John Wesley on Holiness and Grace: Seven Minute Seminary

in looking at John Wesley's theology we could take a number of perspectives I think it's most helpful at the beginning to take what I call the helicopter view that is a very wide and broad view of John Wesley's theology there have been some discussions in the past what kind of theologian was John Wesley was he a systematic theologian trying to integrate all of human knowledge and taking it captive to Jesus Christ or was he on the other hand a practical theologian doing theology in the warp and woof of life in the service of the church well I think as we're going to see in a few moments that Wesley was more akin to the latter designation that is he was a practical theologian concerned about serving the church the Methodists in particular in enumerated theology um within that confine I think Wesley was nevertheless orderly coherent and if we had to summarize Wesley's theology in two words in two words I think it would be holiness and grace holiness and grace the one thing that I find so impressive about John Wesley is that his theology is so very well balanced he is both an sort of person oftentimes caught up in an either-or world a world of extremes or a centricity 'he's Wesley is one of moderation and balance and so his theology is suitably described in terms of holiness and grace not simply holiness if we simply stress holiness apart from grace we would probably end up with a very dour human made religion which stressed separation from others if on the other hand we simply stress grace we would run the danger the risk of not understanding what the will of God is and perhaps slipping in our own will and calling it grace in other words seeing grace and misunderstanding grace as indulgence but Wesley's got the balance its holiness and grace and I think even in terms of these two descriptors each one can be broken out into another conjunction holiness for example I think is informed by the conjunction of holy love holy love there's a tension there and I'm going to talk about that in a moment but the first thing to say is that the exact phrase holy love itself is used many times in Wesley's writings at least a dozen times he uses this exact phrase look at the tension in terms of holy love holiness as defined by Wesley entails purity and simplicity purity and simplicity simplicity in the sense that in all of our doing we are aiming at God the love of God and neighbor in all of our doing our thoughts our mind our heart etc okay and so with holy love holy the holy part of it is separating in terms of purity we can think of the church as being a peculiar people set apart by God okay that's one part of it but the second part of it is love love which is embracing that seeks communion and so you've got this tension going on with holy love on the one hand a movement of purity and separation but then on the other hand a going out into the world for mission and communion and I think this tension is emblematic of the church itself we think of the church Greek word here is ecclesia ecclesia built on a greek root that means to call out literally to call out the church is that communion which is called out from the world to be set apart but that is also called back into the world for mission and Wesley understood this dynamic this tension very well so the first part holiness is broken out into holy love we don't want to stress holiness apart from love and we don't want to stress love apart from holiness we want to keep them together but then there's the second part the second part of this which is grace grace now Wesley's theology by both professors and ministers and even laypeople they have understood Wesley's understanding of grace conceived Wesley's understand of grace principally in terms of cooperate grace cooperate grace and this is a part of what Wesley has but it's not the whole it's not the whole so just as the conjunction of holiness just as holiness is broken out into holy love so grace is broken out into two kinds of Grace's not one cooperate grace to be sure but also free grace so it's a matter of both free and cooperate grace let me give an example of the first part of this conjunction cooperate grace is the Christian life marked by divine and human cooperation absolutely we see this most clearly expressed in Wesley sermon on working out our own salvation here's what Wesley writes God works therefore you can work God works therefore you must work and so there's the synergism the working together the divine human cooperation that is very much a part of Wesley's theology the problem is it's not the whole thing because Wesley has another understanding of grace and that is free grace what does free grace stress not divine human cooperation but the of God alone how so how so in terms of the work of God alone in terms of creation Wesley argues that God brought the creation into being out of God's free and sovereign will brought humanity into existence out of the divine freedom what would be a second example of free grace justification and the new birth themselves we cannot transform our nature and make ourselves holy only God can do that that is a gift that we have to receive it is in a real sense the work of God alone and the same way in terms of entire sanctification entire sanctification is received by grace through faith by grace through faith alone Wesley said this in terms of the approach to entire sanctification if you think you must be or do something else first then you are expecting it by works even unto this day but if it is by the grace of God expect it as you are and expect it now and so by that means Wesley is highlighting the divine role that God is the principle actor here and this is a sheer gift to be received by grace

Channel: Seedbed

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Keywords: Seedbed, Christianity, Asbury Theological Seminary, john wesley, theology, grace, seminary, salvation, reformation, protestantism, ken collins, holiness, Gospel, Salvation (Christianity)

Id: EBWNsSMtou4

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2013