JOHN WESLEY'S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

Charles W. Brockwell, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

Justification is an acquittal, an exoneration, a setting right, a correcting. Justification is unnecessary if there is nothing wrong, nothing off center, nothing out of balance in the first place. Thus, our study of John Wesley's doctrine of justification opens with a synopsis of his anthropology, under the rubric of The Human Problem.

Now the good news from God for humans is that in Christ Jesus a way to become justified has been provided. Therefore, the second part of our study sets forth Wesley's theory of the atonement as God's Provision For a Solution to the Human Problem.

Only then, it seems to me, are we prepared to explore Mr. Wesley's understanding of justification. In his case it is to be construed as The Divine-Human Appropriation of God's Solution For the Human Problem.

That treatment of problem, provision, and appropriation will reveal an underlying assumption made by Mr. Wesley. That is to say that Wesley insisted upon the dynamic quality of the divine-human relationship, from birth to and beyond "the article of death." Finally, the concluding summary sets forth the argument of the paper as a whole.

Wesley's Theological Anthropology:

The Human Problem

John Wesley's doctrine of salvation is controlled by his doctrine of sin. He traces the necessity for the new birth back to the fall. The controlling concept is that of the image of God and the effects that sin had upon it. Wesley analyzed the image of God as comprising three aspects. The natural image was "a picture of His own immortality; a spiritual being, endued with understanding, freedom of the will, and various affections." The political image was man as governor of this world. Most important was the moral image; in Paul's words "righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24; "The New Birth," I.l).

Thus was man created "able to stand, and yet liable to fall" ("The New Birth," II.2). Fully warned of the consequences of disobedience to the Creator, Adam nonetheless willfully rebelled against his Sovereign. Adam chose to be governed by his own will rather than the will of God. "In that moment he lost the moral image of God, and, in part, the natural...." ("On the Fall of Man," II.6). "The natural consequence of this is, that every one descended from him comes into the world spiritually dead, dead to God, wholly dead in sin; entirely void of the life of God; void of the image of God of all that righteousness and holiness wherein Adam was created. Instead of this, every man born into the world now bears the image of the devil, in pride and self-will; the image of the beast in sensual appetites and desires. This, then, is the foundation of the new birth-the entire corruption of our nature" ("The New Birth," I.4).1

Such is the condition of what is often referred to as man in his natural state. Turning to Isaiah 1:5-6 Wesley employed the analogy of disease to illustrate the state of natural man.2 For diseased humanity the religion of Jesus Christ is therapeia psuches, treatment and healing of the soul. The medicines of the great Physician serve "to restore human nature, totally corrupted in all its faculties" ("Original Sin," II.1; III.3). Above all, "the great end of religion is, to renew our hearts in the image of God, to repair that total 1099 of righteousness and true holiness which we sustained by the sin of our first parent" ("Original Sin," III.5.)

In attempting to show the state of natural man and how Christian faith changed that state, Wesley used images of contrast: from death to life; from sickness to health; the infant in the darkness of the womb and the infant now in the light of the outside world.

Wesley, however, did not think that the so-called absolute natural state of man was the actual historic condition of anyone. In an absolutely natural state, man was unassisted by the grace of God, and there was no person who was not somehow aided by grace. To clarify this, Wesley discerned three states of man: "the natural man neither fears nor loves God, one under the law fears, one under grace loves Him" ("Original Sin," IV.l, italics in original). These states, then, are the natural, the legal, and the evangelical ("The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption," III.8; IV.l). The several states of soul are often mingled in the same person. The point is that God does not leave man in the absolute state of nature. He remembers our frame and gives help so that we will not be sunk in total darkness, hopelessness, and chaos. For that matter, the political image of God was not lost in the fall, and the natural image was only lost partially. It was the moral image which was wholly lost; the moral image as Wesley thought of it in Paul's words from Ephesians, "righteousness and true holiness." In room of the moral image of God we have conscience. "And according to the meaning wherein it is generally used there [in Scripture], particularly in the Epistles of St. Paul, we may understand by conscience, a faculty or power, implanted by God in every soul that comes into the world, of perceiving what is right or wrong in his own heart or life, in his tempers, thoughts, words, and actions" ("The Witness of Our Own Spirit," 5).

