Wesley on Salvation

Text: Ephesians 2:8,9

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If you spend any time at all in church, you will quickly acquire a whole new vocabulary.  In no time at all, you'll begin speaking the language of Zion, vocabulary all too familiar to Christians, but not so understandable to the uninitiated.  Take for example the following terms: salvation, absolution, atonement, repentance, redemption, propitiation, justification, sanctification, etc.

Understanding the meaning behind the words is as important, if not more so, than knowing the vocabulary itself.  This is especially true with one of the most important words in the Christian language: "salvation."

"It is easily discerned that these two little words, I mean faith and salvation, include the substance of all the Bible, the marrow, as it were, of the whole scripture.  So much the more should we take all possible care to avoid all mistake concerning them and to form a true and accurate judgment concerning both the one and the other." (J. Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation)

What does the Bible say about salvation? Does Wesley have any light to shed on what it says?  The answer to both questions is 'Yes.'

I. The Key Word in Understanding Salvation is Grace.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." (v. 8)

The United Methodist heritage is rooted deeply in a deep and profound understanding of God's grace.  This incredible grace flows from God's love for us.

1. Grace may be defined as the love and mercy God gives us because God wants us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it.

Frederick Buechner: "Grace is something you can never get, but only be given."

In Living Our Beliefs: The United Methodist Way, Bishop Kenneth Carder writes: "Grace is God's presence to create, heal, forgive, reconcile, and transform persons, communities, nations, and the entire cosmos. Where God is present there is grace, God's power to to renew and transform."

Wesley preached a sermon entitled "Salvation by Faith" on June 18, 1738, at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University. He preached from this same text, Ephesians 2:8:

"All the blessings which God has bestowed upon man are of His grace, bounty, or favor; His free, undeserved favor; favor altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of His mercies.  It was free grace that formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him a living soul, stamped on that soul the image of God, and put all things under his feet. For there is nothing we are or have or do which can deserve the least thing at God's hand.  You, O God, have wrought all our works in us."

II. The Key Moment in Salvation is Now.

"It is (present tense) the gift of God."

Wesley: "And, first, whatever else it implies, it is a present salvation.  It is something attainable, furthermore, actually attained, on earth by those who are partakers of this faith." (Sermon: Salvation by Faith)

"What is salvation? The salvation that is here spoken of is not what is frequently understood by the word: the going to heaven or eternal happiness. It is not the soul's going to paradise.... It is not a blessing which lies on the other side of death or, as we usually speak, in the other world. The very words of the text itself put this beyond all question: 'You are saved.' It is not something at a distance; it is a present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, you are now in possession of." (Sermon: The Scripture Way of Salvation)

1. Grace is what makes each moment sacred in its own way.

F. Buechner: "All moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

My blog from Saturday morning:

Our four-year-old grandson spent last night with us, the sleepover his reward for making it through his Friday night t-ball game without the usual late inning meltdown. He came close to losing it when the final out was made before his time to bat again, but pulled it back together enough to slouch back to centerfield, sniffling and insolent, but there. As the game was pronounced over by the umpire, life was good again, the future bright, and the sleepover at Papa and Jo Jo's back on.  To the casual observer, Joshua Dane is a bundle of energy, emotion, intelligence, charm, temper, and humor.  To me, he is all of those elements and more -- he is a goodly measure of God's grace. Josh is named after me, proudly wears a shirt proclaiming 'I Love Papa' (I'm Papa), loves to ride with me in my Jeep Rubicon that he affectionately calls "Ruby," but Josh is technically not my grandson.  He is my step-grandson. We do not share DNA; we share Jo Jo, the mother of Joshua's mother. Apart from divine orchestration, this little boy would be named after someone else, call some other man Papa, and I would be the lesser for it. Like his grandmother (Jo Jo), Josh is a constant reminder that I am the recipient of grace beyond comprehension, mercy exceedingly great. I am the least deserving of any child's affection, but Josh doles it out in large measure and I greedily accept it, and am different because of it. That's the way of grace-- grace changes everything and never allows us to remain the same.

2. This present-emphasis is described by two companion terms: justification and sanctification.

Wesley: "Justification is another word for pardon.  It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and our acceptance by God.  The price by which all this has been procured for us is the blood and righteousness of Christ....  The immediate effects of justification are 'the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding' (Phil 4:7); and a rejoicing 'in hope of the glory of God' (Rom 5:2)."

"And at the same time we are justified, yes, in that very moment, sanctification begins.  In that instant we are born again, born from above, born of the Spirit; there is a real as well as a relative change."

3. The means of salvation is faith.

"Not the result of works, so that no one may boast." (v.9)

Wesley: Sermon, Justification By Faith

"The only instrument of salvation is faith, that is a sure trust and confidence that God both has and will forgive our sins, that He has accepted us again into His favor for the merit's of Christ's death and passion.... By affirming that this faith is the term or condition of justification, I mean, first, that there is no justification without it.  He who does not believe is condemned already (John 3:18).... Faith, therefore, is the necessary condition of justification; furthermore, it is the only necessary condition."

1) The gateway to faith is repentance.

"It is generally supposed that repentance and faith are the only gate of religion.... And this is undoubtedly true that there is a repentance and a faith which are more especially necessary at the beginning." (Sermon: The Repentance of Believers)

"Repentance frequently means an inward change, a change of mind from sin to holiness.  But we now speak of it in a quite different sense-- as it is one kind of self-knowledge, the knowing of ourselves sinners; guilty, helpless sinners."

2) Notice that nowhere does the Bible or Wesley mention anything about church membership as a part of salvation.  Church membership & participation or a result of salvation, not a means of salvation.

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So, what is Wesley saying? More importantly, what is the Bible saying about salvation?

- That, it is the gift of God, purchased by the sacrifice of Christ.

- That it is obtained simply by accepting the gift.

- That the attitude of heart that prepare us to accept the gift is repentance, and the attitude of mind that recognizes the present possession of the gift is faith.

- That this great salvation is a present possession, transforming us right now into the likeness of Christ.

Have you understood your desperate situation apart from Christ?

Have you recognized the grace gift of salvation in Christ?

Have you turned from your sins and turned to God?

Have you accepted God's gift of salvation by faith?

(Dr. Dane Fowlkes)