Famous Sermons of John Wesley
It is estimated that John Wesley traveled around 250,000 miles and preached over 40,000 sermons in a span of 66 years. This page includes summaries and links to some of his most famous and important sermons. Scroll down to see a synopsis of other sermons. Here is a table of the contents:
Christian Perfection (1741)
The Witness of the Spirit I (1746)
Means of Grace (1746)
Free Grace (1739)
On Working Out Our own Salvation (1785)
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption (1746)
Salvation by Faith (1738)
The Scripture Way of Salvation (1765)
The Circumcision of the Heart (1733)
The Great Privilege of those Born of God (1748)
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption (1746)
The Righteousness of Faith (1746)
The Great Assize (1758)
Justification by Faith (1746)
Christian Perfection
Philippians 3:12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.
Wesley states it was at the end of 1740 that Bishop Edmund Gibson questioned him about his teachings on Christian perfection. The reason for the meeting was that the Methodists were headquartered in his diocese and rumors about Wesley’s views had reached the ears of the Bishop. Gibson wanted to know what exactly was Wesley promoting.
Wesley recorded many years later that he told the Bishop “without any disguise or reserve” what he meant by “perfection.” He added, “When I ceased speaking, he said, ‘Mr. Wesley, if this be all you mean, publish it to all the world. If anyone then can confute what you say, he may have free leave.” Wesley responded, “My Lord, I will,” and soon after published this sermon titled Christian Perfection.
Read the sermon: Christian Perfection
Background
Wesley grew up in a home where his parents used the language of Christian perfection as a synonym for holiness. The phrase is part of a long tradition in the Christian faith reaching back to the church fathers in the early centuries. Plus, the language of “perfection” appears in many texts of the KJV Bible that speak of Christian growth and maturation.
Wesley’s interest in Christian holiness intensified in 1725 as he prepared for ordination as deacon in the Anglican Church. Wesley began to study numerous devotional writers on the subject, including the Anglican Jeremy Taylor and the Roman Catholic Thomas a Kempis. While “perfection” connotes to us something that is absolute and flawless, Wesley’s studies helped him to see it as dynamic and involving development. To be perfect was simply to live a holy, devoted life to Christ.
When Wesley experienced evangelical conversion in 1738 it led to new insights about Christian perfection. Initially, Wesley assumed a connection between the new birth and Christian perfection. But from his own post-conversion struggles and seeing other young converts struggle convinced him that Christian perfection as full, complete devotion was attained after the new birth. His first comments of this distinction is found in his journal comments on January 25, 1739, when he baptized several people and remarked that those baptized had differing levels of spiritual attainment.
The following summer he further commented that many young converts made the mistake that they were already perfected because of their heightened emotions due to their dramatic conversion experiences. He recognized in the fervor of revival that young converts misjudged their degree of spiritual attainment and still needed to press on to attain what he called Christian perfection.
By November 1739 (1 1/2 years after his Aldersgate conversion) Wesley was teaching a clear doctrine of two works of grace. The first is the experience of evangelical conversion that includes justification and new birth in Christ. The second is the blessing of Christian perfection as wholehearted love to God and neighbor. His first published explanation of these two works was in the preface to Hymns and Sacred Poems, released in July 1740. Wesley’s new teaching spread fast and wide among the various evangelical groups and in the wider public. This led Bishop Gibson to inquire about the true nature of Wesley’s views on the subject.
Sermon Summary
Wesley opened by acknowledging the word “perfect” can be controversial. But since the term is found in Holy Writ describing the spiritual attainment of Christians, it is imperative that we properly define it.
Wesley then explained in the first section what perfection is not. He described that believers are never perfect in knowledge or free from mistake. Nor are we ever free from human weakness or what he called “infirmities.” He also added that it does not mean we are free from temptation and trials in life. By affirming these ongoing “imperfections” Wesley acknowledged their ongoing reality in this life. In contemporary theological terms, Wesley affirmed the eschatological tension that remains – that is, God’s saving kingdom is present but not yet in its fullness. While we enjoy the benefits of salvation in Christ, we continue to wait for the eschatological salvation when Christ returns and sets everything right. To settle this point, Wesley closed the first section by asserting there is no absolute perfection in this life. We continue to grow in faith and holiness throughout this life.
Wesley then explained in the second section there are several stages to the Christian life, patterned after the natural life. On this point he looked to 1 John 2:12-14 that speaks of children, adolescents, and adults in the faith. So, in one sense perfection applies to every stage of development. Infants are perfect as infants, and so forth. But when he spoke of “Christian perfection” Wesley was referring specifically to adults in the faith.
Through much of the sermon Wesley elaborated on the privileges of a new Christian (infants/children). He explained that one of the chief blessings for all Christians is freedom from the rule of sin. As Paul describes in Romans 6, believers no longer serve sin. Instead, they are servants of Christ and have been set free from their enslavement to sin. Because of this believers can grow in holiness of heart and life. Wesley called this level of deliverance as a freedom from “outward sin.”
Towards the end he addresses the perfection of adulthood in Christ. Fully sanctified believers are delivered from “inward sin” as well as “outward sin.” By inward sin Wesley meant sinful attitudes and dispositions that interrupt a believer’s devotion to God. He specifically lists pride, self-will (desire), sinful anger and other sins of the heart. Christian perfection signifies a decisive victory over these sinful dispositions (JW’s term is “tempers”). In their place God’s love fills the heart so that a person’s conscious life is characterized by holy love to God and good will toward one’s neighbor.
Read the sermon: Christian Perfection
Publication
Christian Perfection was initially published in early 1741 and was reissued as part of sermon collections and Wesley’s Works.
The Witness of the Spirit
Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
When the Evangelical Revival broke out in the 1730s there was no aspect of conversion probably more central than assurance of salvation. The gift of assurance was called “the witness of the Spirit.” It was by the Spirit’s testimony to a new convert that they knew beyond doubt that God have saved them and gave them new birth in Christ.
Therefore, when Wesley published a series of sermons in 1746 of the doctrines he had been preaching since 1738, he included the sermon The Witness of the Spirit. Twenty years later he would return to this subject and publish a second sermon by the same title, so the two sermons became marked with the Roman numerals I and II to distinguish them. We will look at the first sermon.
Albert Outler notes that Wesley’s theory of religious knowledge was intuitionist, but it was an intuition connected to the objective ground of religious experience. The objective ground was the reality of a changed life through faith in Christ. True conversion produces the fruits of the Spirit and other marks or characteristics of an authentic Christian faith. Wesley therefore understood Romans 8:16 to teach there are two witnesses to conversion: (1) the witness of the Holy Spirit and (2) the witness of our spirit.
Background
The idea of a two-fold witness was taught in Puritan theology of the 17th century. For example, both John Owen and Thomas Goodwin held that the Spirit imparts a sense of assurance in the heart alongside a rational deduction from seeing a changed life. The consensus was that assurance was for mature believers who had demonstrated their perseverance over time.
The Pietists developed the concept of assurance further by incorporating it in the conversion event. For example, Augustus Francke emphasized the necessity of a penitential struggle with conversion as a breakthrough to an overwhelming sense of peace, joy, and assurance – seen as the witness of the Spirit to one’s salvation.
The new evangelicals, like Wesley, followed the Pietists and emphasized the gift of assurance in the conversion event. A felt assurance of salvation was a common privilege for everyone who believes in Christ for salvation.
But what exactly was this assurance by the Spirit’s testimony? Many in Wesley’s day had merged the Spirit’s witness with the testimony of our spirit to conclude that it is a single testimony — a rational deduction from seeing the Spirit’s fruit or other external marks of the faith in one’s life. Wesley (and other evangelicals) disagreed. In his sermon he spells out his reasons for a two-fold witness of assurance.
The Witness of the Spirit
In the first section Wesley exegetes Romans 8:16 to show that the text teaches a two-fold witness of assurance to salvation. The witness of our spirit is elaborated in paragraphs I.2-6. Scripture spells out many marks of the Christian, like the fruits of the Spirit and Christian obedience. These are called by Wesley “rational evidence.” He then claims that anyone is “immediately conscious” of whether these marks are evident in their life. Just as you are immediately conscious whether you love someone or “perceive if you love, rejoice, and delight in God” (I.5).