Conscience is a benefit of God's prevenient grace. As theologians such as Colin Williams and William Cannon have seen, prevenient grace is the hinge of John Wesley's theology.3 Even natural man is not abandoned to the consequences of his willful disobedience to the known commandment of God. The children of Adam have been given conscience so that they may know right from wrong and have a sense of morality.

The concept of prevenient grace provided Wesley a way to affirm both original sin, its communication to Adam's posterity, the continuing moral responsibility of people, and their inability to save themselves. Whenever Wesley spoke of the freedom of the will it was in the sense of a "freed" will. The American Methodist theologians of the first half of the nineteenth century employed the phrase "gracious ability" to express the combination of sola gratia and human responsibility in Wesley's evangelical Arminianism. 4

Prevenient grace is not saving grace. Prevenient grace makes possible a sense of morality, but it does not provide a way for man to be freed from the condemnation of original sin or to overcome the guilt of actual sin. "And what wilt thou do to appease the wrath of God, to atone for all thy sins, and to escape the punishment thou hast 80 justly deserved? Alas, thou canst do nothing: nothing that will in any wise make amends to God for one evil work, or word, or thought. If thou couldest now do all things well, if from this very hour till thy soul should return to God thou couldest perform perfect, uninterrupted obedience, even this would not atone for what is past. The not increasing thy debt would not discharge it. It would still remain as great as ever. Yea, the present and future obedience of all the men upon earth, and all the angels in heaven, would never make satisfaction to the justice of God for one single sin. How vain, then, was the thought of atoning for thy own sins, by anything thou couldest do! It costeth far more to redeem one soul, than all mankind is able to pay. So that were there no other help for a guilty sinner, without doubt he must have perished everlastingly" ("The Way to the Kingdom," II.5).

The twin human problems of alienation from God and from other people are intransigent to human solution. The good news of the gospel of grace is that in Christ Jesus a solution has been provided: atonement is an historic fact; reconciliation is a potential reality, and restoration to the image of God is the gift and the goal for human beings.

At-One-Ment: God's Provision of a

Solution to the Human Problem

The major branches of the church have been content not to define too closely the theory of the atonement. They affirm the ministry of Christ as the mediator between and reconciler of God and man, and then reflect upon that through the use of imagery drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. Christ as substitute, sacrifice, ransom, victor, example: these are the metaphors which have recurred in atonement theology. Altogether it would appear that the common theme of these images is that of Christ as humanity's representative before God and as the representative person

whose life exhibits the true meaning of humanness. John Wesley was catholic in this regard. He did not insist upon one of the standard ways of explaining atonement to the exclusion of others. The fact of atonement was to him more important than the detailed explanation of how atonement was effected.

What we discern in Wesley's atonement theology is a distinction between objective and subjective aspects of the atonement. To describe the former he employed the traditional concepts of satisfaction, ransom sacrifice, and substitution. Among these the most important was satisfaction. The Wesleyan theology of atonement is essentially Anselmian, with other themes playing secondary, albeit significant, roles in his thinking. He believed that God was morally offended by human sin. The divine wrath meant an angry God. Sin was an affront to God and a failure of man to fulfill his role in the scheme of creation. The justice of God required that the affront be propitiated. The morality of God required that the failure be corrected. Man, however, had no way to correct this situation for which he alone was responsible. He could neither allay nor flee the wrath of God.

To get clear on this point about Wesley helps one to understand why he instructed his preachers to preach the law first, and only then to preach the gospel.5 Wesley would have understood Bonhoeffer's hostility to "cheap grace." Atonement is an irrelevance to those (such as the majority of the rich) who lack the awareness of their need for it. "Awake, Thou That Sleepest" was the alarm of the revival. Wesley apparently believed that most persons required first to be stabbed into wakefulness by the impossible demands of the law before they could appreciate or appropriate the comfort afforded by the gospel.

It was the perfect life of Christ-the only life ever lived which was obedient unto death-that satisfied the demands of God's justice. It opened the way to reconciliation between God and man. It is in speaking of how Christ made satisfaction for the sins of the whole world that other classical themes are introduced into the discussion. Christ sacrificed Himself in our place, as our substitute. His obedient suffering was the ransom which when paid opened the doors of freedom from the prison house of sin. He willingly suffered the penalties which were our due ("The Way to the Kingdom," II .8).

