SANCTIFICATION AND THE CHRISTUS VICTOR MOTIF IN WESLEYAN THEOLOGY
William M. Greathouse, Ph. D.
President, Nazarene Theological Seminary
I. INTRODUCTION
Gustaf Aulen's Christus Victor1 is one of the most influential treatments of the
atonement to appear in our time. Aulen calls for a thorough revision of the traditional
account of the history of the idea of the atonement to give fresh emphasis to a view of
Christ's work which he describes as the "dramatic. " Its central theme is the
idea of the atonement as a divine conflict and victory in which ChristChristus
Victorenlists and vanquishes Satan, sin and death. 2 He insists that this dramatic
understanding of Christ's work is a true doctrine of atonement because in this act God
reconciles the world to himself. 3 Although Christ's death is at the heart of this view,
the Cross presupposes the incarnation; for it was the Son of God in flesh who met and
defeated evil. 4 It also embraces the resurrection and ascension, for by raising His Son
from the dead and to His own right hand God fulfilled the conditions of the promised gift
of the Spirit by which Christ's historic victory is mediated to believers. 5 The Cross
also envisions the consummation of our salvation when God shall send His Son a second time
to raise and glorify us with Him. 6
This view of Christ's work Aulen calls "the classic idea" of the atonement.
He sees it as the dominant idea of the New Testament. 7 Thus it did not spring into being
in the early church or arrive as an importation from some outside source.
It was, in fact, the ruling idea of the atonement for the first thousand years of
Christian history. In the Middle Ages it was gradually ousted from its place in the
theological teaching of the church, but it survived still in her devotional language and
in her art. It confronts us again, more vigorously and profoundly expressed than ever
before, in Martin Luther, and it constituted an important part of his expression of the
Christian faith. It has therefore every right to claim the title of the classic idea of
the atonement. 8 Aulen has done the church a service in rescuing the drama tic view of
Christ's work and restoring it to its rightful place as a New Testament representation of
the atonement. In the traditional account of the history of the idea of the atonement the
Christus Victor teaching has been slighted, if not rejected outright, along with the
ransom theory which developed out of it. 9 Aulen shows how the New Testament does indeed
view Christ's work as a divine conquest of evil. Moreover, Aulen seems to have
successfully demonstrated that this is a view of atonement and not merely a doctrine of
salvation. Furthermore, this representation of Christ's redemptive work preserves the
biblical teaching that the atonement is from beginning to end the work of God l0; it also
dynamically fuses the objective and subjective features of this work. Such a viewpoint
provides a sound basis for pointing up weaknesses in both the Anselmic and Abelardian
theories.
It may be questioned, however, whether any one view of the atonement can rightly be
titled "classic. " The New Testament regards Christ's work in at least three
waysas a propitiation, a redemption, and a reconciliation. The sinner is guilty and ex
posed to the wrath of God; in Christ God propitiates His wrath and expiates the sinner's
guilt. The sinner is under the bondage of Satan and sin; Christ's redemptive act delivers
man from bondage and sets him at liberty. The sinner is estranged from god: he is
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. 11 The Christus Victor motif elucidates the
second representation of the atonement. While Aulen maintains that the other two ideas may
be fully subsumed under this one view, 12 is the dramatic motif in fact adequate to
embrace the notions of propitiation and reconciliation? Strong biblical and experiential
reasons seem to have given rise to the emphases of Anselm and Abelard. A really classic
doctrine of atonement must include both the idea of satisfaction and of revelation as well
as that of redemption. Whatever weaknesses we may find in the Anselmic and Abelardian
theories, we cannot deny that they voice two distinct scriptural perspectives regarding
the atonement. It is a question whether these view points can be clearly and fully
expressed in the Christus Victor doctrine .