Wesley considered the witness of our spirit as an indirect testimony because it involved a series of steps by which a person could know they are saved. And these steps took time for them to develop. For a person to know on the spot whether they were genuinely converted or not, they needed a testimony that is more direct and immediate – the witness of the Spirit.
Wesley defined the Spirit’s witness as “an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God directly ‘witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God” (I.7). By “inward impression” Wesley meant a sensation, feeling, or a conviction of belief. This is what Wesley felt at his evangelical conversion on May 24, 1738: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ…and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins.”
Wesley then explained that the Spirit’s testimony is fundamental to the witness of our spirit. To summarize his argument: we cannot be holy unless we love God, and we cannot love God unless we first know his “pardoning love” revealed to us by the Spirit (I.8). In this way Wesley made the witness of the Spirit essential to evangelical conversion and the “very foundation of Christianity” (Letter to “John Smith,” 12/30/1745). He went on to tell “John Smith” that this was the “main doctrine of the Methodists.” Wesley continued through his life to maintain that there is no evangelical experience apart from the Spirit’s direct testimony of our acceptance in Christ.
At the same time Wesley acknowledged that any claim to the Spirit’s witness must be backed up with the scriptural marks and evidences of authentic faith. A mere profession is not sufficient. In this way Wesley grounded the intuitionist knowledge of acceptance on the objective ground of a changed life. In the end, holy living – the witness of our own spirit – is the final word on assurance.
Publication
The Witness of the Spirit, Discourse I was included in the 1746 release of Sermons on Several Occasions that summarized Wesley’s evangelical message. It was later incorporated into his collected works in 1771 and has been published numerous times thereafter.
Sermon link: The Witness of the Spirit I
The Means of Grace
Text: Malachi 3:7
Ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.
It is common knowledge that the Wesleys were high church Anglicans and considered various practices of the faith as means or channels by which divine grace is conveyed to responsive believers. They derived their high churchmanship from their parents, Samuel and Susanna, who were committed high churchmen.
Albert Outler reminds us that the context for this sermon was John Wesley’s early conflicts with the Moravians over the role of the ordinances, especially the Lord’s Supper, in receiving saving faith and the new birth.
The Moravians were Lutheran pietists and considered the Anglicans reliance on the means as a sign of authentic Christianity as misguided and a slippery slope toward salvation by works. They also held that saving faith brings a strong sense of assurance that removes all doubts. Therefore, if any new convert expressed doubts, then they were still unconverted and remained a seeker of salvation. The Moravian leadership took the next step and began counseling seekers to stop practicing the means of grace until they first received the gift of saving faith. Their reasoning was that Anglicans were too prone to trust in these religious practices (especially Communion) and this would get in the way of trusting in Christ alone.
John Wesley strongly disagreed with the Moravian position on scriptural and practical grounds. After his own bout with doubts following his Aldersgate conversion, largely due to Moravian teaching, Wesley argued in several writings that the Moravians were simply wrong on these points. Like himself, he considered new converts who experienced some doubts after their conversion to have a degree of saving faith. This became Wesley’s position from his debates with the Moravians: there are degrees of saving faith in the new birth experience. This allowed Wesley to maintain his Anglican viewpoint on the ordinances as means of grace and hold to his evangelical beliefs about salvation by faith in Christ.
What is the Means of Grace?
Wesley begins the sermon by explaining that the means of grace refer to Christian practices and ordinances that serve as the “channels” by which divine grace is imparted or conveyed to believers. Since grace refers to God’s presence and saving activity in people’s lives, the means were understood by Wesley and early Methodists to be the normal ways by which God is present and savingly active in people’s lives. This is how Wesley defines the means of grace in the sermon:
“By ‘means of grace’ I understand outward signs, words, or actions ordained by God, and appointed for this end—to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace” (II.1).
Throughout his writings Wesley lists many of the means of grace. But in the sermon the focus is on three: prayer (private and corporate), searching the scriptures, and Holy Communion. From this short list we could add others, like fasting, worship, Christian fellowship, ministry, service, etc.
The Importance of the Means
In the sermon Wesley engages a Moravian interlocutor who asserts that we are saved by faith alone. To this statement Wesley replies, “‘True, but how shall I believe?’ You reply, ‘Wait on God.’ ‘Well. But how am I to wait? In the means of grace, or out of them? Am I to wait for the grace of God which bringeth salvation by using these means, or by laying them aside?’” (II.7).
Wesley’s insight is point on. If we desire for God to be present and active in our lives, we must seek him through the channels by which he is found — prayer, ‘searching the scriptures’, worship, fasting, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and the other means by which we draw near to God. This point was made by Jeremiah:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (29:11-13)
Note that it is through prayer and calling on God that the Israelites were to find God. Wesley therefore concludes there is an “absolute necessity” to use the means of grace for us to receive “any gift from God” (III.3).
Now, in asserting the importance of the means of grace for our salvation Wesley warns his readers that there is no power or efficacy in the means themselves. Apart from God the means are a “poor, dead, empty thing.” They become merely a “dry leaf,” or a “shadow” of the real thing (V.4). Only God can save and redeem. However, the Lord has chosen to work through various means to impart his salvation into our lives. Therefore, believers must use the means of grace, but not trust in them for our salvation. We are to use them as means and not ends.
Lessons for Today
There are many lessons in this sermon for believers today. First, it is common for many Christians to think that the means play no role in their relationship with God. This is why so many Christians ignore the means of grace. And to their detriment they suffer the consequences to the degree that they ignore prayer, worship, searching the scriptures, Holy Communion, and the other means of grace.
Second, there are believers who rely too much on the means, the form of religion, and lack its transforming power in their lives (2 Tim. 3:5). They judge themselves as spiritually fit because they keep certain practices when their faith does not transform their lives. Like the other group, they are deceived and often don’t realize their spiritual bankruptcy.
In this sermon Wesley calls to believers to faithfully practice the means of grace as the normal channels by which to have a vibrant, life changing relationship with God through Christ.
The reader is encouraged to read the sermon for themselves. Here are the first and Jackson editions:
The Means of Grace 1746
The Means of Grace (Works 1872)
Free Grace
Romans 8:32
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.
Introduction
Albert Outler remarked that this sermon is noteworthy for helping to spark a major schism in the ranks of the English Evangelicals. When the Evangelical Revival broke out in the late 1730s, there was no division between the major theological traditions that comprised the Revival: Calvinism, Arminianism, and Pietistic Lutheranism.
The work in Bristol in early 1739 was led by George Whitefield who was Calvinistic in his convictions. Whitefield was planning a return trip to America and realized the need for someone who was more skilled than him at organizing the converts into societies and bands. So, he invited John Wesley to come and supervise the work in his absence. Wesley arrived on March 31 and began field preaching the next day, with Whitefield’s blessing. Soon, word spread that Wesley differed from Whitefield on the matter of predestination.
It also became obvious to Wesley that a response was needed, and he drew lots for spiritual guidance on the matter (following the apostolic practice outlined in Acts 1:26). The lot fell on “preach and print.” Three days later, on April 29th, Wesley “declared openly” at several locations “against ‘the horrible decree’” of absolute predestination (as taught by the Calvinists). Soon after he printed the sermon under the title, Free Grace.
As a standalone publication, the sermon went through ten or eleven editions during Wesley’s lifetime. Free Grace represents one of Wesley’s more controversial sermons since it helped spark the schism between himself and Whitefield. Wesley later decided not include it in his collected Works. However, later editions of Wesley’s Works placed the sermon among his controversial writings.
Core Principles
Free Grace represents a stringent critique of the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. At the outset, the reader should understand that Wesley makes no distinction between the spectrum of views held by Calvinists on the subject. He simply assumes a double predestination doctrine for all Calvinists – that is, God eternally decrees some people to life and elects the rest to damnation. Not every Calvinist subscribes to this viewpoint (then and now). But Wesley felt their belief in absolute predestination implied it, even if some Calvinists denied the decree of reprobation. So, when reading the sermon, it is important to remember that this is the doctrine of predestination that Wesley opposes.