Harald Lindstrom and Colin Williams have noted that for Wesley the atonement was an historic event, an act which had taken place in the past. Lindstrom in particular contrasts Wesley's view with Luther's appreciation of the ongoing quality of the atonement.6 There was in Wesley's turn of mind a proclivity to categorize, label, and list steps. It appears to me, however, the difference in this instance is more that of degree and of expression than one of substantive teaching. Wesley's emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life witnesses to his appreciation of the continuation of the benefits of the atonement in the life of the believer.

Williams comments as well that the theme of Christ the example is important but not primary in Wesley's atonement doctrine.7 It appears that what is operating at this point is Wesley's propensity for identifying moments in the divine-human encounter. His orderly mind worked to sort out and to clarify the stages in the process of salvation. Thus, he outlined the progression: creation, original sin and fall, natural man, man under the law, atonement, justification and new birth, the sanctified life in the Spirit leading to entire sanctification. He spoke frequently of justification as what Christ does for us and of sanctification as what the Holy Spirit does in us ("Justification By Faith," II.1).

The themes of Christ the example and Christ the victor are important in Wesley, but he uses them in his treatment of what it is to live in the Spirit. If one were asked to give in one sentence Wesley's understanding of what it means to be a Christian, perhaps the best way to state it would be to say, "For John Wesley, to be a Christian meant to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus." So, the objective fact of the atonement reset the terms within which the divine-human encounter takes place. It appeased the wrath of God and satisfied His justice. By faith a person comes under the terms of the atonement. Then one begins the new life in the Spirit, and as he grows into the fullness of the stature of Christ (comes more and more to have the mind which was in Christ Jesus) the example of Christ (His victory over sin, death, and the devil) provides the pattern. Again, if one were asked to reduce to a single sentence Wesley's comprehension of day to day discipleship, perhaps one would say, "For John Wesley discipleship is the imitation of Christ."

So there is a clear distinction in Wesley's thought between objective and subjective aspects of atonement. He emphasizes the objective and historic atonement that changes the terms in which God and man relate to each other. Moreover, Wesley's atonement theology is dominantly Anselmian. Of course, the example of Christ could help to move one to repentance, but that example and our imitation of it is placed by Wesley after justification. Wesley was careful to insist upon sola gratia and he did not want to compromise that by too early a stress on imitatio Christi.

Justification: The Divine-Human

Appropriation of Atonement

Wesley's doctrine of justification is part of his comprehensive teaching concerning salvation. He analyzed the interaction between God and man into stages from repentance to final salvation. The progression as he saw it was: repentance, faith, justification and the new birth, life in the Spirit which produces sanctification and entire sanctification, final salvation. The several stages, however, were relational conditions, not static ones.

The personal appropriation of the benefits of atonement begins with repentance and believing, the gospel. That repentance Wesley defined as "conviction, or self knowledge" ("The Way to the Kingdom," I.13; II.l). The workings of conscience and the preaching of the law bring one to that point. The sleeper is then awakened to the twin realities of his corruption and his peril. Only if he is aware of both his need and his helplessness will he be ready to cast himself upon God's mercy, bringing nothing in his hand, and asking only for forgiveness and new life. The faith through which we are saved "with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert, receives the heavenly blessing" (Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, Ephesians 2:8).

Salvation is by grace; faith is the means by which we open our lives to grace. One of the problems for Wesley's insistence upon both salvation by grace and the freed will was the question of whether or not faith was a meritorious work. Did God reward the good work of faith, thereby revealing that for all his denials Wesley did in the last analysis preach works salvation?

Wesley was aware of the danger here and sought to escape it by defining faith in the terms found in Hebrews 11:1. Faith in general, he said, is "a divine, supernatural elengchos, evidence or conuiction: 'of things not seen,' not discoverable by our bodily senses.... Justifying faith implies, not only a divine evidence or conviction that 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,' but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that He loved me, and gave Himself for me" ("Justification by Faith, IV.2. Italics in original). Of course, Wesley included in his definition of faith intellectual assent to all that God has revealed in Scripture ("The Circumcision of the Heart," I.7). Nevertheless, the essence of Christian faith was the application of general faith to the action of God in Christ.

Christian faith is "not barely a speculative, rational thing, a cold, lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head; but also a disposition of the heart.... Christian faith is then, not only an assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ; a trust in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection; a recumbency upon Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us, and living in us; and, in consequence hereof, a closing with Him, and cleaving to Him, as our 'wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,' or, in one word, our salvation" ("Salvation by Faith," I.4-5). "A string of opinions is no more Christian faith than a string of beads is Christian holiness" (A Plain Account of Genuine Christianity, II.5 in Outler (ed.), John Wesley, p. 189.)

