As we press onward into John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” it will help you to recall how he described faith in a previous section of the sermon. Faith is the conviction that God was in Christ reconciling that world to Himself and that Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me. With that in mind, we read on.
1. And, first, how are we justified by faith? In what sense is this to be understood? I answer, Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of justification. Wesley is going to expand on some of these terms in a moment, but as we read him in 2023, it is important to note that one thing was not deemed even necessary to explain, and that is that there are conditions that must be met for us to be put into right relationship with God.
In our day, more than a few Christian voices would resist the idea that there are any conditions on our salvation. Some do not say it explicitly that way, but you do not have to be in ministry very long before you meet Christians who have clearly understood that they have been told that God would never place any condition or expectation on them. Obviously, such doctrines are contrary to any Wesleyan theology.
It is the condition: none is justified but he that believes: without faith no man is justified. To demonstrate my point, here Wesley is plain as day. No one is justified unless they believe. No one. And if person does not have faith (see above), he or she is not and will not be pardoned for their sin or put into right relationship with God.
A retired pastor in my conference recently posted a message on social media inspired by, he said, a thousand funeral services. He wrote that the fact that someone loved us or the fact that we loved a person does not get them into heaven.
His post was met with some push back and some questions. At least one comment suggested that it was not a kind thing to post in public. Of course, if faith is the condition of our salvation, then the unkindness would be to conceal that fact. I suspect many who were uncomfortable at my colleague’s post would not agree with Wesley that faith is the condition for our justification before God.
And it is the only condition: this alone is sufficient for justification. Every one that believes is justified, whatever else he has or has not. In other words: no man is justified till he believes; every man when he believes is justified. And here is the good news. Faith is all you need. You do not need to be educated or rich or young or old or respected or anything else. Your life can be a mess. You can be a mess. None of that matters at all, so long as you meet the only condition – faith.
Of course, this news is not good news to everyone. If you are sitting in church on Sunday morning, taking great pride in your success at business or your position of authority, if you believe you are at peace with God because you put cash in the offering plate and are considered respectable in every way, then a young John Wesley showing up to preach that none of that matters one bit is not going to be met with an “amen.”
Just that kind of preaching got Wesley disinvited from many pulpits, and just that word is still upsetting today.
I remember when I first encountered this in my ministry. It was my first part-time appointment. I was teaching a class on Methodism and we used some of Wesley’s sermons. I was teaching on this very point: specifically that attending church every week is not going to get you into heaven, but only faith will do that. An older member of the class looked up with shock and indignation as asked why he’d been bothering attending church for 50 years if it was not going to get him into heaven.
He is the only Christian I ever heard ask that question out loud, but I assure you that he is far from alone in our pews. This most basic truth escapes so many. There are untold numbers who turn their back on church because they believe that there is a long list of things that must do or be or change before they can be saved, and there are untold numbers of people sitting in pews who believe that the things they have done or the station of life they have achieved or the checks they have written will get them into heaven.
Both groups are wrong.
Lord, help us to see that there is only one condition for our justification, faith in Jesus Christ.
John Meunier 
Thank you for this, John.
When we are preaching at graveside, we try to preach them into heaven, so to speak. We know the gathered are often a reprobate collection and mostly ignorant of the message. The crowd of a Sunday is removed from this condition only by degrees. And there are many more of us who must pray, “Lord, help my unbelief.”