Despite the sermon’s argumentative tone, it remains an important resource for Wesley’s own understanding of election and predestination. He begins by asserting how freely God loves the entire world. He speaks of God so loving every person that he gave his own Son to die for their salvation. Thus, Wesley concludes that if God loves us this much, he will surely give us all things necessary for our salvation. This is the foundation of his Arminian perspective.
While Protestants often define grace as divine favor and link it to God’s merciful disposition, in Free Grace Wesley connects divine grace to God’s universal love. From this premise Wesley argues that saving grace is “free in all, and free for all.” As the author and source of all good in every person, God’s grace is “free in all.” As an expression of God’s universal good will, his grace is “free to all.” No one is excluded or left out because of a divine decree. God is active in reaching out to every man, woman, and child so they may know and love him.
Towards the end of the sermon Wesley redefines what God eternally decreed in the past. Instead of the Reformed notion that God decided beforehand to save some people and to damn the rest, Wesley asserts that God decreed the plan of salvation that is available to all by free grace (In a later sermon he will argue that believers are predestined to be conformed to Christ). Even though everyone is in bondage to sin and cannot save themselves (Wesley affirmed total depravity), free grace enables all people have a choice to accept or reject God’s provision. And since God is omniscient, he already knows who will accept and persevere in the faith. In the end there are no surprises to God.
This is the substance of Wesley’s Arminian doctrine of predestination, or what he called “universal redemption.”
Wesley’s Arguments
In the sermon Free Grace Wesley presents a series of arguments against the doctrine of absolute predestination. It is not necessary in this summary to walk through every one of them to understand Wesley’s Arminian perspective on election and predestination. He first tackles the question whether someone can support an eternal decree of some people to salvation and not simultaneously affirm an eternal decree of reprobation for the rest. For Wesley, the first decree logically assumes the latter one even if someone will not acknowledge it.
Other arguments focus on the logical necessity of the elect being saved, no matter what they believe or do – or not believe or do. In other words, absolute election means the chosen will be saved no matter what. Now this argument really aimed at the notion of antiniomianism – that obedience to Christ does not matter concerning final salvation. With all the warnings and exhortations to holy living in scripture, Wesley considered antinomianism to be spiritual poison to the health of a soul. Bottom line — Wesley did not see holiness as merely an option for the believer. And he often looked to Hebrews 12:14 for support (“Without holiness no one will see the Lord”).
Wesley also felt the doctrine of absolute predestination undercut the gospel proclamation that God loves everyone, and that Christ died for every person. For Wesley, verses like John 3:16 and 1 John 2:1-2 clearly teach a general atonement for the entire human race. Since Calvinists in the 18th century tended to affirm that Christ died only for the elect – that is, those eternally decreed to salvation – this suggested that God did not love the non-elect. Wesley saw this as contrary to the gospel and God’s explicit statements in his word about his desire to see every person saved.
The reader is encouraged to work through the sermon and examine the arguments that Wesley makes. Whether we agree or disagree with Wesley, Free Grace is a helpful resource for learning about the Arminian perspective on this vital biblical doctrine. Here are two early editions of the sermon:
Sermon Free Grace 2nd ed 1740
Sermon Free Grace 1775
On Working Out Our Own Salvation
Text: Philippians 2:12-13
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
This landmark sermon needs to be understood against the backdrop of the 1770 Minutes Controversy between the Wesleyan Methodists and the Evangelical Calvinists. At the 1770 Conference Wesley published some minutes that emphasized the role of good works in salvation. Notably, Wesley stated that some Methodists were leaning too much toward Calvinism in their teaching on salvation and good works. The Calvinists responded by charging Wesley of asserting salvation by works and of leaning to close toward the Roman Catholic position of justification by inherent righteousness.
The controversy lasted for several years with a number of authors on both sides involved in the pamphlet war (see Minutes Controversy page for more information). John Fletcher (d. 1785) came to the forefront as a Methodist theologian during this period with his multi-volume Checks to Antinomianism. At the close the Controversy Wesley began the Arminian Magazine to defend and promote the Arminian cause. Then in 1785 he published his mature thoughts on the subject in the sermon On Working Out Our Own Salvation.
Read the sermon: On Working Out Our Own Salvation
The Synergism of Salvation
For a text Wesley chose Philippians 2:12-13, an Anglican favorite on the believer’s active participation in their salvation. The synergism of Wesley’s soteriology is evident with his two main points: “First, God works; therefore you can work. Second, God works; therefore you must work” (III.2). The necessity of works for salvation could not be more magnified while still holding to a soteriology of free grace. The discourse begins by reminding readers that salvation is the work of the economic Trinity. The Father is the gracious cause of salvation, while the Son is the meritorious cause and the Spirit the transforming cause. God’s salvific work is to breathe into his people “every good desire” and “every right disposition” to equip them for “every good word and work.” (I.1-3). Since, the economic Trinity is the efficient cause of salvation, it “removes all imagination of [human] merit” and gives “God the whole glory” for our salvation (I.1). So, salvation includes God working and us working, with no merit attached to our working.
The Way of Salvation
Wesley proceeds to break down the “gracious dispensations” (III.7) in the scripture path of salvation. Wesley explains that it begins with “preventing grace” and is carried forward by “convincing grace” till a person “experiences the proper Christian salvation . . . justification and sanctification.” Justification involves deliverance from sin’s guilt and a reinstatement to divine favor. Sanctification is liberation from the “power and root of sin” and restoration in the divine image. The path of salvation includes both instantaneous moments (justification and entire sanctification) and continual growth in the love of God and neighbor, until the believer attains in the eschatological future the “‘measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’” (II.1).
With the “scripture way of salvation” explained, Wesley explains “how are we to ‘work out’ this salvation?” (II.2). Recalling themes that reached back to his Oxford days, Wesley stressed the necessity of having a “single eye” in order to obey with the “utmost diligence, speed, punctuality, and exactness” (II.2-3). Regarding the “steps” of salvation, Wesley repeated themes and phrases found in the 1770 Minutes. Seekers are to “‘cease to do evil; learn to do well.’” They must avoid “every evil word and work” and learn to be “zealous of good works,” including “works of piety, as well as works of mercy.” Examples are taken from the means of grace: private and family prayer, fasting, searching the scriptures, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, doing good to all people, and practicing self-denial (II.4). So, for Wesley salvation involves our active participation if it is to be “worked out” in our lives.
Why Believers Must Work
Wesley explores the reason why we must “work” in order to be finally saved. He began by pointing out that a person can work since divine grace is active in them. But Wesley is adamant that such works are “without any merit” (III.4-5). A common pitfall, though, is to have a “mock humility” and exclaim as the Calvinists do, “‘Oh, I can do nothing’” in regard to my salvation (III.6). Nothing could be further from the truth! Wesley points out that works are God’s appointed way for grace to be appropriated for present and final salvation. Consequently, the reader must work or else God “will cease working” in them. To Augustine’s, “‘He that made us without ourselves, will not save us without ourselves’” (III.7), Wesley added John 6:27, “‘Labour, then, not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life’” (III.8).
Conclusion
In Wesley’s mature soteriology everyone “works for as well as from life.” The scripture path of salvation begins with the unmerited gift of preventing grace, “There is no man, unless he has quenched the Spirit, is wholly void of the grace of God.” For “everyone has some measure of that light . . . which sooner or later . . . enlightens every man that cometh into the world” (III.4). The same principle holds true for the Christian. They too “work for as well as from life,” having been justified by faith through the righteousness of Christ they work out their sanctification by the grace of God. In this way the believer puts on the “wedding garment” of “personal holiness” in order to receive final justification when Christ returns and welcomes his people into the eternal kingdom.
Even with this brief summary of its main themes, I recommend you read the sermon: On Working Out Our Own Salvation
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
Text: Romans 8:15
Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father.