Faith is the condition of justification, and the only necessary condition of it. But faith does not deserve a reward, it does not place God under moral obligation to man. It is a gift from God, albeit a gift that is given to all who by repentance are open to receive it ("Justification by Faith," IV.5). In the analogy already cited, faith is like an empty hand, open and ready to receive whatever is placed in it.

Upon meeting the necessary and essential condition of faith, two simultaneous but distinct events occur in one's life. A person is both justified and regenerated: ". . . 'faith is imputed to him for righteousness' the very moment that he believeth.... [God] counteth us righteous from the time we believe in [Christ]-that is, he doth not punish us for our sins; yea, treats us as though we were guiltless and righteous" ("Justification by Faith," IV.5.) 8

"But though it be allowed, that justification and the new birth are, in point of time, inseparable from each other, yet are they easily distinguished, as being not the same, but things of a widely different nature. Justification implies only a relative, the new birth a real change. God in justifying us does something for us; in begetting us again, He does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children; by the latter our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image, of God. The one is the taking away the guilt, the other the taking away the power, of sin; so that, although they are joined together in point of time, yet are they of wholly distinct natures" ("The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God," Intro. 2). 9

Wesley made much of the analogy between physical birth and the new birth. The unborn child has the potential to feel, hear, see, and exercise the other senses. Until it is born, however, it does not actually use its senses or even know it possesses them. As birth activates the physical senses, so the new birth makes us sensible to God. With the new birth a "new kind of spiritual respiration" begins. "The spirit or breath of God is immediately inspired, breathed into the new-born soul; and the same breath which comes from, returning to God: as it is received by faith, so it is continually rendered back by love, by prayer, and praise, and thanksgiving; love, and praise, and prayer being the breath of every soul which is truly born of God" ("The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God," I.8).

Just as faith is the necessary and the only essential condition for justification, so it is the mark of the new birth ("The Marks of the New Birth," I.1). However, faith that was an empty hand open to receive the gift of justification is now an active agent in the soul's growth. Faith is the eye,

the ear, the palate, the feeling of the soul (An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, 7).

It is within this context that we are to interpret Wesley's exaltation of feeling or experience, and his belief in assurance of present salvation. Feeling or experience is part of the appropriation of the gospel of grace in the heart of an individual. Its function is to confirm doctrine, not to create it.

Wesley was firmly rooted in the institutions of the church: order, liturgy, university-these protected him from falling victim to fanaticism. He was as much offended by outbursts of Schwarmerei as Luther was. When faced with such outbreaks in the Methodist societies he investigated and "opposed them with [his] might" (Journal, V. 11).

For all of his mystical-sounding expressions concerning the personal assurance that flows from experience Wesley never asserted the value of experience or feelings not conformable to more objective standards. Only if feeling or experience was within the parameters of scripture, tradition, and reason could it be accepted as "an inward proof, which is nothing short of self-evidence" ("The Witness of the Spirit," I.ll). Untested feeling might be merely "the presumption of a natural mind [or] the delusion of the devil" (Ibid., II.1). Nevertheless, Wesley rejoiced that ". . . faith necessarily implies an 'assurance' (which is . . . only another word for 'evidence,' it being hard to tell the difference between them) that 'Christ loved me, and gave himself for me' " ("The Scripture Way of Salvation," II.3. Italics in original).

The Wesleyan synthesis of objective and subjective in the appropriation of atonement is well expressed in one of Charles's hymns. First published in 1746, it had had a place in virtually every Methodist hymn book.

Spirit of faith, come down,

Reveal the things of God;

And make to us the Godhead known,

And witness with the blood.

'Tis thine the blood to apply

And give us eyes to see,

Who did for every sinner die

Hath surely died for me.

No man can truly say

That Jesus is the Lord,

Unless thou take the veil away,

And breathe the living Word.

Then, only then, we feel

Our interest in His blood,

And cry, with joy unspeakable,

"Thou art my Lord, my God!"

O that the world might know

The all-atoning Lamb!

Spirit of faith, descend and show

The virtue of his name.

The grace which all may find,

The saving power, impart;

And testify to all mankind,

And speak in every heart.

