of the time when “the council of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim. 4:14; compare 2 Tim. 1:6). As an elder, Timothy is to join the elders in “the laying on of hands”—that is, the ordination of gifted, chosen men to office in the church (1 Tim. 5:22; compare Titus 1:5).
What does ordination mean to church officers, and what does it mean for those of us who may never step into church office? First, ordination, as an ordinance of Christ, is a reminder to the church that although officers have been chosen by the church, their office (and the authority that comes with that office) comes from Christ. Their authority does not derive from themselves. Neither does their authority derive from the church. It comes from Christ. Ordination is a reminder to the whole church that every church officer is accountable to Christ. He must aim to please Christ, and to do so in accordance with His revealed will in Scripture. This is why ordinands pledge publicly at ordination services their commitment to Christ and to His Word. It is also why, at these services, the congregation often commits itself to render all due honor and obedience in the Lord to its officers (see 1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:17).
Second, ordination is a reminder to the church that although officers are men with great gifts for service in the church, they must depend entirely on Christ in their ministry. Reflecting on his Apostolic ministry of proclaiming Jesus Christ, Paul asked, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). He answered that question a few verses later:
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (3:5–6)
That is why ordination is accompanied by prayer (Acts 6:6; 13:3). In prayer, the church looks to God to pour out His blessing on these men and, through them, on the church.
As is so often the case in the life of the church, ordination is an ordinary act in which Christ does extraordinary things for His people. Above all, ordination reminds us that Christ continues to reign over His church, giving good gifts to His people to grow them to maturity (see Eph. 4:7–16). In short, ordination is a welcome “reset” for the church. It lifts our eyes heavenward, training them where they should always be—on our risen and reigning Savior.