Introduction
When the Evangelical Revival began in the 1730s, the concept of three spiritual states was one way that evangelicals sought to convince their listeners of their need for new birth by faith in Christ alone. Like other evangelists, John and Charles Wesley employed the three-states model in their preaching. Its roots go back to their Oxford days when they read the writings of John Norris. The Oxford Methodists discussed the concept of three spiritual states, identified as (1) natural, (2) Jewish (legal), and (3) evangelical. This shows that the idea of spiritual states reaches back in the Anglican tradition and is found in other traditions, like Puritanism. Albert Outler noted that the classical source for spiritual states is Augustine’s Enchiridion xxxi (see Works 1:248).
Read the sermon: The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
John Wesley’s Testimony
Wesley employed the three-state model of natural, legal, and evangelical to describe his own journey to saving faith in Christ in 1738. Wesley’s Journal entry for May 24 tells the story of how he was initially in the natural state after losing his baptismal washing and experienced spiritual awakening in 1725. This was his transition to the legal state, when for several years he sought to attain an assurance of salvation through personal piety and devotion.
Wesley shares how these efforts failed during his time in Georgia and led him to realize that he needed a new foundation for assurance of salvation. Meeting the Moravian Peter Bohler in February 1738, Wesley learned that assurance is a gift of grace received through faith in Christ alone. Finally, on May 24, at a religious meeting on Aldersgate Street, London, Wesley felt his “heart strangely warmed,” and he entered the evangelical state by receiving an assurance of his justification and new birth.
Wesley’s Description
The classic statement on the three spiritual states is found in Wesley’s sermon The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption. First published in 1746, this sermon aims to help his largely Anglican audiences to identify where they are at in the spiritual journey and what they need to do to find saving faith in Christ. Since the vast majority of the population were baptized members of the Anglican Church, it was easy for people to assume they were already Christians with a hope of eternal salvation. This false hope is dispelled by Wesley’s clear description of the natural and legal states.
The natural state is described as a condition of spiritual slumber. Those in this state enjoy a false sense of peace and security because they are living in darkness toward God and his will. They often congratulate themselves for their “wisdom and goodness” and feel secure, but they are “utterly ignorant” of their sinful and lost condition. They live self-content, believing their goodness out-weighs their badness and will therefore earn them a place in heaven.
But their false peace is suddenly shaken when they are awakened to the reality of God’s moral law and his judgment on sin. The “inward, spiritual meaning of the law of God” now grips the person. This is the legal state or life under the law. A person now strives to please God according to their degree of knowledge. Like Adam and Eve, they sew fig leaves with their good works to cover their nakedness before God – but to no avail. A chief characteristic of the legal state is a fear or reverence of God that motivates a person to serve him. But they do it in their own strength. Still living under the reign of sin the person cannot break free into the freedom God gives through faith in Jesus.
At the right moment, orchestrated by the Spirit of God, a person enters the evangelical state through faith in Jesus. The love of God pours into their life and they feel the “Spirit of adoption” within. God gives them assurance of forgiveness and acceptance, and they are delivered from the reign of sin described by Paul in Romans 6:1-18. These believers enjoy true peace and joy from the Lord, and the love of God spurs them to grow in faith and Christlikeness.
This is a synopsis of the three spiritual states. Wesley explained there can be many degrees within each of these three states as people’s spiritual states vary in knowledge and commitment to divine truth. He also noted from his broad experience as a minister that during a transition period from one state to another, a person can often display aspects of both states in varying degrees. A wise minister will notice this and give proper counsel to seekers to help them fully transition into the next state (and spiritual development).
Practical Application
The three-state model can be helpful in evangelism and discipleship to guide people in the path of salvation. The journey to saving faith is never a straight line and seekers can be easily detoured by various obstacles. It takes wisdom to win souls to Christ and to keep them on the narrow path to final salvation.
Read the sermon: The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
Salvation by Faith
This famous sermon of John Wesley has been labeled his “evangelical manifesto” (Albert Outler). Wesley always included it first in his publications of sermon collections, and for good reason. For Salvation by Faith enunciates in the clearest terms what he often called his “new gospel.”
Here is the sermon: Salvation by Faith
Background
The story of Wesley’s journey to find an assurance of salvation is well-known and does not need to be repeated here (see Wesley’s first journal). In early 1738 he returned from Georgia questioning whether he had ever truly been converted as a Christian. In early February he met the Moravian Peter Bohler, who would mentor both John and Charles in the evangelical experience of the new birth. At first, Wesley questioned the scriptural basis for Bohler’s gospel of instantaneous conversion by faith in Christ alone, bringing both an assurance of pardon (justification) and freedom from sin’s enslaving power (new birth). But by late April Wesley was convinced after hearing the testimonies of several people and reading the Book of Acts. He then began to seek after the gift of saving faith and received it on May 24, 1738, at a religious meeting in Aldersgate, London.
By the time of his evangelical conversion, Wesley had been preaching his “new gospel” of salvation by faith alone at several Anglican churches and received a negative response from the Anglican clergy. When his turn came up to preach once more at Oxford before the University on June 11th, Wesley took the opportunity to proclaim his new evangelical gospel of faith alone.
Contents
Kenneth Collins and Jason Vickers describe Salvation by Faith as “remarkable in many respects, due to its strong Reformation themes.” The sermon is organized into three sections that address: (1) the nature of saving faith, (2) the nature of the salvation which this faith brings, and (3) Wesley’s answers to objections to this new view of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Before we briefly look at the three sections, the introduction opens the subject by declaring that all of God’s blessings are from his free grace. And, if any sinner is to find favor with God it is only by the freeness of his divine grace.
Section 1: Wesley defines saving faith by contrasting it to three other degrees or kinds of faith. The most generic form of faith is that of a heathen, who believes in the existence of God and in his goodness and justice. The next level of faith is that of a demon. The demons know Jesus is the Son of God and that he is the Savior, but do not commit to him from the heart. Wesley saw this kind of belief to be mere intellectual faith. A person professes belief but their faith lacks any saving power in their life. The third level of faith is that which the disciples of Jesus had before the cross and Pentecost. They followed Jesus and even worked miracles, but their faith knew nothing of his death and resurrection and its power to transform their lives. This became the essence of saving faith – it is a “full reliance” and “trust” in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as “given for us” and “living in us,” producing a real transformation of life, called the new birth.
Section 2: After defining what saving faith is, Wesley explains what kind of salvation this faith brings into a person’s life. First, he stresses that it is a present salvation. That is, it is more than a salvation from hell but involves (1) deliverance from the guilt of all past sin, (2) freedom from all servile fear stemming from a sense of divine wrath, and (3) deliverance from the enslaving power or rule of sin experienced in the new birth (and declared by Paul in Romans 6:14, 17-18). So, for Wesley salvation by faith in Christ alone brings a solid assurance of justification and new birth.
Section 3: In answering objections, Wesley explains that this gospel of faith alone produces all holiness of heart and life by the inward working of the Spirit. He therefore rebutted the idea that salvation by faith alone does not excuse continued sinful living. To the contrary, our new birth in Christ regenerates the moral heart to love God and one’s neighbor. In other words, authentic faith produces a changed life and spiritual growth as its fruit.
Publication
Salvation by Faith was first published in London in the fall of 1738 and thereafter released numerous times as a single tract and in the sermon collections (first being in 1746).
Here are early editions:
Salvation by Faith 1st ed 1738
Salvation by Faith 6th ed 1743
Salvation by Faith 8th ed 1747
The Scripture Way of Salvation
Text: Ephesians 2:8
Ye are saved through faith. (KJV)
When John Wesley experienced evangelical conversion in 1738 he published a sermon proclaiming his new view of salvation by faith in Christ. Titled, Salvation by Faith, Wesley declared that saving faith is trust in Christ’s death and resurrection. He added that salvation is enjoyed right now, in this present life, and that it consists of pardon and freedom from sin (scroll down for discussion on this sermon). Wesley also asserted that our justification includes the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. However, over the next two decades Wesley sparred with the Calvinists and Moravians over what exactly this imputation involves. He rejected the Calvinist view of absolute predestination and affirmed that Christ died for all people and God’s grace is given to everyone for their salvation in Christ.