Inspire the living faith

Which whosoever receives

The witness in himself he hath,

And consciously believes;

That faith that conquers all,

And doth the mountain move,

And saves whoe'er on Jesus call,

And perfects them in love. 10

This brings us to the consideration of what, in Wesley's view, follows the experiences of justification and the new birth. Much has been made of the divergent interpretations by Luther and Wesley as regards the doctrines of justification and sanctification. Wesley himself underlined that difference. He asked whether anyone had spoke more ably than Luther on justification. But then he declared that with regard to sanctification Luther exhibited "total ignorance" ("On God's Vineyard," I.5, in Works, VII).

It would appear that the issue is the Wesleyan teaching about imputed and imparted righteousness. Wesley rejoiced in the possibility of the renewal of a person in righteousness and true holiness. It begins with justification which is present forgiveness, pardon of sins, and acceptance with God. (A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, Part I.I.1). It continues in holiness of heart and life toward the restoration of the image of God; the life of God in the soul of man; participation of the divine nature; possession of the mind that was in Christ Jesus; entire sanctification; perfect love (Journal, II. 275-76).

Combined with his belief in imparted righteousness was Wesley's activist, indeed compulsive, personality in regard to the use of time and resources for ministry. Prior to his evangelical liberation-represented in the pivotal Aldersgate experience-he worked to earn God's acceptance. Freed from that pressure Wesley nevertheless continued to engage in the same types of ministry ("works") as he had before. The difference was that what had previously been done in hope of salvation was now performed in thanks for and as evidence of salvation. We see here the expression of his differentation between the single action of the atonement of Christ on the one hand, and the continuing example of Christ the victor on the other. He stated this by saying that justification, which imputes righteousness to us, is what Christ does for us; the imparted righteousness of the life of discipleship, initiated by the new birth and leading to entire sanctification is what the Spirit does in us ("Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount-Discourse IX," 21).

Wesley felt that Luther had come only part way in the evangelical revolution. To him the concept of simul justus et peccator represented a settling on the slope when one could have gone to the top of the mountain. In fact Wesley thought that Luther's view had deleterious pastoral effects by cutting the nerve of the activist sort of discipleship which the life of holiness requires. Just like predestination it produced the antinomianism which Wesley 80 feared and despised among Christians. In 1741 he recorded reading Luther's "miserable commentary" on Galatians, and blamed Luther for the Moravian insistence on "no work; no law; no commandments." In language quite strong for him Wesley accused Luther of speaking "blasphemously " in regard to good works and the law of God. The next day he attacked the commentary in a sermon on the text "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un-circumcision, but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6. See Journal, II, 467-68).

Here, then, was no small matter for Wesley. He was truly offended at a point which was central to his interpretation of the Christian religion. Is it possible, however, that given the opportunity for a "Bristol Colloquy" the reformer and the evangelist might have found mutual understanding, if not full agreement of expression? Luther, the Augustinian monk, knew first hand what it was to pursue the medieval monastic ideal of perfection. He experienced personally the Ruin of that vision of spirituality. It would seem that his interpretation of works was wholly determined by their place in that approach to God. In such a case Luther's reaction against works is understandable. Clearly, however, he did not abandon standards of morality or the claims of the neighbor upon the Christian.

Wesley, living two centuries later in a land where monasticism was an historic memory, inevitably had a less immediate experience of the medieval pursuit of perfection. To be sure, he strove mightily before his evangelical liberation to present himself holy and acceptable to God. Yet his austerities would hardly compare with those of Luther. Neither did Wesley live in the physical and spiritual enclosure of the cloister.

Thanks to the Lutheran theological revolution (albeit Wesley nowhere cites Luther as a formative source for his own theology) Wesley knew the gospel of grace from the very beginning of his own quest. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura were parts of the theology which he inherited. The intellectual re-appropriation of Paul's evangelical message was not new for him as it was for Luther. Perhaps it was that difference in the theological environments of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries which allowed Wesley to read with appreciation the major works of medieval catholic spirituality.

Now prior to the experience represented by Aldersgate Wesley was of course intellectually a protestant. Nevertheless, he was pursuing a modified form of the medieval monastic ideal of Christian perfection: a sort of intramundane monasticism that he hoped would make him acceptable to God. Aldersgate stands for a deeper level of knowing "the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ." He was freed "to trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation." The gospel of grace came home to him and, like Luther, he was overwhelmed with the fact that what Christ did was pro me; "and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death" Journal, I.475-76. Underlining in third quotation is in original.)

