OUTSTMIDING DOCTRINES OF JOHN WESLEY’S THEOLOGY
by
William B. Burton
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the Bachelor of Divinity Degree
Interdenominational Theological Center
May 1965
~ TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION . . . 1
III. CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE 8
IV. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 12
V. CONCLUSION 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY I. INTRODUCTION
I was not impressed with John Wesley when I first read his biography.
I readily concluded that he was “over-protected,” a “mother’s boy,” and an
“imprisoned” person, when I read of how his mother’s dominance influenced his thinking. I further suspected that Wesley was somewhat “neurotic” due to his strict up-bringing and his devotion to this parental influence. Thus, my primary judgment about John Wesley’s personality and significance was nega tively critical.
However, after further reflection and thinking, my estimate of Wesley changed. No longer do I categorize Wesley’s personality with the wretched, torn, and despaired personalities of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; but I find
Wesley’s influence to be a “golden chain” of genius which hangs from his pocket with genuine historical, theological authority. After taking a closer look at John Wesley, I now feel that deep down within him, there was truly a genuine desire to be a Christian in God’s sight and to do God’s will. Wesley was struggling for salvation that would fill the emptiness in his life.
I now see also a meaningful connection between Wesley and the Moravian mystics, in whom he saw the possession of a relationship with God which he lacked. These mystics influenced Wesley greatly in his dissatisfaction with his present religious condition. Their doctrine of salvation involving a strong emphasis upon immediate religious experience appealed to him greatly, since they seemed to be doing naturally what was right. He wanted to possess these same qualities of religious assurance in his own soul. Though he later
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denounced some extreme emphases of these mystics, he never denounced the meaning of religious assurance which he gained from them.
Another thing about Wesley that has increased my admiration for him has to do with his devotion to Christian work and writing, which are abundant evidences of his concern for leaving a legacy to others. His Journal, among other works, have become classics. In addition to a long career of preach ing in England, Ireland, and Scotland, he showed his amazing skill by forming societies that eventually became the Methodist Church. He worked well while it was day.
In presenting this essay on Wesley, I find it meaningful to relate the influences in Wesley’s life--a strong, well-disciplined Christian background, and an Aldersgate “heart-warming” experience which led to his development of some of the greatest doctrines on the Christian life that have ever been brought into the Christian heritage. There is a relation between Wesley’s past, his present, his future, and his legacy. Most scholars usually begin with Wesley’s biography in presenting his doctrines, and this is legitimate.
Thus, three important doctrinal contributions of Wesley will be pointed out against this backdrop--namely, Salvation by Faith, Christian Assurance, and
Christian Perfection. II. SALVATION BY FAITH
it is my conviction that John Wesley believed that salvation was a present thing. He held that it is not something which we can look for later in life, or after death; but salvation to him was a present reality, since we are saved here on this earth. Of it Wesley says, “It is a present sal vation. It is something attainable, yea actually attained, on this earth by 1 those who are partakers of this faith.” Therefore, according to Wesley, I can expect to have salvation here in this life.
But Wesley conditions salvation by saying that we must be willint to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we believe, salvation is not a futur istic venture but a present reality. However, Wesley did not fail to see that one may fall from his state of salvation. Just as surely as a man is able to be saved, he may, if he does not stay in the path of God, be lost.
Therefore, one must continue in faith to maintain salvation.
I am convinced that the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone is very distinct in Wesley?s sermons and works, and this theme was in his thinking. In the conglomeration of scientific discoveries, international expansion of the cold war, domestic issues, and liberal theology, I believe that Wesley, if he were living today, would hold fast to this basic tenet.
He would proclaim that salvation could only come by grace through faith in
Jesus Christ. I firmly believe that John Wesley would stand stalwart and
‘E. H. Sugden, The Standard Sermons of John Wesley. (London: The Ep worth Press, 1771, Vol. 1), p. 41.
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preach today as he asserted then:
Christian salvation; whereby, ‘through grace,t we are saved by faith; consisting of two grand branches, justification and sanc tification. By justification, we are saved from the guilt of sin and restored to the favour of God; by sanctification we are saved2 from the power and root of sin, and restored to the image of God.
