Wesley’s Food For Thought
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
The Firebrand editors have compiled a variety of quotes from John Wesley to encourage and challenge our readers.
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In his sermon “The New Birth,” Wesley compares people before they are born of God to a child in the womb, who has eyes and ears but cannot see or hear. Once people are born of God, however, they are able to understand God’s love, to hear the Spirit, discern between good and evil, and experience peace and joy. Wesley describes this new life, this dependence on God, as the same kind of dependence that the physical body has on breathing air:
“God is continually breathing, as it were, upon the soul; and his soul is breathing unto God. Grace is descending into his heart; and prayer and praise ascending to heaven: And by this [exchange] between God and man, this fellowship with the Father and the Son, as by a kind of spiritual respiration, the life of God in the soul is sustained; and the child of God grows up, till he comes to the ‘full measure of the stature of Christ.’"
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A frequently misunderstood sermon, “The Catholic Spirit” promotes a generous spirit toward those with whom we disagree. Nonetheless, Wesley makes it clear that this does not mean accepting all theologies:
“For, from hence we may learn, first, that a catholic spirit is not speculative latitudinarianism. It is not an indifference to all opinions: this is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being ‘driven to and fro, and tossed about with every wind of doctrine,’ is a great curse, not a blessing, an irreconcilable enemy, not a friend, to true catholicism. A man of a truly catholic spirit has not now his religion to seek. He is fixed as the sun in his judgement concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. It is true, he is always ready to hear and weigh whatsoever can be offered against his principles; but as this does not show any wavering in his own mind, so neither does it occasion any. He does not halt between two opinions, nor vainly endeavour to blend them into one. Observe this, you who know not what spirit ye are of: who call yourselves men of a catholic spirit, only because you are of a muddy understanding; because your mind is all in a mist; because you have no settled, consistent principles, but are for jumbling all opinions together. Be convinced, that you have quite missed your way; you know not where you are. You think you are got into the very spirit of Christ; when, in truth, you are nearer the spirit of Antichrist. Go, first, and learn the first elements of the gospel of Christ, and then shall you learn to be of a truly catholic spirit.”
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In his sermon, “The Almost Christian,” Wesley describes the difference between an “almost Christian” and an “altogether Christian.” Even nonbelievers can pursue honesty, truth, justice, and kindness toward others. Sometimes people even have the “outside of a real Christian,” which Wesley describes as the “form of godliness” in which people both do good and do nothing that the Gospel forbids. These people sincerely desire to do God’s will. Yet Wesley contrasts this with the altogether Christian, who loves God and loves neighbor and believes in the Son. This faith brings about repentance, love, and good works and is marked by a real desire to please God in all things. Through a series of rhetorical questions, Wesley then sums up the true disposition of the altogether Christian:
“The great question of all, then, still remains. Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart? Can you cry out, ‘My God, and my All’? Do you desire nothing but him? Are you happy in God? Is he your glory, your delight, your crown of rejoicing? And is this commandment written in your heart, ‘That he who loveth God love his brother also’? Do you then love your neighbour as yourself? Do you love every man, even your enemies, even the enemies of God, as your own soul as Christ loved you? Yea, dost thou believe that Christ loved thee, and gave himself for thee? Hast thou faith in his blood? Believest thou the Lamb of God hath taken away thy sins, and cast them as a stone into the depth of the sea that he hath blotted out the handwriting that was against thee, taking it out of the way, nailing it to his cross? Hast thou indeed redemption through his blood, even the remission of thy sins? And doth his Spirit bear witness with thy spirit, that thou art a child of God?”
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Wesley describes various aspects of salvation and faith in his sermon, “The Scripture Way of Salvation.” A key component of understanding justification by faith is recognizing our own sinfulness, and thus our utter inability to come to God in any righteousness of our own. Even subsequent to justification, the Holy Spirit works to sanctify us, and thus convicts the believer of any ongoing sin and the continuing need for repentance and grace:
“Experience shows that, together with this conviction of sin remaining in our hearts, and cleaving to all our words and actions; as well as the guilt which on account thereof we should incur, were we not continually sprinkled with the atoning blood; one thing more is implied in this repentance; namely, a conviction of our helplessness, of our utter inability to think one good thought, or to form one good desire; and much more to speak one word aright, or to perform one good action, but through His free, almighty grace, first preventing [i.e., going before] us, and then accompanying us every moment.”
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Wesley describes the importance of prayer, searching the Scriptures, and receiving the Lord’s Supper in his sermon, “The Means of Grace.” He both affirms that God has given these means and, in fact, meets believers in these actions (they are “channels of grace”). He also warns that rituals in themselves are not salvific; if they are not practiced from the heart, and if God does not empower the means, then they are worthless:
“As to the manner of using them, whereon indeed it wholly depends whether they should convey any grace at all to the user; it behoves us, First, always to retain a lively sense, that God is above all means. Have a care, therefore, of limiting the Almighty. He doeth whatsoever and whensoever it pleaseth him. He can convey his grace, either in or out of any of the means which he hath appointed. Perhaps he will. ‘Who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellor?’ Look then every moment for his appearing! Be it at the hour you are employed in his ordinances; or before, or after that hour; or when you are hindered therefrom: He is not hindered. He is always ready, always able, always willing to save. ‘It is the Lord: Let him do what seemeth him good!’
Secondly. Before you use any means, let it be deeply impressed on your soul; -- there is no power in this. It is, in itself, a poor, dead, empty thing: Separate from God, it is a dry leaf, a shadow. Neither is there any merit in my using this; nothing intrinsically pleasing to God; nothing whereby I deserve any favour at his hands, no, not a drop of water to cool my tongue. But, because God bids, therefore I do; because he directs me to wait in this way, therefore here I wait for his free mercy, whereof cometh my salvation.
Settle this in your heart, that the opus operatum, the mere work done, profiteth nothing; that there is no power to save, but in the Spirit of God, no merit, but in the blood of Christ; that, consequently, even what God ordains, conveys no grace to the soul, if you trust not in Him alone. On the other hand, he that does truly trust in Him, cannot fall short of the grace of God, even though he were cut off from every outward ordinance, though he were shut up in the centre of the earth.
Thirdly. In using all means, seek God alone. In and through every outward thing, look singly to the power of his Spirit; and the merits of his Son. Beware you do not stick in the work itself; if you do, it is all lost labour. Nothing short of God can satisfy your soul. Therefore, eye him in all, through all, and above all.
Remember also, to use all means, as means; as ordained, not for their own sake, but in order to the renewal of your soul in righteousness and true holiness. If, therefore, they actually tend to this, well; but if not, they are dung and dross.”
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In his sermon. “The Reward of the Righteous,” Wesley declares the importance of good works in the life of the believer:
“Good works are so far from being hindrances of our salvation; they are so far from being insignificant, from being of no account in Christianity; that, supposing them to spring from a right principle, they are the perfection of religion. They are the highest part of that spiritual building whereof Jesus Christ is the foundation. To those who attentively consider the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, it will be undeniably plain that what St. Paul there describes as the highest of all Christian graces, is properly and directly the love of our neighbour [1 Cor. 13]. And to him who attentively considers the whole tenor both of the Old and New Testament, it will be equally plain, that works springing from this love are the highest part of the religion therein revealed. Of these our Lord himself says, ‘Hereby is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit.’ Much fruit! Does not the very expression imply the excellency of what is so termed? Is not the tree itself for the sake of the fruit? By bearing fruit, and by this alone, it attains the highest perfection it is capable of, and answers the end for which it was planted. Who, what is he then, that is called a Christian, and can speak lightly of good works?”