In spite of these questions, here is one view which highlights Christ's atonement as
the destruction of sin making possible man's true sanctification. While it is too much to
claim that it provides the entire framework for explaining Christ's work, it does give
Wesleyan theology a significant biblical and historical basis for developing a
thoroughgoing Christological doctrine of sanctification. The Christus Victor idea
"directs attention not primarily to the punishment and other consequences of sin, but
to sin itself. It is sin itself which is overcome by Christ, and annihilated; it is from
the power of sin itself that man is set free. 13 In Christ
God has sanctified humankind; this sanctification is accomplished within us as Christ
come s to indwell us by the Spirit. "The classic idea of salvation is that the
victory which Christ gained once for all its continued in the work of the Holy Spirit, and
its fruits reaped ~ 14
II. CHRIST'S VICTORY FOR US
The atonement has several facets. Viewed from the stand point of man's guilt and his
deep need for pardon and acceptance, "Christ crucified" is God's perfect
oblation making possible our justification before him (Romans 3:2l26) Seen from the
perspective of man's enmity toward God and his profound yearning for restored fellowship,
Christ provides reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:1421; Ephesians 2:1122). Again, perceived
from the angle of man's bondage to evil, Christ crucified is the conqueror of Satan, sin
and death. It is this third point of view Christus Victorwhich Aulen sees as dominant
until Anselm, and it is this understanding of Christ's work which furnishes the most solid
basis for a dynamic biblical doctrine of sanctification.
This view presupposes that it was only by meeting the forces of evil on their own
ground, only, that is, by getting into history where they were entrenched, that Christ
could break their power. 15 He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might
destroy him who had the power of death, i.e. the devil (Hebrews 2:1314). In his final
effort to destroy the Prince of Life (Jesus Christ) the devil overextended and thus
defeated himself (John 12:31; cf. ICorinthians 2:8). God the Father "disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him
(Christ). " (Colossians 2:15, RSV. )
Christus Victor, however, not only defeated Satan; He destroyed sin itself. "The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8,
RSV). John means Christ came to destroy the principle of lawlessness (anomia I John 3:4),
which was the devil's chief work in man.
Paul gives the fullest treatment of sanctification within this context in Romans
5:128:39. Particularly critical to this idea are Romans 6:6 and 8:3.
First, Romans 6:6-"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. " Knowing
what? This, that in and with the death of Jesus on Calvary we were provisionally crucified
also, so that we might be set free from sin for a life of love service to God. Paul puts
the same idea slightly differently in II Corinthians"For the love of Christ' controls
us, because we are convinced that one died for all; therefore all have died. And hedied
for all, that those wholivemight live nolonger for themselves, but for him who for their
sakes died and was raised" (5:14_15, RSV).
Two definitions are in order with reference to Romans 6:6: "our old man" (ho
palaios hemen anthropos) and "the body of sin" (to soma tes hamartias). The
first expression must be under stood in the light of Romans 5:1214; the second, of Romans
7: 1425 Both must be defined in terms of these two contexts. Here are two concepts which
describe different aspects of the problem of human sinfulness.
"Our old man", means our existence in Adam. "Adam, the type of
Christ" (Romans 5:14), is more than the first man; he is the head and representative
of fallen humanity. In Adam humanity is bound together in a solidarity of sin and death.
"Our old man" is therefore ~Adam, or rather ourselves in union with Adam. ~16
"The body of sin" should betaken as the possessive genitive: "Sin's
body, " or "the body of which sin has taken possession, 'the body which is so
apt to be the instrument of its own carnal impulses '''17 Indwelt by sin (he hamartia)l8 I
am hopelessly divided against myself and reduced to moral impotence (Romans 7:1425).
Paul's other term for this sindominated body is "flesh" (sarx-Romans 7:18; cf.
8:8). 19
Now, Paul says, "Our old man was crucified with Christ so that sin's body (I. e.
the flesh) might be destroyed, that hence forth we might not be enslaved by sin. "
Karl Barth has vividly paraphrased Paul
This is our knowledge of Jesus Christ on which our faith is foundedthat the "old
man, " I. e. we ourselves as God's enemies, have been crucified and killed in and
with the crucifixion of the man Jesus at Golgotha, so that the "body" (I. e. the
subject, the person needed for the doing) of sin, the man who can sin and will sin and
shall sin has been removed, destroyed, done away with, is simply no longer there (and has
therefore not merely been "made powerless"). 20
Whatever Barth may allow by this, his words give true expression of Paul's declaration.