In 1765 Wesley decided to return to the subject of salvation by faith but this time he examined it from a more holistic view of the journey of faith, starting from initial awareness of God to justification in Christ and continuing with sanctification in the Spirit. This is what makes the Scripture Way of Salvation a landmark sermon. It encompasses the entire faith journey and spells out Wesley’s perspective on the subject. The sermon therefore highlights Wesley’s unique contribution to Christian soteriology (doctrine of salvation).
Here is the sermon: The Scripture Way of Salvation 1st ed 1765
Outlining the Journey
Wesley begins by repeating the same point he first enunciated in Salvation by Faith – the salvation Paul is referencing in Ephesians 2 is a “present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, ye are now in possession of” (I.1). That is, Paul is not speaking about our future salvation. He is addressing salvation that is experienced right now, in this present life. Wesley accents the present tense of the verb to make the point – “Ye are saved.” He adds that with propriety we can render the verse, “Ye have been saved.” This rendering takes the widest possible view of our salvation in Christ that begins with the “first dawning of grace in the soul till it is consummated in glory” (I.1).
Taking this wide-angle approach, Wesley states that our salvation begins with preventing grace that awakens a person to the reality of God. This preliminary grace includes “all of the drawings of the Father” and the birth of “desires after God” (1.2). If a person “yields” to these desires and drawings, they will increase over time and lead to more spiritual light and truth, culminating in a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As the conscience is enlightened by preventing grace, a person learns to walk in justice, mercy, and humility (JW quotes Micah 6:8 here), and over time comes under greater convictions from the Spirit. Even though a person often “stifles” these convictions, if they respond to the truth it leads them to Christian salvation, namely justification and sanctification (I.3).
Wesley treats justification and sanctification as the two main branches of salvation in Christ. Justification is pardon and forgiveness of sin, procured by the “blood and righteousness of Christ” – a allusion to the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. The immediate fruits of our justification are peace with God, the hope of assurance, and a joy that is full and overflowing (Wesley here quotes from Romans 5:1-3).
In the same moment we are justified, we are born again by the Spirit, and this begins the process of sanctification. The love of God is poured into our hearts and this pure love expels sin and its fruits from our lives, enabling us to grow in the mind which was in Christ (Phil. 2:5). In the heat of revival many new converts thought that all sin is removed. Wesley corrects this error by pointing out that in the heightened joys of conversion sin is actually “suspended, not destroyed” (I.6). Although sin no longer reigns, it does remain. The work of God in sanctification is a progressive work that begins in the new birth and leads to a full salvation of our voluntary or intentional sins – pride, self-will, anger, unbelief, etc. (I.8). Thus, believers overcome the sins that defile the conscience and enjoy the fullness of God’s love (I.9).
Saving Faith
Whereas thirty years earlier Wesley had defined saving faith as trust in Christ’s death and resurrection, he now describes faith in a more holistic sense. The reason is that his earlier definition fit Christian salvation of justification and sanctification, but does not encompass the broader description of the spiritual journey that he describes in the Scripture Way of Salvation – a journey that begins with the first inklings of spiritual awareness in the heart.
So, Wesley bases his definition of faith on Hebrews 11:1 (KJV). Over 20 years prior Wesley first appealed to Heb.11:1 to define faith in the tract An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion (1743). In his use of Heb. 11:1, Wesley focuses on the word “evidence,” by which he means a “conviction” in the heart, to define authentic faith. Faith is now understood to begin with the “spiritual light” that a person receives long before they learn the gospel. This degree of faith is not yet Christian salvation, but it is “saving” in the sense that it leads to gospel salvation if a person responds to the truth revealed to them. This lower degree of faith includes an awareness of and conviction about the “spiritual world” and the “invisible things of God” (II.1).
Wesley now defines Christian faith as the “evidence” of an assurance of salvation. Born again believers have a “conviction” about their salvation. This felt assurance springs from the Spirit who witnesses to their saving trust in Christ. As Wesley sees it, the faith that justifies also sanctifies. It produces good works and a holy life. Saving faith leads to conformity to Christ and entire sanctification. It produces repentance of remaining sin in the Christian and leads them to claim the promises of full salvation in God’s word. Sanctifying faith claims these promises and believes that God can fulfill these promises in their lives — even today.
Wesley ends the sermon with a snippet of a hymn by Charles Wesley:
Come in, come in, thou heavenly guest!
Nor hence again remove:
But sup with me, and let the feast
Be everlasting love.
Here is the sermon: The Scripture Way of Salvation 1st ed 1765
The Circumcision of the Heart
Text: Romans 2:29
Circumcision is that of the Heart, in the spirit, and not of the letter.
The Circumcision of the Heart is a landmark sermon on several counts. The dean of Wesley scholars, Albert Outler, was certainly correct that it stands out as “one of Wesley’s most careful and complete statements of his doctrine of holiness.” But the sermon does even more, for it spells out in sufficient detail Wesley’s soteriology in general, better known as his doctrine of salvation. The fact it was preached early in his career also means that it shows the direction in which Wesley’s thought and theology was developing. Consequently, The Circumcision of the Heart would leave its imprint on everything Wesley would write and publish over the next six decades. It therefore deserves a close reading by anyone interested in Wesley’s life and thought.
Background
It was in late November 1732 that Wesley began to plan the sermon and started writing on Dec. 8th. Outler notes that Wesley spent nearly 30 hours writing the first draft, which reflects the care he put into its contents and message. He then consulted his brother and friends for input. At the time the Oxford Methodists were under public scrutiny by the Fog’s Weekly Journal and had suffered derision from fellow students for their strict devotion and piety. Wesley understood that he needed to clarify Methodist principles and beliefs that stood behind their religious practices. So he chose his words with care. The text was selected by the celebration of the Feast of Circumcision (in the life of Christ). It was the perfect text by which Wesley could spell out his vision of salvation embedded in his theology of holiness. Wesley preached the sermon before the University of Oxford on Jan. 1, 1733, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Here is the sermon: The Circumcision of the Heart 1733
Justification
The sermon opens with a brief statement on the Anglican doctrine of double justification — a point often missed by scholars. After mentioning the natural man who is “dead unto God” and whose spiritual senses remain dormant, Wesley proclaims present justification as being in a “state of acceptance with God.” Such acceptance is not conditioned on baptism or “any other outward form” but by having a “right state of soul.” Wesley will later explain how a person is saved by faith, but at this point it is important to note the influence of William Law on his soteriology. Wesley had recently met Law the prior summer and read Law’s Practical Treatise on Christian Perfection. In this work Law spells out how a person can lose their baptismal washing of regeneration due to worldly living and need to be re-born again by dedicating oneself fully to God. Law referred to such re-dedication as the “new birth.” In the sermon Wesley restates Law’s position by denying that present justification is connected to baptism — the standard Anglican view — and declares it pertains to having a “right state of soul.”
Wesley then moves quickly to final justification when everyone will receive their “applause” from the Lord on the final day before the “great assembly of men and angels.” While present justification is the acceptance we enjoy in this life, at the Last Judgment will be when our acceptance is publicly declared before all and entrance into the eternal kingdom will be granted (Matt. 25:31-46).
Salvation Phases
With our final justification at the judgment seat of Christ addressed, Wesley proceeds to map out the way or path of salvation (via salutis) under four heads: humility, faith, hope, and love. To prepare for the discussion Wesley offers one of his best summary descriptions of holiness. He defines it as that “habitual disposition” in which the soul is cleansed from sin and endued with the virtues of Christ (I.1). Here we see not only Wesley’s dispositional psychology at work (people live according to their ruling dispositions) but also his understanding of “salvation” in holiness terms. That is, to be saved is to be holy. Salvation is the process of making one holy so as to receive Christ’s approval on the final day. And this process involves rooting out sinful patterns and tempers and replacing them with Christ-like attitudes and dispositions, notably love. We see how closely Wesley intertwined salvation with holiness and visa-versa.
