How Jesus Runs the Church Quotes

“The church is a spiritual organization. . . . It must do all its doings in the Spirit. It is not constitutional regularity, it is not mechanical perfection, that makes the church efficient for its end; it is the Spirit of Christ using the church as his agent. . . . Alas, form and machinery may exist without life and power.18”
― Guy Prentiss Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church

“The church is not authorized to speak to matters to which Christ has not authorized her in the Word of God to speak. The church, for instance, has no authority to endorse a particular candidate for public office in civil government. Rather, she declares the principles of civil government set forth in such passages as Romans 13:1–7 and 1 Peter 2:13–17. The church may not endorse a particular bill pending before a civil legislative body, for instance, a bill concerning abortion. The church, rather, must declare that abortion is a violation of the sixth commandment of God, and do so without reference to endorsing this or any other piece of legislation.”
― Guy Prentiss Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church

“is Christ who creates the office and defines its functions and prescribes the qualifications for it. And yet, according to the will of the same Lord and Head, the call to be an officer is not complete without the action of the church. Hence, vocation is both inward and outward; and the outward consists of election and ordination.”102”
― Guy Prentiss Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church

“Once again we may ask—how is it that Jesus assumed an authority and reign that he did not previously possess? The answer is found in an important distinction. We may distinguish Jesus’ essential dominion or reign from his mediatorial dominion or reign. This is how Ebenezer Erskine and James Fisher, two eighteenth-century Scottish commentators on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, express the difference. Q. 17. How manifold is [Jesus’] kingdom? A. It is twofold; his essential and his mediatorial kingdom. Q. 18. What is his essential kingdom? A. It is that absolute and supreme power, which he hath over all the creatures in heaven and earth, essentially and naturally, as God equal with the Father, Psal. ciii. 19, “his kingdom ruleth over all—” Q. 19. What is his mediatorial kingdom? A. It is that sovereign power and authority in and over the church, which is given him as Mediator, Eph. i. 22.52”
― Guy Prentiss Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church