I am not convinced that Wesley’s intellectual acceptance of salvation
by faith alone was based upon his Aldersgate experience, but the reality of
his living experience of this doctrine did come at the point of his unique
religious experience. The Aldersgate experience did not change his intellec
tual point of view in this matter, but merely gave content to it. However,
his attempts to save his own soul, and his acknowledgement of this doctrine
soon after his conversion, cannot be minimized.
Now, we must hasten to say that to Wesley salvation is not attainable
on the basis of one’s own merits or efforts; rather, salvation is obtained
by grace through faith. In other words, Wesley affirms with Luther that there
are no other means of gaining salvation without the grace of God.
The most significant points in Wesley’s doctrine of salvation by faith may well be summed up by pointing out the functions of preventing grace and
convincing grace. For Wesley, the natural conscience is aligned with pre venting grace. For example, if I feel sorrowful for my mistakes, I point to my conscience as the guilt-maker. However, Wesley would say that even my conscience is God’s grace at work in me. The activity of my conscience is neither my own creation nor my own operation, but is due to God’s initiating
2The Works of John Wesley, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1872; Vol. VI), p. 509. 5
and creative grace in me.
Pi~eventing grace gives one the feeling of his sinful acts, or rather, his sinful state. It is not one’s own power that makes him realize that he is not in proper relation with God; it is that grace which goes before or ahead of all men. Wesley says, “Preventing grace includes the first wish to please God, the first dawn of light concerning his will and the first slight transient conviction of having sinned against him.”3
Here in his concept of universal preventing grace, Wesley solves the age-old contradiction of Augustine and Calvin. They would assert that grace is found only in the elect. But they never could “pin-point” the elect. But for Wesley, this grace is found in all men. It is there for them to accept it, or they may reject it, which accounts for the real fact of conscience even in unregenerate men.
In conjunction with preventing grace, Wesley explains what he means by convincing grace. To him, convincing grace supplements preventing grace in that it aids one to repent and turn to God.
For Wesley, the main source for convincing grace is the Gospel. Those who never hear the Gospel preached are judged according to their response to the grace that is in them, namely, preventing grace which if the reaction is a positive one, they too are in Paradise with Jesus Christ.
If I were to meet Wesley in my search for an answer to my own question of salvation, he would, with eyes cast straightly and without a doubt in his
3The Works of John Wesley, p. 509. 6
mind, say that I could do nothing to save myself. I am totally at the mercy of God. The only way that I can be saved is by God’s grace engulfing my whole being.
The main reason that Wesley broke with the mystics is that they failed to realize that God’s grace alone saves men. These mystics believed that men should try to come into direct experience with God by doing works, deeds, and the living of a holy life. Wesley became aware that the mystics’ efforts lacked the full involving of salvation, which he found only in God’s grace that brings each one of us to this relationship with Himself. Wesley says of it, “Of yourselves cometh neither your faith nor your salvation; it is the gift of God.t~4
Then, too, Wesley found shortcomings in the ratibñalistic approach held that men must work out their own salvation. Wesley contended that one could not work out his own salvation because it was not a “working out matter.”
He held that it is God alone who does the work in us and for us. It is strictly a gift from God. Wesley emphatically places the matter before the world by saying, “All our works, Thou 0 God, has wrought in us.”5
Proclaiming this kind of theology, I am able to see why Wesley’s con temporaries and the Church of England would attempt to restrict his preach ing. Wesley’s doctrine of salvation was in the theological world of his immediate tradition. And, quite naturally, there was bound to be sharp dis cord with those around him.
4E. H. Sugden, The Standard Sermons of John Wesley. (London: The Epworth Press, 1771, Vol. I), p. 47. 5 Sermons, Vol. I, p. 37. 7
In my own thinking, I feel that Wesley~s doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ is one of the most significant to be found in his theology.
I do not take Wesley to be a fundamentalist, but rather one who has found solace for salvation from his biblical interpretations. Wesleyts doctrine of salvation comes from a profound pattern of biblical research and insight. III. CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE
The question that plagues the conscience of every serious believer is the one of Christian Assurance. For one to believe that he is saved by the grace of God leaves another question in his mind, and that is, “How may he be assured that he is saved?” The torrential impact of this question gives rise to a discussion of Wesley’s view of assurance.
I believe that Wesley had long wanted the assurance that would let him know, without any wonderment or speculation, that he was truly a child of
God. He had made many attempts to bring about this experience. He had read the Scriptures and concluded that there must be the “Witness” in the life of every child of God. To experience this “witness” was extremely important to
Wesley. The dying words of his father were imprinted in the depths of his sub-consciousness when he, with life fleeting from him, said, “It is the witness that counts.” With these words burning in his memory, he strove to find this meaning for himself.