Wesley then proceeds to discuss the path of salvation under the four heads: humility, faith, hope, and love. What is to be noted about the four labels, is that Wesley builds his soteriology around the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love and treats them as states or phases in the via salutis (way of salvation). But before he describes these three stages he first describes the stage called humility.
Genuine religion — the circumcision of the heart — begins with humility, a “right judgment of ourselves.” While the natural man is comfortable in their lost state, a true change begins with the Spirit of God awakening a person to the reality of their sinful condition. Wesley stresses that we need to see not only our sinfulness but also our helplessness. Without the “supernatural assistance” of the Spirit it is impossible to overcome our innate sinfulness and to renew ourselves in righteousness and holiness (I.2-3). No stronger statement could be made about the necessity of salvation by grace. Wesley will later identify this stage with repentance that leads to salvation.
While it is through humility that sinners come to a “knowledge of their disease,” it is faith alone that is the “one medicine given under heaven to heal their sickness.” Faith is saving because it pulls down strongholds by the power of God. Faith is explained as a gracious virtue in which a person believes and devotes themselves fully to God. Such faith participates in Christ’s death and resurrection and thereby overcomes the enslaving power of sin (I.7-8). Faith produces new birth in the Spirit, breaks the power (rule) of sin and leads to hope which gives strength to overcome temptations and trials of life, and produces a “joyous expectation” of eternal life (I.9). Both faith and hope lead to love, by which the believer participates in the life of God as the ultimate goal. Love is the crowning virtue of the Christian life. Love is the “one perfect good,” the “one thing desired,” the “one happiness,” and the “one design” (I.12). This is the circumcised heart – to enjoy God in time and eternity.
Salvation Assurance
In the second section Wesley addresses practical implications of the his gospel of humility, faith, hope, and love. He expounds on the Holy Spirit bearing witness to our spirit of our salvation in Christ. This witness generates a “joyful assurance” (II.4-5). Wesley’s understanding of assurance will later embrace the idea of assurance as a supernatural testimony (called direct witness), but even in his Oxford period he understood that believers enjoy the blessing of assurance derived from the Spirit’s fruits and presence. Still, he continued to stress that believers must press forward to grow and experience the fullness of faith, hope, and love in this life.
Publication
Wesley did not publish the sermon until 1748, at the head of his second volume of sermons that deal more with the Christian life (first volume addresses Wesley’s evangelistic sermons). It should be noted that by 1748 Wesley had become an evangelical Christian and so he added an evangelical explanation of saving faith as the assurance of pardon and acceptance (last part of par. 7).
Throughout his life Wesley considered The Circumcision of the Heart of one of his most enduring statements on his soteriology.
Here is the sermon from the Jackson edition of Wesley’s Works: The Circumcision of the Heart 1733
The Great Privilege of those Born of God
Text: 1 John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not sin. (KJV)
Wesley was a committed Arminian his entire life. He derived it from his parents – Samuel and Susanna – and his High Church Anglicanism. The Anglican Articles of Religion were formulated in the 16th century and included articles that upon their face supported both a Reformed and Arminian interpretation (e.g. see Art. 17 & 31). By the early 1600s both views developed in the Established Church with the Puritans championing Reformed views and the High Church wing supporting the Arminian position. With the return of the monarchy is 1760 and the expulsion of the Puritans a couple years later, the Arminian perspective became dominant in the Church of England. There is no solid evidence that the early Wesley read Arminius, so he derived his Arminianism from his English tradition.
As a lifelong Arminian, Wesley naturally opposed the Calvinist doctrines of absolute predestination, irresistible grace, limited atonement, and eternal security. Instead, he advocated conditional predestination (based on God’s foreknowledge), general atonement, resistible grace, and the possibility of apostasy and backsliding. Still, he was unswerving in his belief in original sin but also affirmed the universal gift of prevenient grace which includes the gracious gifting of free response to divine truth (Wesley rejected the notion of a natural free will in spiritual matters).
After his spiritual awakening in 1725, Wesley started to define salvation in relation to sin and holiness. This became a permanent pattern in his explications of gospel salvation (for example, see Salvation by Faith). A key verse that Wesley appealed to was 1 John 3:9. This verse captures succinctly Wesley’s belief that the new birth radically changes how one lives their life in relation to God and Christ. Since nominal faith was rampant in British society, this became the great privilege that Wesley stressed in his teaching to believers.
Sermon text: Great Privilege of Those Born of God
Background
The Great Privilege of those Born of God is the third sermon in the second series of Sermons on Several Occasions, published in 1748. After publishing a dozen sermons that expressed his evangelical message of salvation, in the second series Wesley turned to the subject of living out the Christian life. He knew that young converts needed to be instructed in their privileges in the gospel and also warned of the repercussions of not growing in the faith. This sermon answers both needs. It spells out the great privilege of freedom from the enslaving rule of sin and warns of the possibility of becoming enslaved again.
New Life in Christ
The sermon opens with Wesley distinguishing between justification and regeneration. Justification is a relative change while the new birth involves real change. In justification our standing before God changes from condemnation to acceptance. Our guilt is forgiven and the slate is wiped clean. Regeneration, on the other hand, involves a change of heart and life with the Holy Spirit transforming our “inmost souls.” This inward regeneration sets the new believer free from the power of sin. By “power” Wesley meant sin’s rule that enslaves (see Rom. 6).
Wesley likened our spiritual birth to physical birth. When a baby is born their physical senses come alive to the world around them. So, in a similar way a person’s spiritual senses come alive to God in the new birth. They now see, hear, feel, and taste God’s saving presence in their lives. Just as our physical life is kept alive by breathing, in a similar manner our spiritual life is maintained by “spiritual respiration” – by breathing in God’s presence and life and exhaling back to him our worship, devotion, and service. Also, the new believer “clearly perceives the pardoning love of God” and his “exceeding great and precious promises.”
Freedom from Sin
The central promise that Wesley’s wants new converts to learn in this sermon is that they do not have to sin. They are now delivered from sin’s enslaving power. Since Wesley believed in two decisive moments of victory over sin – new birth and perfect love – he now elaborates on the freedom that is available to every child of God as soon as they are born again: freedom from outward sin. Later, at Christian perfection, is when inward sin is overcome. Outward sin is defined as an actual voluntary transgression of God’s revealed will in his word. It is to knowingly and voluntarily sin. In essence, Wesley is teaching that a believer can live with a clean conscience (just as Paul claimed before the Sanhedrin in Acts). There is no reason for a Christian to continue to live enslaved to sin.
Of course, since Wesley taught there is a deeper deliverance from sin, meaning from inward sin, the early Methodists did not conclude that Wesley’s definition of outward sin is his full doctrine of sin (a mistake made by many). For Wesley taught there is also original sin, involuntary transgressions, and inward sin (which is overcome by perfect love).
Possibility of Apostasy
Even with these great privileges – justification, new birth, indwelling Spirit, freedom from sin’s rule – the possibility of backsliding remains. Wesley mentions several biblical heroes that committed outward sin – David, Barnabas, Peter – to warn his followers that falling back into outward sin is a real possibility. He therefore urged his readers (and us today) to maintain a solid walk with Christ.
Wesley then walks through the steps by which one falls into outward sin, and if not checked falls away from the faith. In his description of nine steps, it begins with temptation and resistance to the Spirit’s voice, and proceeds by inward sin in the heart to outward sin in one’s actions. He even warns that as “evil desires” gain dominance, a person’s spiritual life suffers and eventually dies out. Saving faith can become extinct in a person.
Wesley concludes with this important truth: “For it plainly appears God does not continue to act upon the soul unless the soul re-acts upon God.” Bottom line – Wesley considers salvation in relational terms. While our salvation is by grace, such grace is not irresistible nor coercive. Grace invites and empowers, but in the end a relationship built on love must have freedom.