As a new man in Christ I am to hear the gospel saying to me that my old self in Adam has
died with Christ in order that my very person may be liberated from sin, so that I may now
serve God in "righteousness for sanctification" (Romans 6:19, RSV). This is the
whole meaning of Romans 6.
Romans 8:3 relates this to the incarnation. Christ's victory could be won only in the
flesh. But there, where sin had established its rule, Christus Victor routed it
decisivelv. "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (sarkos hamartias "sin's
flesh" or "sindominated flesh") and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
" "Condemned" means more than to register disapproval; the law does that.
Christ " 'pronounced the doom of sin. ' Sin was hence forth deposed from its
autocratic power."21 In the fleshandblood body of a manon the very territory where it
had established its reignGod doomed sin. "By His life of perfect obedience, and His
victorious death and resurrection, " C. H. Dodd comments, "the reign of sin over
human nature has been broken."22
III. CHRIST'S VICTORY IN US
Christ's victory for us in the atonement becomes Christ's victory in us by the
indwelling Spirit (Romans 8:1l l). Christ's victory is reproduced in us. In the Holy
Spirit, Christ for us becomes Christ in us, recapitulating in our history His triumph over
sin. This is the meaning of Christus Victor for sanctification.
Every demon we meet is foredoomed in Christ. Sin itself has lost its power for the
believer in whom Christ lives. "Little children, you are of God, and have overcome
them; for he who is in the world.... And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our
faith.... We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps
him, and the evil one does not touch" (I John 4:4; 5:4, 18, RSV).
This victory is given to us in three stagesin conversion, in entire sanctification, and
in glorification.
This victory begins in conversion. This is the clear meaning of Romans 6:111. This is
our knowledge of the gospel that we ourselves have been crucified in the person of Christ
crucified. And Paul insists we grasp the truth that this has already happened to us
"in principle" in our justification and regeneration. "For he who has died
is freed from sin" (Romans 6:7, RSV). But in order to reap the full benefits of God's
provision we must furnish "moral cooperation. " "The believer understands
that the final object which God has in view in crucifying the old man (v. 6) is to realize
the life of the Risen One (vv. 8, 9), and he enters actively into the divine
thought."23
To "enter actively into the divine thought" and thereby realize true
sanctification involves:
1. A faithknowledge that God has actually accomplished the destruction of sin in Christ
crucified and resurrected and that in my conversion I have died with Him and have been
raised with Him to newness of life in which I am no longer sin's slave, and - 2. A
complete break with sin (Romans 6:1213a) and a putting of myself absolutely at God's
disposal in a critical act of consecration (Romans 6:13a, 19-aorist tense both places), so
that I may begin to realize the full life of Christus Victor in me.
We have already died provisionally with Christ through our participation in Christ
crucified; now we must permit that death to reach to the very depths of our being as we
cease from self and begin to live wholly to God. The death of the "old man" is
thus a process initiated by conversion and realized in sanctification. "In
principle" we die with Christ in justification; in full reality we die with Him when
we yield up ourselves to God as Jesus gave up His spirit to the Father on the Cross. Here
Wesley has a guiding word:
A man may be dying for some time; yet he does not, properly speaking, die, till the
soul is separated from the body; and in that instant, he lives the life of eternity. In
like manner, he may be dying to sin for some time; yet he is not dead to sin till sin is
separated from his soul; and in that instant, he lives the full life of love.... So the
change wrought when the soul died to sin is of a different kind and infinitely greater
than any be fore, and than any he can conceive, till he experiences it. Yet he still grows
in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ, in the love and image of God; and will do so,
not only till death, but to all eternity~ 24
Christ's victory thus becomes blessed reality in entire sanctification. This separation
of the soul from sin to God is "the final object God has in mind in crucifying the
old man" (Romans 6). Viewed positively, this act of God is life in the Spirit (Romans
8). 25 Christ reenacts in us the sanctification He accomplished in the atonement. By His
perfect obedience and victorious death and resurrection He provisionally expelled sin from
human experience; now He comes by the spirit to dwell and reign in us and thus work in us
that loving obedience which fulfills the law. Thus Christ himself becomes our
sanctification (I Corinthians 1:30). "For in him the whole fulness of diety dwells
bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in Him" (Colossians 2:910, RSV). This
fullness, however, is not a private, mystical, quietistic union with Christ. It is social;
it is life in the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:1227; Ephesians 1:212:7; 4:416;
Colossians 3:14; cf. Hebrews 2:1013) In the Body of Christ-the koinonia of the Spirit we
discover the full meaning of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians
1:2129). To put the matter in fullest perspective we must add one further word. Christ's
victory is complete but not final. We have been "saved by hope"the hope of
resurrection and glorification with Christ (Romans 8: 1725; I Corinthians 15:2228;
Philemon 3:1221; etc. ). Meanwhile our sanctification has the character of a spiritual
warfare in which our victory over sin is assured as we permit Christ to live moment by
moment in us (John 15:16; Ephesians 6:1018; Philemon 1:6; Colossians 1:18 23; Romans
8:1213, 2639; Romans 13:1114; Hebrews 7:25). This is the practical meaning of Christus
Victor for a theology of holiness. "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ" over the dominion of sin in conversion, over sin
itself in sanctification, over the racial consequences of sin in glorification.