It must have been through the Aldersgate experience on May 24, 1738, tha
Wesley found the assurance that cemented an undying conviction that “he” was was a child of God. What he sought intellectually came at that hour when the weight was lifted from his conscience. The feeling of assurance set him free from doubt and fear, and convinced him that he was an integral part of what William Temple calls “the commonwealth of values.” No longer did he feel that his life was blighted with “despair”, the term that ICierkegaard used to describe the state of agony due to one’s separation from God. His experience of “estrangement,” as Paul Tillich would put it, was at an end.
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For Wesley the doctrine of Assurance and the Witness of the Spirit are
one and the same. By the Witness of the Spirit, he means verifying the truth
in our souls and tells us that “we” are His children. The testimony of the
Spirit is an inward impression of the soul where the Spirit of God directly
witnesses to “my spirit,” that “I” am a child of God. God impresses upon
“me” that Jesus Christ loved “me,” and gave Himself for “me”. It means that
“my” sins have been erased and “I” am inseparably joined with God.
Wesley warns of the danger of confusing the Witness of the Spirit with
emotionalism. Though there is always genuine peace, genuine joy in Christian
Assurance, they are not to be confused with the absence of lifets problems.
Wesley recognized that God’s Spirit does not always accompany emotionalism,
through which we escape from reality, nor does ecstasy always accompany the
Spirit. It does, however, involve a sure trust and confidence that God is
with “me”, even in the valley of the shadow of death.
There is an agnosticism in Wesley regarding assurance concerning the
forgiveness of sins. On the one hand, there are times when many of us are
not sure that our sins have been forgiven. Of course, this does not mean
that our sins have not been forgiven. Then, again, some of us fall prey to
the fallacy of thinking that we know all about forgiveness, and may not
really know at all. Therefore, Mr. Wesley cautions one to avoid either of
these two extremes.
Wesley also was ambiguous about the mode of God’s dealing with men. To him, the Witness of the Spirit does not mean that God will speak to the in
dividual in manners familiar to the individualts understanding; nor does he
speak always inwardly. He would contend that God has means of communication
that we know not of. Therefore, God deals with the soul as only He, God, 10
alone knows how to deal with it.
Personally, I admire Wesley’s doctrine of assurance because he does not hold it to be an eschatological hope, that is, at the end of the rainbow.
Modern-day New Testament scholars, in their theologies, set forth colorful views. For instance, C. H. Dodd feels that the Kingdom of God is real but not actualized. He would say that man acknowledges the Kingdom and the King dom is manifested supremely and uniquely in the life and works of Jesus
Christ.5 B. H. Sharman, probably, would agree that the Kingdom of God is actual but imperfect and incomplete in history, while Rudolph Bultmann thinks that there can be no earthly assurance of deliverance.6 John Wesley would disagree with these scholars because he believes that we can have the assur ance here on earth and present in this life. For him, it is not something we will know about after death or on the final judgment, but it is something that we can know now. He feels that one can attain an undying assurance that he is a child of God, that Christ died for him, truths to which the Spirit bears witness.
Wesley seems to say that assurance also means that the believer must live in accordance with what one professes to have taken place in his life.
Living a good life cannot initiate the assurance, but this assurance will initiate living a good Christian life so long as one’s faith remains per fect.
5New Testament History and Literature, Class Lectures, November, 1961, Interdenominational Theological. Center.
6Lectures, November, 1961, I.T.C. 11
Finally, one must be reminded that Wesley places conditions for assur ance in the forefront in affirming that the believer must renounce all sin and have a clear, clean slate to present before God. His scriptural research would dictate to him that the blood of Christ “taketh away the sins of the world.” Therefore, the believer must come to God in perfect faith which has to do with his doctrine of Christian Perfection.
Furthermore, it may be stated that though Wesley was ridiculed for hav ing stood his ground on this doctrine, no one can deny the importance of this doctrine to the true Christian believer. IV. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
That the doctrine of Christian Perfection was crucial in Wesley’s theology is revealed in the controversy and criticism aroused by it. Even his brother, Charles, who was very close to him at most points, was skeptical and silent about this doctrine. And, there is no little amount of criticism still being levelled at Wesley at this point.
