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SALVATION in the THEOLOGY of JOHN WESLEY ,I by William R

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SALVATION in the THEOLOGY of JOHN WESLEY ,I by William R SALVATION IN THE THEOLOGY OF JOHN WESLEY ,I by William R. Cannon The doctrine of salvation is the central concern in the theology of John Wesley. What man must do, or rather, correctly put, allow to be hone to him, to win the initial approval of God was the question which led Wesley to become a theologian in the first place; and how constantly thereafter to maintain the divine approval, that is, to keep, to improve, a~dto perfect the gift of salvation, was an issue of such burning intmest and crucial importance to him that it exercised his theological talents to the end. John Wesley was primarily an evangelist and only secondarily a theologian. But, since he was not content just to evangelize but always subjected both the methods and message of his evangelistic mission to self criticism and evaluation and gave the basic reasons for what he said and did, he was really a theological evangelist, even an evan- gelistic theologian; for, after all, a man must think about God and all that relates to God, that is, be a theologian, before the precise ex- pressions of what he thinks, that is, the utterance of his message, can ever take shape. Most evangelists are not theologians in any original or creative sense. They take without question or debate the basic ideas of their proclamation from others. George Whitefield, for example, Wesley's younger contemporary, was a successful evangelist. He does not merit the appelation of theologian. John Wesley, in contrast, thought long and hard about everything he said. He required a reason of his own for all things. When Tohn was less than ten years old, his father com- plained to his mothe; about him: "I profess, sweetheart, I think our Jack would not attend to the most pressing necessities of nature, unless he could give a reason for it."l What John Wesley said was true about himself in 1725 remained his intellectual habit to the end: He said then that he could not understand anything, even faith itself, except on rational grounds. Therefore he would not consider anything which contradicted reason? Indeed, so far as I have been able to determine, in the entire range of historical theology, there has never been a more orderly, well-arranged, and consistent theologian than John Wesley. Others have been more profound than he. He has lacked the encyclo- paedic breadth oE Aquinas and Calvin. The range of his explorations was limited. But given what he tried to accomplish theologically, no one, so far as I can tell, essayed his task more clear-headedly or brought off his work more consistently than did the Founder of Metllodism. j I 1 Clarke, Adam: Afemoirs of tlze Wesley Family, Collected front Origit~alDocu- f rncnts (J. Hadclon, London, 1834), Vol. 11, p. 321. il 2 Weslcy, John: Letters (ed. John Telford. Epworth Press, London, 1931) , 1'01. I, p. 23. men ta He was always the people's theologian. His sole purpose in think- doctri ing theologically at all was to help them. Their salvation was the bur- enerni den of his preaching. Consequently what salvation is was the theme i ruthle, of his theology. For him the question of how a sinner may be justi- I rendel fied before God was the basic theological issue simply because it was Bu 'i the basic issue of human existence.' Wesley said that it is a "ques- t man's tion of no common importance to every child of man."' ' itwa~ I. damna We, This is true because every person stands in need of salvation, and it of it salvation is readily available to every person who will have it. There- renienl fore, the universal sinfulness of mankind, original sin, if we dare to- ;~ndre1 day to use that term, and prevenient grace are inseparable and com- matter plemen tary concepts in Uresleyan theology. Neither has any meaning him to whatever without the other. Both together form the basic understand- is like t ing Wesley had of the human subject of salvation. and the Tohn Wesley was thoroughly Augustinian in his view of the scope and it i! and destructiveness of sin and in man's inability through his own at the 1 resources to cope with it. But TVesIey, optimistic Englishman that he Heaven1 was, was not a disciple of either Augustine or Calvin in the ruthless way in which each of them carried out the implications of that con- have be cept, making salvation itself limited 'and restricted in its outreach Natu and circumscribing the redemptive interests