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Four Great Wesleyan Distinctives III

Published Date: September 1, 2016

By President Dr. Timothy Tennent

Holiness has always been at the heart of the Wesleyan message.   Yet, today, the life of holiness has all but collapsed among so many called “Methodists.”  The recapturing of holiness must surely be one of the gravest challenges before us.  Wesley would have been shocked to hear that the “people called Methodists” would someday advocate taking sins off of the sin lists in the New Testament and declaring them sacraments, or means of grace.  But, these are the days we are in.  Two months ago, I began a four part series on rebuilding our Wesleyan heritage.  This third part focuses on the Wesleyan view of holiness.  Next month will conclude with the Wesleyan view of the world. 

Part Three:

The Wesleyan view of the holy Christian life.  A doctrine of justification separated from a robust doctrine of sanctification has left the church in a weakened state which compromises our witness to the world, dishonors Christ and denies the very power of the gospel which we proclaim.  Wesley was first and last passionate about holiness.  Today much of the church is not holy and there is no more important legacy we can leave the contemporary church than to fully embody holiness.  The great ramparts, gates and walls of holiness that have long set the church apart today lie in ruins, and the world is now freely importing wickedness into the church.  This is our hour to rise up and re-assert one of the four marks of the church: holiness.

Wesley taught the doctrine of entire sanctification. For Wesley, salvation could never be simply God looking at us through a different set of glasses where he sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but we are still bound in sin.  Wesley envisioned a holy church.  He understood that God’s purpose is not complete until alien righteousness becomes native righteousness; imputed righteousness becomes actualized righteousness, declared righteousness becomes embodied righteousness.  We do not put grace in a dialectic tension with the Law, but, rather see Christ as a new Lawgiver, deepening the moral call of God on our lives through the Spirit of God working in us. This is not justification by faith and sanctification by works.  No, Wesley saw both justification and sanctification as gifts from God, wrought in us not by our own strength, but through His saving power.  

Entire sanctification never meant that we never sin.  Wesley actually rejected the phrase, “sinless perfection.”  This is because for Wesley sanctification is not primarily a judicial, forensic term.  Rather, it is a relational term. Entire sanctification means that your whole life, your body and your spirit have been re-oriented towards the joyful company of the Triune God. You are now oriented towards the eternal community of God himself.  Entire sanctification was, for Wesley, not the end of some long drudge out of the life of sin, but joining the joyful assembly of those who have truly found joy.  For Wesley, holiness is the crown of true happiness.  Sin is still encamped around us on every side, but it is no longer our ally.  We burn the secret agreements we have with sin in the night while we confess Christ in the day.  We leave behind the agonizingly torn hearts, where we always live under condemnation because sin is always creeping back into our lives.  To be sanctified is to receive a second blessing, a Spirit-baptism, a great gift from God.  It is a gift which changes your heart, re-orients your relationships with the Triune God and gives you the capacity to love God and your neighbor in new and profound ways.  It transforms your perspective – because your heart is re-oriented towards him in perfect love.   In the life of a sanctified person sin becomes your permanent enemy, not your secret lover!  

The language of “entire sanctification” uses the word “entire” in reference to Greek, not Latin.  In Greek “entire” or “complete” can still be improved upon.  Our founder H. C. Morrison once said, “there is no state of grace that cannot be improved on.”   It is a new orientation which no longer looks back on the old life, but is always looking forward to the New Creation. It is a life which has been engulfed by new realities, eschatological realities, not the passing shadows of that which is passing away. 

Wesley also understood that holiness is not merely a negative term. It is not just about sins which we avoid.  If you were to eradicate every sin in your life, you would only be halfway there.  Because, for Wesley, holiness is never just about sins we avoid, it’s about fruit which we produce!  In Wesley, faith and fruit meet and are joyfully wed!  We no longer have a view of holiness which is legalistic, private, negative and static.   Rather it is relational, communal and captivated by a vision of the in-breaking of God’s rule and reign!!   The witness of the Spirit which confirms faith becomes in Wesley the power of the Spirit to produce fruit and to transform the world – to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world!

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7 responses to “Four Great Wesleyan Distinctives III”

  1. William C. Hensel says:

    Dr. Tim, you know (about) Wesley much more than I, but I doubt Wesley would be shocked at the developments you mention–he certainly feared and rather anticipated that these declensions (heresies?) might ensue. But I think he’d be as grateful to God as I am that ATS exists and is seeking to the Wesleyan view of Christian life and discipleship. Godspeed and blessings to you and all the ATS family, bright lights among the great cloud of witnesses.

  2. David Trawick says:

    I got to distinctive ii and iii, but cannot find I, even with a search. Has it been inadvertently deleted?

  3. Edward Crandall says:

    Thank you so much, Dr. Tennant, for your important contribution to Wesleyan theology. It is extremely needed in most all holiness circles or denominations these days.

  4. Josh Christiansen says:

    Thank you Dr. Tennent for this:
    “This is because for Wesley sanctification is not primarily a judicial, forensic term. Rather, it is a relational term. Entire sanctification means that your whole life, your body and your spirit have been re-oriented towards the joyful company of the Triune God.”

  5. Richard Munn says:

    Thank you Dr. Tennent – thoroughly enjoying and appreciating this series, which I am adding to my Wesleyan digital files.

    Love the the four cardinal points of Wesley:

    All people need to be saved
    All people can be saved
    All who are saved can know they are saved by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit
    All who are saved can go on to Christian Perfection

    Am I accurate in this summary?

    Richard Munn MDiv’85

  6. Don Adams says:

    The insight that sin becomes your permanent enemy, not your secret lover is one that should provoke serious consideration leading to genuine repentance. Thanks.

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