If we tried to capture the roots of this doctrine in Wesley’s thinking, we would probably find that its ~rength came from the strong influence of his parents’ view of perfection. To be sure, Wesley was probably impressed with the mystics’ idea of perfection, but the roots probably were tied to his Christian nurture under Savannah Wesley. Until his death, Wesley made the espousal of this doctrine one of his great concerns.
Now, what of the meaning of his doctrine of perfection per se? First of all, let us clear up a misconception about Wesley’s doctrine of perfection.
Wesley did not mean that the believer is free from mistakes, errors, and other facts related to human finitude and ignorance. The believer may mis read the Scriptures, or he may misinterpret his almost perfect reading of the Scriptures. Thus, perfection does not mean that one is equal with God in intelligence, power, and knowledge.
Looking at Wesley’s doctrine of perfection positively, four things might be said. One is that the basic meaning of Wesley’s conception of per fection has to do with purity of intent, where the believer’s motives, in tentions, and causes are rightly directed. Though one’s outward expressions
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or works might not be perfect, the true meaning of Wesley’s doctrine of per
fection is found -in the inner disposition of one’s will.
A second meaning of Wesley’s doctrine of perfection has to do with the
meaning of the stage where perfection is reached. In answer to the question,
“Are you going on to perfection?”, Wesley points out that perfection to the
Christian is the reaching of certain points, and not stopping at any one
point. In other words, perfection is not the completion of Christian growth
but perfection is the climate by which the Christian grows in and toward the
absolute perfection found in Jesus Christ. The Christian does not come to a
“jumping off place” in his quest for perfection. The “perfect” must continue
in the quest because the “perfect” still needs an increase in grace.
A third meaning of perfection has to do with loving God with all the
heart, soul, and spirit, thus having one’s action governed by perfect love.
Love for God and for one’s fellowman delivers one from sin, since one is then
at peace with all concerned and the temptation to sin is minimized by a mind
stayed on seeking the best for God and neighbor.
A fourth meaning of perfection is that it is attained both gradually
and instantaneously. It is instantaneous because there are moments of ex
perience in which one may feel that he is more strongly made perfect in love.
It is gradual in the sense tkät it is processive in nature. Wesley would
agree that perfection should not be expected at death; but it is a reality, moment to moment, in that one’s mind is enjoined to Christ in which there is no cause to sin, nor is there any stumbling or falling. V. CONCLUSION
I must con±ess that I find Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection
the most important doctrine of his entire body of thought. I say this be
cause Wesley put himself to the task of expressing this view in spite of
many adversaries and criticisms. His faith was tested and found strong in
his conviction about this ambiguous doctrine which so few have championed.
Then, too, I find Wesley was relevant to his times, a refreshing breeze
amidst the religious stagnation that had set in. His unflagging zeal and
genius measure him tall along side Paul, Augustine, Calvin, and Luther.
Though I did not find his theology to be systematic, it possessed its own
kind of order as it flowed from his experience to relate itself to mine.
Finally, I must say that I have discovered no new truths in Wesley’s
theology, but I have had better opportunity to form my personal opinion
about his significance. As I wrestled with some of the same problems that
Mr. Wesley faced in his quest for salvation, I also met similar unassuring
experiences which left me in doubt about my relationship to God. But he who was found has helped me to be found; and the theology of Wesley is an inspira
tion to me to be an inspiration to others.
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Burtner,Robert W. and Chiles, Robert E., A Compend of Wesley?s Theology. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1954.
Cannon, William R., The Theology of John Wesley. Nashville: The Abingdon Press, 1956.
Eayrs, George, The Letters of John Wesley. London: Hudder and Stoughton, 1915.
Goodwin, John, A Treatise on Justification. London: Printed at the Conference Office, 1807.
New Testament Notes, Interdenominational Theological Center, 1961.
Sugden, E. H., The Standard Sermons of John Wesley. London: The Epworth Pres, 1771, Vol. I.
The Works of John Wesley. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1872.
The Discipline of The Methodist Church.
The Revised Standard Holy Bible.
Wesley, John, The Marrow of Methodism, Introduction and Analysis by Rev. Benjamin Gregory. London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Co.
Wesley, John, The Wesleyan Standards. Nashville: Methodist Publishing House, compiled by Rev. W. P. Harrison, 1924.
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