IV. WESLEY AND CHRISTUS VICTOR
John Deschner has pointed out the relevance of Christus Victor for Wesley's doctrine of
sanctification.
The grand theme of Wesleyan Atonement is Christ' s bearing of our guilt and punishment
on the cross. This atonement is Wesley's ground for man's en tire salvation, his
sanctification as well as his justification. But alongside this judicial scheme of thought
there is also in Wesley a pervasive tendency to view Christ's work on Good Friday and
Easter, but also today and in the future, in terms of a military victory for us over sin
and evil. Much attention has been given to the power of the Holy Spirit in Wesley's
doctrine of sanctification. It needs to be more clearly recognized that the sanctifying
spirit I s the spirit of the victorious as well as the suffering Christ. 26
Wesley's Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament make it abundantly clear that he both
knew and appreciated the Christus Victor idea, and three of his Standard Sermons deal with
this theme. 27 However, Wesley does not take full advantage of the implications of this
view for his doctrine of holiness. "It may well be that this is a weakness in his
doctrine of sanctification, " Colin Williams observes. "There the stress is on a
conscious individual relationship with Christ, and little emphasis is given to the need
for the repetition of Christ's victory in us. "28 Such a view of sanctification,
however, is present in Wesley, although it is not consistently pressed. Other elements of
Wesley's thought rival this idea and thereby rob Wesley's doctrine of the Christ
ocentricity which marks the New Testament teaching of sanctification. A clarification of
Wesleyan theology at this point should give new power and relevance to its holiness
teaching.
In his Notes upon the New Testament Wesley affirms that God has given sentence ''that
sin should be destroyed, and believers delivered from it" (Romans 8:3). 29 "The
Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devilall sin. And will he not
perform this in all who trust in Him?" (I John 3:8. ) In his sermon on this latter
text, however, he limits the manifestation of Christ to the "in ward manifestation of
himself. "30 Not once in the entire sermon does he refer to Christ's objective
victory on the Cross, although he makes passing reference to Christ's final victory in the
last day. By ignoring the objective victory of Christ, Wesley opens the door to a
subjective, individualistic type of holiness. His message of sanctification would have
been mor e vigorously positive and biblical if he had sounded with clarity the note of
Christ's historic conquest of sin.
Moreover, because Wesley does not seem to see clearly that sanctification is the
repetition of Christ's victory in us, it is "not primarily a participation in Christ
who, as Paul says, is also our sanctification (I Corinthians 1:30), but rather such a
relation to Christ as allows His Spirit to establish in us a 'tem per, ' a more abstract
stylized kind of holiness.1:3l This defect appears to grow out of Wesley's exaggerated
view of the moral law as "the immediate offspring of God, . . . God manifest in the
flesh. " He virtually hypostasizes it when he says: "Yea, in some sense, we may
apply to this law what the Apostle says of His Son; it is apaugasma tes doxes kai
charakter tes hupostaseos autou, the streaming forth, or out beaming of His glory, the
express image of His person. "32 His intent is clear: to avoid the antinomianism
which says, "It (the moral law) has been fulfilled by Christ, and therefore must
pass, for the gospel to be established. "33 He will brook no suggestion that Christ's
active obedience is imputed to the Christian. But does antinomianism necessarily follow
the teaching that Christ fulfilled the moral law? Did He not in fact fulfill it by His
holy obedience and victorious death and resurrection? Was not the incarnate Son the
revelation of God's holiness as well as His grace?