of God himself to a He does favored few. Indeed, Wesley's position on sin and grace is the position ~turaln of the Synod of Orange of A.D. 529. He, too, affirms the Fall as over grace of against Pelagianism and insists with Augustine that not only death fell on the human race as a result of Adam's disobedience but that a bent toward evil, sin itself, was transmitted by Adam to his posterity. He accepts the dictates of Orange, which were those of Augustine as opera tivc well, that grace is the necessary antecedent to salvation, that it pre- seems to pares the will and causes us to seek, to ask, and to knock, and that our nature is so weak and wounded by the Fall that it can do nothing un- '~ithhold aided by divine grace. Thus man's spiritual activity, always and in- precious vincibly, depends on God's grace to originate it, to assist it, and to sparse sustain it to the very end? {hi situa Wesley, like the Synod of Orange, went all the way with Augustine by his ret on sin and grace just short of predestination. He could not accept The f this, harsh and forbidding to him as it was and as it had been to the "tion of Ancient and Medieval Church as well. The evaluation of B. T. Kidd, QI they the historian, on the Augustinian position is in keeping with f47esley's conea reaction to that position. "And thus the church adopted the funda- "at t 3 Cannon, William R.: The Theology of John Wesley (Abingdon, N.Y.-Nashville, 6Ridd, 1 1946) , p. 49. 'Qi 8 Yo], 4Berrnon V, Introduction, section 1. The Sermons are carried in 3701s. V. VI, and ' l\'eslq VII of Works (ed. Thomas Jackson, 3rd ed. in 14 vols., Wesleyan-Methodist Book "mo; Room, London, 1831) . 9sem0n 5 The Canons of the Synod of Orange are in Mansi, J. D.: Sncrot-utn Cotlcilioru?n 'O Canno A'ove el Am~~lisrimaCollect io (Florence, 1759-98) , Vol. VI, cols. 433-45.2. Wesley's '1 Lee, c Original Sin," Works, Vol. IX, pp. 191-464. 124, ink- mental position of Augustine but dismissed his speculations. The doctrine of Grace is the doctrine of the Church. But thanks to its 3ur- , ! enemies who put in a plea for Nature it is a doctrine freed from the 3me , ruthlessness with which Augustine caused it to be associated and so ~sti- I rendered at last broadly human."6 was ; But how can one maintain the total depravity of man and yet ues- inan's ability either to accept or to reject divine grace? Augustine felt , it was not possible to do so, and therefore he left man's salvation or I damnation entirely at the dis~osalof God. Calvin did the same. Wesley, howevkr, both actepted human depravity and yet relieved and I it of i& natural consequeilce oaf predestination by his concept of pre- ere- y 1 venient grace-surrounding man in his sinfulness is God in his love I to- om- :md relieving mercy.' This divine help is available to every man, no ling 1 matter who he is and when and where he lives. God will not permit hiin to be. damned unless he damns himself? This prevenient^ grace lnd- i I is like the sunshine which enables us to see, the air which we breathe, :ope I and the water which we drink. It is everywhere available to everybody, I and it is entirely free.'? "By the free Grace of God given to all men alike 3wn I t., 7 at the very moment of birth, they are able to turn again unto their r' r the 1 L Heavenly Father and to regain the privilege of which by nature they r-. 2 lless I.! have been deprived."lO -, con- Natural man therefore for John Wesley is a logical abstraction.11 lac11 He does not really exist, since always and without exception his mere o a naturalness is supplemented and complemented by the supernatural tion grace of Almighty God. Dver tat11 at a Though salvation is available for everybody, only particular peo- ri ty. ple actually are saved. The grace of God is universal. However, the e as operative effects of grace are less inclusive than the term ordinarily pre- seems to imply. What by divine design is allembracing, nothing our withholding, and bee comes down in concrete instances to be the most un- precious and particular possession any person can obtain because it is I in- so sparse and so few people ever come to own it. The variable factor in J to this situation is not God but man. What God intends for all, man by his recalcitrance limits to a few. ;tine The first expression of salvation, in Wesleyan theology, is justifi- cept cation or regeneration. The two words are not synonymous, that is to I the say, they cannot properly be used interchangeably, so that one can jdd, be correctly substituted for the other.
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