Methodism in three verses

As an exercise, I tried this morning to set down three verses that I believe are especially important to Methodism. I set a limit of three to force me to try to focus on what I thought were the most important. None of these are unique to Methodism, but I do think these three together at least capture something of the core of what animated Methodism as a movement and helped make it powerful.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8)
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)

The first statement reminds us of the central importance of holiness of heart and life to Methodism. John Wesley was convinced of the need for inward and outward holiness long before he came to understand that his sins were forgiven by grace through faith. Holiness was the first, and remained the enduring, aim of Wesley’s spiritual journey. Striving to find a way to holiness based on his own efforts occupied a good decade of his early ministry. Justification by grace through faith was such a radical experience for Wesley because he had spent so much energy trying to justify himself through good works. He was completely convinced that holiness was essential to his ultimate salvation. Remove holiness from Methodism and there is no movement that leads to Methodism in the first place.

The second statement speaks to our conviction that salvation is a gift of God (by grace) that we receive by faith. We cannot earn salvation. We only receive it. This was the realization that warmed John Wesley’s heart and caused Charles Wesley to long for a thousand tongues to sing the praise of Jesus. Without salvation by grace through faith, Methodism remains mired in the grinding misery of the pre-Aldersgate Wesley. (If you want to go deep on this, you can read my 16-part series on John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation.”)

The third statement speaks of our belief that grace is freely offered to everyone in all places. The death of Christ was not only effective for a narrow subset of the human race, but it is for everyone. Jesus desires that everyone be saved. This is not quite so controversial an idea today, although you can find plenty of guys on YouTube who are still holding up the banner for TULIP Calvinism. In the era in which Methodism arose and even within early Methodism itself. however, the debate between limited and unlimited atonement was critical. I think some recognition of that needs to be part of my three verses.

Just memorizing these three verses won’t tell you everything there is to know about Methodism, not even close, but I do think that any version of the Christian faith that discards or contradicts one of these three statements is moving significantly away from Methodism and toward something else.

While these three verses to distinguish Methodism from some forms of Christianity — Calvinism, for instance, or many forms of progressive or liberal Christianity — they can be embraced by many other traditions. That is no problem from my point of view. Wesley’s intention was not to create something new, but to recapture something very old. Methodism has never sought to be anything other than old-fashioned scriptural Christianity.

This is my attempt at picking just 3 verses to get at the heart of Methodism. If you were going to try to capture the heart of Methodism with 3 verses, which would you use?

Three days that made Aldersgate possible

May 24, 1738, is a day known to a great many Methodists. It is the day John Wesley came to a living faith in Christ and assurance that his sins had been forgiven. We rightly remember this day.

So, too, should we recall the days that came before. If May 24 was the climax of the story, the days — even the years — that came before set the stage. In his journal, Wesley recounts a letter he wrote to a friend that the shared his turmoil and despair in the three days before May 24, which he called days of “continual sorry and heaviness in my heart.”

“I see that the whole law of God is holy, just and good. I know every thought, every temper of my soul ought to bear God’s image an superscription. But how I am fallen from the glory of God! I feel ‘that I am sold under sin.’ I know, that I too deserve nothing but wrath, being full of abominations: And having no good thing in me, to atone for them, or to remove the wrath of God. All my works, my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for themselves.”

I genuinely wonder how a 30-something bachelor clergy member in the United Methodist Church today would be treated if he were to express such a troubled state of soul. Would we start by trying to argue him out of his premises. I fear we would.

I fear that a lot of the energy in “counseling” young Rev. Wesley would be to to shake him loose of “fundamentalist” reading the Bible and his obsession with wrath and sin. I fear we would try to talk him out of a sense of his own sinfulness rather than seek to pray him through it.

How would we respond to him when he insists that he deserves nothing but wrath from God and that there is nothing good in him at all? How would we answer when he says that his prayers themselves are an offense and require their own atonement because they do not spring from a true faith in Christ’s saving work? How would he score on the psychological evaluation, I wonder.

And yet, please recall, this is exactly the state of soul that made Wesley ready for May 24. It is this despair and desperation that made what happened that evening on Aldersgate Street in London a day many Methodists still rejoice over.

Hear how Wesley further wrote to his friend in the days before.

“O let no one deceive us by vain words, as if we had already attained this faith! By its fruits we shall know. Do we already feel ‘peace with God,’ and ‘joy in the Holy Ghost?’ Does ‘his Spirit bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God?’ Alas, with mine He does not.”

This is the result of what we often call prevenient grace. Here is the conviction that comes upon a sinner in whom God grace has stirred up a sense of his own powerlessness and need. What sad words are those he writes. He seeks peace and has none. He desires joy, and cannot find it. He longs to know himself to be a child of God, and yet the Spirit remains silent.

Is it possible that United Methodism would hold Wesley up as a model in this day? Could we imagine a United Methodism in America that points to words like these and says, “This is the way to real faith.” I fear we would view Wesley — if he were among us — as a fanatic or a fundamentalist rather than as the father of our movement.

How wonderful it would be if we could learn to teach our people to find themselves in a place where they could pray with Wesley, “O thou Saviour of men, save us from trusting in anything but Thee! Draw us after Thee! Let us be emptied of ourselves, and then fill us with all peace and joy in believing; and let nothing separate us from thy love, in time or eternity.”

This is the prayer that might once again be answered in this way, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone for my salvation: 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.”

Wouldn’t it be great if United Methodism could pray that prayer?

Do you want that, too?

The Scripture Way of Salvation

Last June, I started writing about John Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation.” I wrote in the initial post that I did not know how many posts it would take to work my way through the entire sermon. I now know the answer: 16.

Mostly to make it easy for me to revisit these (I can’t imagine anyone else will ever revisit these posts) I am listing them all here in order.

Two Simple Words

Everyone is Being Saved

Pardon, Price, and Peace

Grace Changes Us

Expect to Struggle But Don’t Do So Alone

Going on to Perfection

The Meaning of Faith

Receiving Faith and Receiving Christ

Being Blessed By Assurance

One and Only Condition

Show Me the Nail Marks