Is it not possible that the moral law, like the ceremonial law, is a 'type of Christ'
(cf. Hebrews 10:1, Matthew 11:13, Romans 10:4, II Corinthians 3:6), I. e. leads to and is
fulfilled in Him with the con sequence that the believer finds not only atonement but also
the concrete form which his sanctification is to take 'in Christ, ' and not in some moral
law abstracted from Him?34 And does not the New Testament teach that Christ actually in
dwells believers, so that one who has truly died with Christ can say, "It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"? (Galatians2:20.) And is there any
other righteousness than this?
Wesley, however, does glimpse the full Christocentricity of holiness when he defines
sanctification as the renewal of our mind in thee ImagoDei. "And what is
'righteousness', " he asks, "But the life of God in the soul; the mind which was
in Christ Jesus; the image of God stamped upon the heart, now renewed after the image of
him that created it?"35 He then proceeds to describe inward sanctification as the
"return" of Christ in the person of the Comforter 36
In several places in his Plain Account Wesley seems to see that the sanctifying Spirit
is the Spirit of the victorious as well as of the suffering Christ. 37 Once he writes:
The holiest of men still need Christ, as their Prophet, as 'the light of the world. '
For he does not give them light, but from moment to moment; the instant he withdraws, all
is darkness. They still need Christ as their King; for God does not give them a stock of
holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but unholiness would
remain. They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things.
Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ....The best of men
say, 'Thou art my light, my holiness, my heaven. Through my union with Thee, I am full of
light, of holiness, and happiness. But if I were left to myself, I should be nothing but
sin, darkness, hell. '38
This is Wesley at his best. Here he means by perfection, not any "temper, "
"intention, " or "affection" inherent in man him self, but a
participation in the being of Christ's love. Christ is both the content and source of this
perfection. On the ground of Christ's priestly work, the prophetic and kingly offices can
also be understood as grace.
We can only regret that Wesley, having suggested such an exalted view of Christ's
intercession, would make so little of this in his doctrine of sanctification. We are not
"holy in Christ" (as Wesley abhorred), but "in Christ" we are actually
made holy. Here he could have found his soundest defense against antinomianism (Hebrews
7:25). And it can be argued that this was, in the band societies, Wesley's pastoral answer
to antinomianism. There his Methodists found their place in the Body of Christ with its
worship, mutual exhortation, admonition, encouragement and service. There they experienced
the presence and power of the Christ who had won for them the victory. Though Wesley did
not do so, must we not develop this doctrine's implication that we participate in Christ's
active righteousness of obedience and love as well as His passive righteousness, through
the Holy Spirit, in the church which is His Body?
Called unto holiness, Church of our God, Purchased of Jesus, redeemed by His Blood;
Called from the world and its idols to flee, Called from the bondage of sin to be free.
Called unto holiness, praise His dear name ! This blessed secret to faith now made
plain; Not our own righteousness, but Christ within, Living and reigning and saving from
sin.
Mrs. C. H. Morris
DOCUMENTATIONS
1. Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor (New York: Macmillan Co., 1951), Translated by
A. G. Hebert.
2. Ibid., pp. 14.
3. Ibid., p. 5,; yet see Alan Richardson, Introduction to the Theology of the
New Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1958), pp. 204206.
Richardson admits the truth of Aulen's dramatic representation of Christ's work but
understands this as "a presentation of the fact of salvation rather than of
atonement" (p. 205, italics his).
4. Aulen, pp. 2021, 4144. 5. Ibid., pp. 22, 3132, 44.
6. Ibid., p. 22. 7. Ibid., pp. 6180, 8. Ibid., pp. 67.
9. It was Origen (185254 A. D. ) who converted the Christus Victor idea into the theory
of a ransom paid to Satan.
