May 24, 1738, is a day known to a great many Methodists. It is the day John Wesley came to a living faith in Christ and assurance that his sins had been forgiven. We rightly remember this day. So, too, should we recall the days that came before. If May 24 was the climax of the story, the days — even the years — that came before set the stage. In his journal, Wesley recounts a letter he wrote to a friend that the shared his turmoil and despair in the three days before May 24, which he called days of “continual sorry and heaviness in my heart.” “I see that the whole law of God is holy, just and ..read more

I have returned recently to the journals of John Wesley. I’ve been re-reading his account of his ministry, looking for wisdom and practical insights about the pastoral craft in the Wesleyan tradition. In December of 1739, he relates disputes that were going on in the early Methodist movement about the nature of faith and works. There were those who were arguing that Christians should not engage in any kind of works at all prior to coming to saving faith. They should not worship, they should not pray, they should not do good things for the bodies or souls of others. If people do such works befo ..read more

I want to propose a rule for the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte. It is not one I expect we will adopt. The rule is simple: The first speakers in every legislative group and the first speakers to every motion on the floor of the conference must be men and women from annual conferences that have actually grown since the last time the General Conference met. This would have two effects. First, it would give non-Americans a lot of air time. It would force us to listen to the perspectives from the parts of the church that are actually accomplishing our mission. It would lift up the voices ..read more

Last June, I started writing about John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation.” I wrote in the initial post that I did not know how many posts it would take to work my way through the entire sermon. I now know the answer: 16. Mostly to make it easy for me to revisit these (I can’t imagine anyone else will ever revisit these posts) I am listing them all here in order. Two Simple Words Everyone is Being Saved Pardon, Price, and Peace Grace Changes Us Expect to Struggle But Don’t Do So Alone Going on to Perfection The Meaning of Faith Receiving Faith and Receiving Christ Being Blessed B ..read more

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

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

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

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

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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