In time Wesley would comment on Romans 4:5; "Hence we see plainly how groundless that opinion is, that holiness or sanctification is previous to our justification. For the sinner, being first convinced of his sin and danger by the Spirit of God, stands trembling before the awful tribunal of divine justice; and has nothing to plead, but his own guilt, and the merits of a Mediator- Christ here interposes; justice is satisfied; the sin is remitted, and pardon is applied to the soul, by a divine faith wrought by the Holy Ghost, who then begins the great work of inward sanctification.... If a man could possibly be made holy before he was justified, it would entirely set his justification aside . . ." (Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament). This was the major issue in Wesley's break with William Law, a man whom he had earlier looked to as a spiritual mentor.

Yet Wesley did not abandon the doctrine of Christian perfection. In fact it took on a new attractiveness for him, because it became the pilgrimage of the redeemed instead of the petition of the condemned. Repentance was the porch of the house of Christian religion, and faith was the door to that house, but sanctification was the house itself (Works, VIII. 473 and Letters, IV. 302).

Justification removed the guilt of original sin and gave one victory over outward sin. The simultaneous new birth started one on the way of sanctification, freed from the power of sin and victorious over inward sin. ("The Marks of the New Birth," I.4). "He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free," wrote Charles, in the poem which has traditionally stood as the first entry in the hymnals of Methodism (The United Methodist Hymnal).

At this point the logical development of the argument would lead to a treatment of Wesley's doctrine of sanctification. [Since that is the theme of Pastor Nausner's paper I will not enter upon it.] Instead I wish to close this section of my paper by pursuing the question of whether or not Luther and Wesley were closer together in their understanding of the Christian life after justification than Wesley thought they were.

The interpreter of Wesley has to keep in mind that he was fundamentally concerned with the change God works in the heart. For him the great joyous full effect of grace was that we could experience the kind of life that Jesus recommended in His summary of the law in Mark 12 and Luke 10. We can love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. We can experience that life in which every thought, word, and deed is motivated by love for God and for the neighbor. The Christian is a new person: God's re-creation in righteousness and true holiness.

Such optimism of grace, however, which caused the Methodists to sing their affirmation, did not blind Wesley to the continuing need for repentance.

Wesley preached and wrote about sin in believers, the need to pray daily for the forgiveness of trespasses, the unceasing demands of growth in grace, and the constant danger of backsliding.

Even though Wesley thought of justification and sanctification as "the two grand branches" of Christian salvation, it would seem that he over-stated his disagreement with Luther ("On Working Out Our Own Salvation," II.l). Luther did not place as much emphasis on I John as Wesley did. His experience of both the gospel of grace and the realities of life after justification led him to affirm that we are at the same time justified and sinners. Wesley exalted the great change wrought by God in the heart and so preached entire sanctification as the fullness of the New Testament promise. On the other hand he too encountered the daily reality of sin in believers. It is noteworthy that while Wesley's assertion of perfection rests upon the evidence of Scripture, his explanation of sin in believers is based largely upon the evidence of experience. Thus, if Luther spoke of simul justus et peccator it appears that Wesley developed a teaching that the believer is simul sanctus et penitentlaria. What Luther probably would not agree to is Wesley's assertion of the possibility of entire sanctification. But Wesley knew that we never reach the point in life where we no longer need to pray for the forgiveness of our trespasses. As long as we live our soul is connected with the body and its imperfect organs. We are, therefore, ever liable to mistakes, both intellectual and practical, which can lead us into a wrong temper, and "for all these we need the atoning blood...." (Journal, IV.471).

One final issue remains to be lifted up. I have already noted that Wesley fiercely criticized Luther on the place of works in the evangelical economy. But if Wesley is clear enough on the point of justification by faith, does he sustain that clarity in his view of the necessary conditions surrounding final salvation? Does Wesley come "within an hair's breadth" of works salvation? Since this topic is also one which is at the center of the exposition of sanctification, I will only indicate my conclusion on the matter. 11

Briefly put, Wesley's principle was that, whatever might be the case in other types of faith, in faith specifically Christian love of God embraces love of neighbor. Faith without works-in more contemporary idiom, intellectual belief without active ministry-is by definition unscriptural and unchristian. "Our gospel . . . knows no other foundation of good works than faith, or of faith than Christ . . ." ("The Circumcision of the Heart," II. 4).