10. "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ" (II Cor. 5:18).
11. H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1952),
II, 229232.
12. Op. cit., pp. 7173. 13. Ibid., fn. p. 148; cf. pp. 2225.
14. Ibid., p. 150.
15. James S. Stewart, A Faith to Proclaim (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1953), p. 94.
16. C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1957), p. 125.
17. Sandy and Headlam, The Epistle to the Romans (New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1929), p. 125.
18. The key term for sin itself in Romans 5:128:10, literally, "the sin"
principle. The term occurs 28 times in these chapters.
19. As body (soma) is my total self concretely expressed, so flesh (sarx)
is my whole person alienated from God and subjected to my creature hood and sin.
20. Karl Barth, A Shorter Commentary on Romans (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox
Press, 1959), p. 69.
21. C. Anderson Scott, "Romans," The Abingdon Bible Commentary (New
York: The Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 1153.
22. C. H. Dodd, The Epistle to the Romans (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932),
p. 93.
23. F. Godet, St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (New York: Funk and Wagnalls,
1883), p. 244.
24. John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (Kansas City: Beacon
Hill Press, reprint), p. 62.
25. Romans 58 must not be read to discover any "order of salvation. " Paul is
rather contrasting two ways of life: Adam and Christ, Law and Gospel, sin and grace, flesh
and Spirit.
26. John Deschner, Wesley's Christology (Dallas: Southern Methodist University
Press, 1960), p. 116.
27. He spoke of the devil as "the first sinner in the universe" (Notes,
I John 3:8), who "transfused" his own selfwill and pride into our parents
(Sermon CSSIII, I. 2; Sermon LXX, I. 910), thus be coming the "origin of evil"
in the world (Notes, Matt. 13:28; John8:44; Sermon LXII, I. 8). By sin and death
Satan gained possession of the world, so that when Christ came it was "Satan's
house" (Notes, Matt. 12:29; John 12:31). Man's guilt gave him over to Satan's power,
and man's corruption took Satan's side in temptation. Satan thus enjoyed a right, a claim,
and a power over man (Notes, John 13:30; Rom. 6: 14). Christ's ministry was an
assault upon Satan (Notes, Matt. 12:29), but His decisive encounter with Satan, sin
and death was in the cross and resurrection (Notes, Matt. 27:5253: Luke 12:50; I
Cor. 15:26; Eph. 4:8; Heb. 2:14). The resurrection, which is victory over death, is the
inauguration of Christ's kingdom(Notes, Luke22:16; Acts2:31; I Cor. 15:26), and its
power will raise men to new life in regeneration and to eternal life in the general
resurrection (Notes, Rom. 6:5; Eph. 1:19; I Cor. 15:20). The ascension signifies
Christ's exaltation to the Father's right hand (Notes, Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:2122)until
Here turns to judge the world (Notes, Rev. 1:7; Heb. 9:28). After the judgment
Christ will return the mediatorial kingdom to the Father, but will continue to reign
eternally with Him (Notes, I Cor. 15:24). Here indeed are all the essential
elements of a full Christus Victor doctrine. See Deschner, Wesley's Christology, Ch. V,
"The Kin"lv Work of Christ. "
28. Colin Williams, John Wesley's Theology Today (Nashville: The Abingdon Press,
1960), p. 88.
29. Scripture references hereafter are all to Wesley's Explanatory Notes Upon the
New Testament.
30. Sermon LXX, "The End of Christ's Coming, " (II. 7; III. 1, 1).
31. Deschner, op. cit., p. 105.
32. Sermon XXXIV, "The Origin, Nature, Property, and Use of the Law" (II.
3,4, 5, 6; III. 3); SermonXXIV, Discourse IV, "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the
Mount" (Intro. 1).
33. Sermon XXV, Discourse V, "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount" (II. 1).
34. Deschner, op. cit., p. 115. Scripture references in quotes are to Wesley's Notes.
35. Sermon XXI, Discourse I, "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount" (I. 11).
36. Ibid., II. 5, 6: cf. Sermon XXII, I. 1.
37. Plain Account of Christian Perfection p. 53.
38. Ibid., pp. 8283.
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