Sermon text: Great Privilege of Those Born of God
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
Text: Romans 8:15
Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (KJV)
The concept of spiritual states is an inherent part of Christian theology and our doctrine of salvation. In 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 Paul mentions the natural and the spiritual (i.e. Christian) person. In Romans 8:5-6 Paul distinguishes between those living in the flesh and those living by the Spirit. The Apostle also refers to those living under the law in contrast to those living under grace and the gospel. Then in the sermon text above he differentiates between a state of bondage and adoption. Five centuries later the concept of spiritual states was further elucidated by St. Augustine in his Enchiridion.
It should not be a surprise that the idea of spiritual states was part of Wesley’s theology and helped define his doctrine of salvation. Wesley developed his concept of three spiritual states in his Oxford days from his reading of Anglican divines (e.g. John Norris, George Lucas, and William Law) and the Roman Catholic Blaise Pascal. Discussions on the subject among the Oxford Methodists was recorded by Benjamin Ingham in his 1734 diary. Later, Wesley’s views were reinforced by his reading of Reformed divines Thomas Halyburton and Thomas Boston.
The three spiritual states were (1) natural, (2) legal/Jewish, and (3) evangelical/gospel.
Here is the sermon: The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
Background
The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption was published in 1746 and is sermon #9 in the collection Sermons on Several Occasions, vol. 1. As was noted below, this first collection of sermons represents Wesley’s evangelistic preaching over the past several years. It confirms that Wesley utilized the concept of spiritual states to help people to identified their current spiritual standing and need for salvation in Christ. The aim is to bring them to saving faith in Christ.
The British world in the 18th century was quite religious, with about 90% of the population baptized into the Anglican Church. But the number of people who lived out their faith in authentic Christian experience were few. The concept of spiritual states was useful to help people to understand why their current level of religious faith fell short of salvation.
Wesley often used himself as an example. In the sermon The Almost Christian Wesley proclaimed that before his evangelical conversion at Aldersgate, he was only an almost Christian, someone living in the legal state. This same evaluation is embedded in his Aldersgate testimony, published in his second journal (see May 24). In this written account of his conversion Wesley identifies his period before 1725 as the natural state, his awakening in 1725 to the legal state, and his conversion in 1738 to the evangelical state (see my book Wesley and Aldersgate).
Three Spiritual States
In the sermon Wesley describes the chief characteristics of the three spiritual states:
Natural State: This is the condition that every person is born into as a fallen child of Adam. The natural state is characterized by spiritual blindness to one’s lost condition and a false sense of peace. Wesley likens the natural state to being asleep. The person feels secure and at rest because they are unconscious and unaware of the danger they are in. Such people can feel good about themselves and continue to sin with few qualms. They do not realize they are slaves to sin and are under God’s righteous judgment.
Legal State: Everything changes when God awakens a person to the reality of their lost condition. The person now sees their real state and seeks to amend it by good works. The “inward spiritual meaning” of God’s moral law now “glares” upon them. They reform and begin to seek to please God. They want a relationship with God and try their best to do his will out of their own strength. But they find that they still are slaves to sin. They resolve to change and yet keep sinning. Romans 7 now describes their struggle –
Evangelical State: After a season of striving the good news of free salvation in Christ is felt deep in the heart, setting the seeker free from their enslavement to sin to a new life of liberty in Christ. The pardoning love of God fills the heart as the new believer receives the Spirit of adoption. They now are assured of their salvation in Christ as the Spirit witnesses to their spirit that their sins are pardoned and they are accepted in Christ. Not only is sin’s guilt removed, but also its power to enslave. The believer is set free to grow in grace of Christ (sanctification).
Conclusion
Wesley closes the sermon by admonishing his audience that the transitions between the three spiritual states often includes elements of the different states. Therefore, it is important for people to press forward until they have for sure attained the evangelical state.
Here is the sermon: The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
The Righteousness of Faith
Text: Romans 10:5-8
Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim…
A central feature of English Reformed/Puritan theology in the 17th and 18th centuries was covenant theology. The main idea is that there are two covenants in regard to salvation – a covenant of works and a covenant of grace. The first was instituted to Adam in his innocence; the second was enacted after his fall into sin. Covenant theology was also prevalent in Anglican theology at the time, since the Established Church had been influenced by Reformed theology since its separation from Catholicism in the 16th century.
John Wesley inherited his covenant theology from his parents, Samuel and Susanna Wesley, who were raised in the Puritan tradition and conformed to the Established Church as young adults. Wesley was also schooled in covenant theology through his Anglican education, first at Charterhouse and then at Oxford. Wesley’s covenant theology reflects the basic points of his parents’ views and that of mainstream Anglican theology in the 18th century.
In his extant writings from his early period (1725-38), Wesley does not discuss the subject directly. The closest he comes to discussing it is in his devotional and sacramental writings. However, when he became an evangelical Christian in 1738 covenant theology came to the forefront in his proclamations of gospel salvation.
Background
The Righteousness of Faith was published in 1746 as part of a series of twelve sermons, titled Sermons on Several Occasions. The series would evolve into 4 volumes and serve as the foundation for Methodist doctrine and teaching. The first volume encapsulates the evangelistic preaching of Wesley beginning in 1738. The Righteousness of Faith is number six in the volume and immediately follows Wesley’s sermon on gospel justification (which includes features of his covenant theology in the introduction). The two sermons thematically fit together.
While the first four sermons of volume 1 were preached at Oxford between 1738 and 1744 – and therefore have a certain priority for Wesley – while the eight sermons that follow spell out his evangelical principles. The Righteousness of Faith is critical for it spells out how Wesley understood that our salvation in Christ fits into God’s eternal purposes.
Righteousness by the Law or by Faith
Here is the sermon: The Righteousness of Faith 1740
In the sermon we learn that covenant theology serves as the framework for Wesley’s doctrine of justification and his soteriology in general. His explanation of the two covenants (works and grace) matches that of his parents and mirrors the viewpoint of Anglican Bishop William Beveridge in his influential work Private Thoughts Upon Religion and the Christian Life, which Wesley read at Oxford.
For a short summary of Wesley’s views, he holds that Adam in his innocence was under a covenant of works, since he was able to live perfectly before God and thereby earn eternal life. But with his transgression Adam and his posterity fell under the sentence of death and became enslaved to sin. God then instituted the covenant of grace – beginning with the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 – to redeem the human race from sin and death.
In contrast to a standard view in Puritan theology, Wesley does not conflate the covenant of works with the Mosaic Law. Instead, the Mosaic Covenant was a temporary means in God’s redemptive purposes until Christ would come. It was never meant to serve as a means for earning salvation by the “righteousness of the law.” But this where the Jews erred and many today err when they trust in their own goodness to save them.
Wesley contrasts the covenants of works and grace by pointing out that (1) covenant of works was intended for someone who is already holy and happy in God, whereas the covenant of grace assumes one is now unholy and unhappy in sin; (2) the former requires Adam and us to merit salvation while the latter looks to Christ to earn our salvation; (3) the first covenant requires “unsinning obedience” but the latter looks to God’s mercy and pardon to recover a right standing before God.
There is one area in which Wesley’s covenant theology did change due to his evangelical conversion at Aldersgate. It concerns how he understood the “‘righteousness which is of faith’” (1.11). Whereas before the Early Wesley held a sacramental view that identified this “righteousness” with our inward renewal in the imago Dei, Wesley now states it refers to the “condition of salvation” that does not “require us to do anything . . . but only to believe in him” who justifies the “ungodly” and “imputes his faith to him for righteousness” (I.7-8).
In Wesley’s “new gospel” of salvation by faith in Christ, righteousness begins as a gift of divine grace purchased by Christ’s death as a “‘propitiation for our sins’” (I.13). Wesley defines propitiation as to “appease the wrath of God, or to avert the punishment we have justly deserved” (II.6). Thus, “Christ makes compensation and satisfies the justice of God precisely by standing in the place of sinful humanity . . . and in the end by bearing the penalty, the very wages of sin” (Collins, Theology of John Wesley, 102). It is clear in this sermon (and other writings) that Wesley held to an Arminian version of penal substitution regarding the atonement.
