Expect it by faith, expect it now
John Meunier
by John Meunier
1M ago
This final post taking a close look at John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” will have more of Wesley’s words and fewer or mine. This is because a large portion of what Wesley has to say in the section is repeating arguments made previously. In his sections on justification by faith, Wesley made essentially the same arguments he makes here when writing about sanctification by faith. You can see my discussions of those parts of the sermon here and here. Those earlier sections were preparing the way for this final portion of the sermon. He builds to a powerful closing that is ver ..read more
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Wesley’s wager
John Meunier
by John Meunier
1M ago
As we move toward the closing paragraphs of John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” we come to two points that were always very important to his preaching, and therefore were formative to the movement known as Methodism. First, sin persists within us even after we have been justified, which means we cannot rest easy just because we have “been saved.” Second, God is fully capable of doing what he has promised to do, which means we should expect full salvation in this life. Both of these points are central to what we mean we Methodists speak of going on to perfection, and they are ..read more
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What does the UMC think about polyamory?
John Meunier
by John Meunier
1M ago
This post is a brief step away from my progress through John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation.” Today, I am writing about some of the proposed changes to the social principles in our Book of Discipline. I’ve been seeing more and more talk in the mainstream culture about polyamory. The latest piece is a piece by the BBC discussing how polyamory is rapidly becoming “the new normal.” For clarity, polyamory is when all the partners in a sexual relationship can have sexual relationships with more than one other person at the same time. Polygamy is when one person has multiple wives o ..read more
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Do these things and live
John Meunier
by John Meunier
2M ago
We have been reading John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” for a good while now. He has been laying out and defending the doctrine that salvation by faith alone does not exclude works. Indeed, he insists such works are necessary to both justification and sanctification provided we have opportunity to engage in them. Here now, he comes to discuss some of the applications and implications of all this for the practical life of Christians and the teaching of the church. 9. “But what good works are those, the practice of which you affirm to be necessary to sanctification?” Firs ..read more
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Sanctification is also by faith
John Meunier
by John Meunier
3M ago
In all that has come to this point in our reading of John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” we have been dealing with questions about justification — how a person comes to right relationship, to forgiveness, and to new birth. We come now to a pivot point for Wesley. In what follows, he engages questions and objections regarding the doctrine of sanctification — of holiness — in believers. This part of the sermon is of central concern to the people called Methodist. An emphasis on sanctification — “going on to perfection” — has always been a distinctive mark of Methodist theology ..read more
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Show me the nail marks
John Meunier
by John Meunier
3M ago
In our journey into the depths of John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” we are now entering a long section in which he answers questions and objections to what he has laid out thus far. The length of what is left in this sermon demonstrates that Wesley’s understanding of salvation was no less contested in his day than it is in ours. The only difference, perhaps, was that in his day there was a convinced, stubborn, and energetic advocate for Wesleyan theology who would not let detractors and questioners silence his voice or still his feet. Let us turn to the crowd now and field ..read more
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One and only condition
John Meunier
by John Meunier
4M ago
As we press onward into John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” it will help you to recall how he described faith in a previous section of the sermon. Faith is the conviction that God was in Christ reconciling that world to Himself and that Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me. With that in mind, we read on. 1. And, first, how are we justified by faith? In what sense is this to be understood? I answer, Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of justification. Wesley is going to expand on some of these terms in a moment, but as we read him in 2023, it is importa ..read more
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Being blessed by assurance
John Meunier
by John Meunier
4M ago
Our journey into John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” gets a little bit into the weeds with this entry, but we will find in those weeds some crucial ideas for those of us who claim to be a part of the Wesleyan theological tradition. Please join me as we trek ever onward. 3. “But is this the faith of assurance, or faith of adherence?” This is obviously an important debate for Wesley and his day. I am certain I do not grasp all the nuance of the question Wesley sets out to answer, but the answer is valuable, nonetheless. The Scripture mentions no such distinction ..read more
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Receiving faith and receiving Christ
John Meunier
by John Meunier
4M ago
In our series on John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” we have been reading about the meaning of salvation and we have begun to consider the meaning of the word “faith.” Here, we continue to delve deeper into the meaning of that widely used but frequently undiscussed word. 2. Taking the word in a more particular sense, faith is a divine evidence and conviction not only that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,” but also that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me. Faith is not merely belief about Jesus — although it is su ..read more
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Methodism distilled to a single sermon
John Meunier
by John Meunier
4M ago
In June, I started writing a series of posts walking through John Wesley’s sermon, “The Scripture Way of Salvation.” I’ve been distracted from completing that work, but I intend and hope to pick it back up again shortly. I wrote back in June that part of my goal for diving deeply into this sermon was a search for the basis for a common language and shared theology that United Methodists might gather around in these days of division. That may be a vain hope, but re-reading what I have already written has stirred me to pick the task back up. There is a discipline in it that I believe is valuable ..read more
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