Moment by Moment:

The Relational Quality in Wesleyan Theology

By now we can see the full emergence of a fundamental assumption of Wesleyan theology: that the nexus between God and man is a dynamic relationship involving the full person-hood of both. Within the parameters set by God, Wesley asserted that there was real human responsibility and decision making power. Whatever the dispensation of grace under which one is living-preventing, justifying, or sanctifying-the freed will possesses "gracious ability." 12

This quality of life with God moment by moment is reflected in Wesley's advocacy of the complementary ideas of grace resistible and assurance of present salvation. 13 Of course, the classical representation of the relational quality of the divine-human nexus is his teaching of the concurrence of the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of the human spirit. He dealt with that theme in two of the Standard Sermons: "The Witness of the Spirit" based on Romans 8:16, and "The Witness of Our Spirit" from II Corinthians 1:12. Wesley did not try to explain how the Holy Spirit and our hearts make their joint testimony, any more than he tried to explain how the condemnation of Adam's sin is upon us all. Nevertheless, the fact of the witness had for him the nature of "an inward proof, which is nothing short of self-evidence" ("The Witness of the Spirit."

I.11-12). Thus did he affirm a relationship which was both dynamic and stable- That is how Wesley sought to hold together divine sovereignty and human responsibility; grace and freedom; the potential for either growth or regression in the spiritual life.

Did John Wesley find a way between Pelagianism and predestination; between works salvation and antinomianism? Those are the questions on which Methodists have so frequently been thrown on the defensive by representatives of the major churches whose roots lie in the thought of the magisterial Reformers. On the other hand they have also been the occasion for the confident claim that Wesley's real greatness as a theologian is to be found in the unique way in which he combined patristic, medieval, and Reformation motifs to fashion a viable third option in Western Christian theology. 14

The examination of Wesley's doctrine of justification provides opportunity to ask whether or not the inner logic of his theology coinheres with the New Testament. The answer we give will determine whether we think that his theology of the divine-human relationship is an aggressive, moralistic, privatistic, enthusiastic Pelagianism; or a type of orthodoxy which is simultaneously evangelical, catholic, and reformed, and thereby seminally relevant to the church in an ecumenical age.

Summary Conclusion

The study of John Wesley's doctrine of justification begins with a review of his theological anthropology. He saw the image of God as having three parts: the natural, the political, and the moral. It was the moral image (righteousness and true holiness) which suffered most from the fall of Adam. Owing to the disobedience of the first man all of humanity is under the condemnation of original sin.

Natural man so-called is actually man under the dispensation of prevenient grace; grace given by God after the fall to preserve some of the moral image of God. Conscience is a product of prevenient grace.

The unyielding human problem resulting from the fall is alienation, both from God and from other persons. Alienation from God finds expression in God's wrath, which will justly condemn man to eternal punishment.

Despite Adam's sin, however, God remained a God of love and mercy, as well as a God of justice. That love and mercy found a way to restore the image of God, thus producing at-one-ment in place of the old alienation. The suffering of Christ Jesus reset the terms of the divine-human encounter. Wesley's theology of the atonement is essentially Anselmian. Following atonement the life of Christ serves as the model for daily Christian living.

Salvation has two grand parts: justification and sanctification. It begins with justification and the regeneration which occurs at the same time. It continues to entire sanctification and final salvation. Justification restores us to the favor of God; sanctification restores us to the image of God. In justification righteousness is imputed to us; we are counted righteous for the sake of the merits of Christ and through faith in Him. In sanctification righteousness is actually imparted to us; we become righteous; we receive and grow daily in righteousness and true holiness. Justification is what Christ does for us; sanctification i8 what the Holy Spirit does in us.

Justification is preceded by repentance, a response to the leading of prevenient grace. Faith is the only condition for justification. Regeneration is simultaneous with but separate from justification. The change which comes about as the result of justification and regeneration is so great that one can sensibly experience it and be inwardly assured of it.

Assurance and sanctification do not provide immunity from ignorance, mistake, infirmity, or temptation. We must pray daily for forgiveness of our trespasses. Moreover, we must be constantly alert to the danger of backsliding. Such transgressions, although they violate the absolute justice of God and need the atoning blood for their covering, do not break the conscious relationship between the believer and God.