Summary
In the Righteousness of Faith Wesley clarifies that since the fall of Adam no one can be saved by merit. The covenant of works – righteousness by the law – ended with Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden. Since then salvation is only through the work of Christ in his death and resurrection. And righteousness – a right standing before God – is a gift of pure grace. The sole condition is faith by which one trusts in the work of Christ and receives his indwelling Spirit to work righteousness in their daily lives (called sanctification).
Here is the sermon: The Righteousness of Faith 1740
The Great Assize
How do you visualize the final judgment? What events will lead up to it? Where does it take place? What events follow?
John Wesley visualized the subject in graphic terms.
Introduction
In 1758 Wesley was invited to preach a sermon before Sir Edward Clive, the puisne justice of the common pleas at Bedford, England. He titled the sermon The Great Assize. According to Oxford Dictionary an assize was a court which sat at intervals in each county of England and Wales to administer civil and criminal law. Wesley used this opportunity to teach on the Last Judgment, which Christ will administer at his second coming. Jesus taught on final judgment often. For example, see Matthew 25.
Read the sermon The Great Assize 1758
As were many Christians in his day, Wesley was a postmillennialist who believed the current revival that was breaking out in the world — referred to today as The Great Evangelical Revival — would usher in the millennium in which the world would be evangelized and converted to the faith. After this period of Christian dominance there would be a period of great spiritual deception and apostasy among the nations described by the Apostle John in Revelation 20:7-10. This would lead to the great conflagration that would engulf the entire world, which John mentions in Rev. 20:9 and Peter elaborates on in 2 Peter 3:10. The second coming would take place at this time and the Great Assize would immediately follow.
The Great Assize
The sermon is divided into four main sections.
Section I deals with the events that immediately lead up to the Great Assize. Wesley used graphic and terrifying language to describe the events that would immediately precede the final judgment. In every part of the inhabitable world earthquakes will rock the planet. This will lead to violent tsunamis everywhere in which “every island shall flee away and the mountains will not be found” (Rev. 16:20). Drawing on Joel 2:30, the skies around the earth will be filled with violent thunder and lightning storms from the north to the south poles. From Luke 21:25-26 and Joel 3:15 Wesley describes how the heavenly realm will be thrown into chaos and out of their orbits. Then the end comes with the voice of the archangel and the general resurrection happening.
Can we visualize such events? We have witnessed in recent decades many destructive events. But what if the entire world was engulfed in them at the same time?
Section II describes the final judgment itself. Christ descends and Wesley surmises the Great Court will take place above the earth since scripture states Christ will come in the clouds. Every person who ever lived will be present and will be judged according to their works, which includes everything about a person’s character. Even the hidden things will be revealed, exposing the character of the heart. Wesley appealed to Matthew 12:36-37 that every idle word will come into judgment.
Section III covers the circumstances that will follow the Last Judgment. The present cosmos will shrivel up “as a parchment scroll.” Regarding the remnants of human civilization, Wesley states, “All, all will die, perish, vanish away, like a dream when one awaketh!” Such is the transitory nature of human culture and civilization. Wesley then chastises the scoffers and skeptics of his day. Sentence will be pronounced on the unrighteous who then go to Hell, who will be punished with “everlasting destruction from the present of the Lord.”
Section IV includes applications to his listeners, including you and I today. He begins by applauding those who bring the good news of salvation to lost people. He then calls upon his audience — you and I today — to take heed to what scripture teaches about the final judgment.
What do you think? Are you prepared for that final day?
Wesley says much more than what is included in my brief description. I encourage you to read the sermon. Here is the link The Great Assize 1758
Justification by Faith
Romans 4:5
To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Justification remained controversial subject in Hanoverian England, even after two centuries since the Protestant Reformation. It was often at the center of debate between Evangelicals and traditional Anglicans, and between the different Evangelical groups. While Wesley parted paths with the Calvinists and Moravians over other issues (notably predestination and stillness), it soon became obvious that they held different views on justification as well. So, by the mid-1740s Wesley found it necessary to publish several writings that would clarify his position regarding a sinner’s reconciliation to God. One of these was the 1746 sermon Justification by Faith, based on Romans 4:5.
The first record of Wesley preaching on Romans 4:5 is for May 28, 1738, just four days after his Aldersgate conversion. In his testimony Wesley shared about receiving an assurance of his sins being taken away through faith in Christ – a clear reference to justification. Another occasion took place in June 1742 when Wesley famously stood on his father’s tombstone outside the Epworth Church and proclaimed the message of justification by faith alone to the people as they came out from the church service. Wesley’s early preaching on justification is encapsulated in this sermon.
Link to the sermon: Justification by Faith
Sermon Summary
Wesley begins by acknowledging the vital importance of our justification before God because it is the “foundation of all our hope.” He then pivots to address the “confused notions” that many people have on the subject. To remove the confusion and to bring clarity Wesley addresses the subject in four parts.
In Part I Wesley explains our need for justification before God rests on our creation in the divine image and Adam’s fall into sin (Gen. 1-3). Employing an Arminian version of federal theology, Wesley explained that Adam “was the common father and representative of us all” and so through his one sin “all were made sinners” (Rom. 5:18). For Wesley, as his Anglican faith taught him, this meant that Adam’s sinful posterity inherited not only a sinful proclivity but also objective guilt and condemnation. But out of his great love, God sent a second representative for the human race, his Son Jesus Christ, to atone for our sin – original and actual – and to provide reconciliation to God in a new covenant.
In Part II Wesley addresses what justification means. He first points out that justification should be confused with sanctification. The first represents what God does for us and the second to what he works in us. The two are distinct gifts. He then parts paths with some Calvinists by asserting that justification is not the removal of the law’s accusations. By saying this Wesley was rejecting the notion that justification involves Christ’s human obedience being reckoned to believers so that they stand before God as fulfilling the law. Wesley adds that in justifying sinners God is not deceived about their true character. The Judge of all sees us for who we truly are.
Instead, to be justified means to be forgiven, accepted, and reconciled based on the atonement provided by the sacrifice of Christ. Wesley held an Arminian version of the penal substitution theory of Christ’s saving work in which Jesus’ sufferings and death procured divine pardon and favor for the entire human race, conditioned on a person’s repentance and faith in Christ. This is explained in sections III and IV. Under the gospel covenant, justification is offered to everyone who is “ungodly” and cannot save themself. The condition is faith which Wesley defined as a “sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that he loved me, and gave himself for me.” By affirming that gospel justification is by faith alone, Wesley understood that repentance or a turning from sin is an inherent part of justifying faith. He also stressed that good works is the fruit of genuine faith in Christ. Those who truly believe will bring forth the fruit of a changed life.
Regarding the Apostle Paul’s statement that “faith is counted for righteousness,” Wesley explained the reconciled believer is “counted” or “treated” as “righteous” before God. With Christ made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), Jesus was treated as a sinner on the cross and thereby took our punishment so we can be treated as righteous having been forgiven and accepted.
Wesley closes the sermon with an appeal for the reader to come to God confessing their sin and ungodliness, and to believe in Christ for the free gift of salvation. For the entire work of justification springs solely from “free grace.”
Wesley’s Contribution
While Wesley agreed for the most part with his fellow Evangelicals on justification, his position set him apart from the Calvinists and Moravians of his day. These groups stressed the imputation of Christ’s active righteousness or his human obedience as the foundation of justification. Wesley took the position that Jesus’ death or passive righteousness is completely sufficient to reconcile us to God. There is no need for Christ’s human obedience to be reckoned to us, for we are freely forgiven and set right before God by his free grace. Divine pardon fully removes our guilt and condemnation and restores us to a right standing before God.
This allowed Wesley to stress the need for holy living in the Christian life and to avoid the pitfalls of the Calvinist doctrine of eternal security. He could assert that a believer rests assured of his acceptance in Christ but also that continued acceptance requires continued faithfulness in trust and holy living.
The importance of this sermon to understanding Wesley’s message and theology requires a close reading by everyone who wants to know what he taught and believed. I encourage you to read the sermon for yourself.
Link to the sermon: Justification by Faith
Publication
Justification by Faith was included as sermon #5 in his first collection of sermons published in 1746. It continued to be included in every edition of his published sermons since then and has been republished numerous times.