Final salvation is as much dependent upon faith as is justification. Good works (ministry) earn nothing; God is never obligated to us. Works are part of and evidence of that growth in righteousness and true holiness which never ends, even for one who is entirely sanctified.

From beginning to end Wesley's view of the relationship between God and man is that of a synergistic, dynamic, personal, stable interaction. The boundaries of the relationship are set by God; first in the creation, and then in His provision of preventing, justifying, and sanctifying grace. Nevertheless, moment by moment in his life with God a person has genuine freedom and responsibility, We do have "gracious ability" to accept or reject our invitation to "the gospel feast," to "participate in the divine nature," and "having done all to stand [entire at last]."16

This is John Wesley's "evangelical Arminianism." It is the central point in the accusation that Wesleyan theology is at root Pelagian. It is also the core of the Methodist assertion that the Wesleyan theological methodology yields a creative and synthesizing tradition of ecumenical orthodoxy.

Notes

1Wesley declined to offer an explanation of how original sin was communicated to Adam's posterity. For him the evidence of it was enough to establish the fact, and that was all that was needed. See The Doctnne of Original Sin, according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience, VII (Works, IX.335).

2Isaiah 1:5-6 (New English Bible):

Where can you still be struck if you will be disloyal still? Your head is covered with sores, your body diseased; from head to foot there is not a sound spot in you - nothing but bruises and weals and raw wounds which have not felt compress or bandage or soothing oil.

3Colin W. Williams, John Wesley's Theology Today (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960), pp. 39-46- William R. Cannon, The Theology of John Wesley (Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1946), pp.107-08.

4Emory S. Bucke (ed.), The History of American Methodism (Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 3 vols.,1964), I.355.

5See his 1751 letter to Ebenezer Blackwell (?) (Letters,) III.78-85) as well as the two Standard Sermons on "The Law Established Through Faith."

6Harald Lindstrom, Wesley and Sanctification (Stockholm: Nya Bokforlags Aktiebolaget, 1946), p. 92; Williams, Wesley's Theology Today, pp. 81, 87-89.

7Williams, Wesley's Theology Today, p. 83.

8Wesley's use of the phrase "righteousness of God" corresponds to that of Luther. It is the righteousness that God gives to the man of faith. See the sermon "The Righteousness of Faith," II.7.

9For a similar expression see "On Working Out Our Own Salvation," II.1, which is Sermon LXXXV in Works, VI. Albert Outler contends that this view "goes back to Melancthon's famous causa concurrens, and to Bucer's iustitia duplex (both of them indebted to Erasmus)" (Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit, Nashville: Tidings, 1975, p. 100).

10The Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Methodist Publishing House, 1966), number 137.

11Among the important sources for this topic are: Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testamenz-, James 2:14-16; A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, Part I. III; The General Rules of the United Societies; "The Scripture Way of Salvation"; "The Circumcision of the Heart," and the two sermons on "The Law Established Through Faith."

12One expression of the place of human responsibility in the economy of the Christian life may be found in "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: Discourse IV," III.7-8. In fact Wesley's thirteen discourses upon Jesus' Great Sermon comprise the core of his teaching on daily Christian living.

13Don English, "The Theology of the Wesleyan Movement," (unpublished paper, n.d.), p. 9.

14Outler, Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit, pp. 33-43; English, "The Theology of the Wesleyan Movement," p. 9.

15The Methodist Hymnal, numbers 102 and 250; Journal II. 275-76.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PRIMARY SOURCES CITED

Outler, Albert, ed. John Wesley. (A Library of Protestant Thought). N. Y.: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Wesley, John, ed. A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists: With a Supplement. London: John Mason, n.d.

________. The Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion and Certain Related Open Letters. ed. Gerald R. Cragg. (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 11). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1975.

________. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament. London: William Bowyer, 1755. rpt. Naperville, Ill.: Allenson, 1958.

________. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. ed. Nehemiah Curnock. London: Robert Culley & C. H. Kelly, 8 vols., 1909-16.

________. The Letters of the Reu. John Wesley, A.M. ed. John Telford. London: Epworth, 8 vols., 1931.

________. Wesley's Standard Sermons. ed. Edward H. Sugden, London: Epworth, 2 vols., 1921.

________. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. ed. Thomas Jackson. London: John Mason, 14 v019., 1829-31; rpt. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. 1979.

Edited by Brian Seidel