Wesleyan Sanctification

Sanctification part 2

This article will be an overview of the book Five Views on Sanctification with contributors: Melvin E. Dieter (Wesleyan perspective), Anthony A. Hoekema (Reformed perspective), Stanley M. Horton (Pentecostal perspective), J. Robertson McQuilkin (Keswick perspective), and John F. Walvoord (Augustinian-Dispensational perspective). Before continuing to read, make sure you have read part 1 of this sanctification series as I explain some prerequisite knowledge. This article here will go over the Wesleyan perspective.

Here is the Wesleyan perspective according to Dieter and Wesley:

Dieter says that John Wesley “never allowed that entirely sanctified Christians could become sinless in the sense that they could not fall again into sin through disobedience. He did teach that so long as men and women were the creatures of free will, they were able to respond obediently or disobediently to the grace of God. They would never be free from the possibility of deliberate, willful sinning in this life. They could, however, be delivered from the necessity of voluntary transgressions by living in moment-by-moment obedience to God’s will. […] Total freedom from the effects as well as the presence of all sin had to await the glory to come. Wesley believed that the promised present victory over sin was possible only through the Christ life implanted in believers by the Holy Spirit. Even those who enjoyed the closest walk with God, however, still had many imperfections in them as part and parcel of the fallen created order and had to depend daily on the atoning merits of Christ’s blood [and ask for God’s forgiveness because, as Wesley noted], ‘neither love nor the unction of the Holy One makes us infallible: therefore … we cannot but mistake in many things.’”

Wesley also believed that no matter how far or high a believer has come in their walk with God, they still needed to grow in grace and advance in knowing and loving God. In Wesleyan thought, “entire sanctification” or “Christian perfection” was not a fixed superior state but rather, a new stage in life, “a new arena of ethical response to the divine will already inherent in the regeneration of new birth in Christ.” (13-14).

Dieter says: Wesley allowed no stopping point in the Christian’s quest for holiness—“no holiness of degree, no point of conclusion.” Quite to the contrary, every point of progress in grace renews one’s zeal to realize more fully the immeasurable resources of God’s grace and love toward those who trust and obey Him. To stop short of the crisis of faith by which we are restored through the Spirit to the love that we lost in the Fall was to ignore not only the privileges but the expectations of the finished work of Christ and the end point of the plan of salvation. To take that point of initial freedom in any way as a state of grace or a terminal victory was equally to ignore the promises and expectations of the salvation brought to us by Christ’s work. (19)

Wesley believed that living before God in the perfection of love was the supreme end of Christianity. He believed that faith was the means to love as Galatians 5:6 indicates. (20). Wesley and his followers “set before their hearers the promise of a heart perfected in love, a personal restoration to the moral image of God, and the responsibility and power to express that love in relationship with God and neighbor. Through Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, the ‘bent to sinning’ could be cleansed from the repentant, believing heart, and a ‘bent to loving obedience’ could become the mainspring of one’s life.” (21). […] “Unlike Augustine, however, Wesley sees the Fall as the result of a lack of love, not of concupiscence.” (23). […] “The end result of Christian perfection is not an inner spirituality but works of love.” […] “Love, not faith, becomes the final goal of the plan of salvation” (27). […] “Expression of the holy love of God out of an undivided heart is the goal of the Christian life. All else is commentary.” (30). […] “The resources for victory lie not in the individual but in Christ. Christians do not serve out of strength but out of yieldedness.” (35). […] “Contemporary understanding also has commonly begun to express the believer’s sanctification in Christ in terms of a perfect but dynamic relationship rather than a fixed state of experience.” (42).

One of Wesley’s friends, John Fletcher, had a different take in his Wesleyan teaching of Christian perfection. To Fletcher, he saw Christian perfection as the filling of the Holy Spirit or as the Pentecostals call it, “the Baptism of the Holy Ghost,” or “the second blessing.” It was his belief that the love of God would so fill the heart that it would take away one’s inclination to sin. This view seemed to take off for awhile though not all Wesleyans were at a consensus on this matter, even to this day. (43-45).

In the book, the other contributors give their responses, arguments, and opinions to what each contributor has said, so you’ll have to read the book to see that.

Here is my response to Dieter and the Wesleyan perspective:

First of all, I believe that the second blessing experience that the Pentecostals have is different from the Wesleyan experience of Christian perfection. I believe that the Holy Spirit is operative in both and both also seem to be a rarity among how many Christians experience them. I believe that Christian perfection is entirely reachable to those who pursue it by faith and through yieldedness to God. The second blessing can also be pursued in that manner along with fasting and the gift is given to some people. Yet, to others, for some unknown reason, no matter how diligently they seek God and pray for it, it does not come, not even with Pentecostals laying hands upon them while they speak in tongues. As we know, the Spirit comes and goes as He wills and no one can force Him.

Sometimes, the second blessing is also given to believers at the very beginning of when they believe. However, most Pentecostals who have the second blessing, would not speak of their freedom from sin in such high terms as the Wesleyans. The Pentecostals need to continually stoke the flame of the Spirit through various means of grace for the pleasurable feeling of God’s love and joy to supersede the bodily senses and cravings. However, my version and experience of sanctification married together with the Wesleyan method of Christian perfection, is a gradual growth in grace through faith and the continual denying of self to yield to God and put to death the fleshly desires for sin until the growth reaches a point where those evil inclinations are finally put to death and peace remains. For some people, this can be a very lengthy process and it requires full devotion and dedication to the obedience of God, denial of self, and the pursuit of truth to grow faith and cast off the lies of the enemy. By the way, just because you have joy, that doesn’t mean you have the second blessing or are filled with the Holy Spirit. Even unsaved people can have joy and love in their hearts in the natural sense and so even they can have a degree of freedom from certain sins and addictions through natural help. Therefore, there has to be something more distinguished about the Christian experience.

From what I’ve read of Christian perfection, it seems as though the emphasis is on the love of God as being a continual sustaining strength in the heart so that there are no distinguished or active evil inclinations. One might even be able to fit that into the filling of the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 5:18, which is a continual abiding experience to those who walk in it. I would see the filling of the Spirit in the book of Ephesians as different from the instances in the book of Acts. However, in my experience of Christian perfection, it was an initial experience of love from God yet it was more like an encounter of God’s holiness and love through His holiness which I saw Him (perceived Him) as so transcendently loving that it overwhelmed me and sanctified my heart while I felt that I was undone as the prophet Isaiah. It was faith in this love that cauterized my heart from the evil passions so that they remain dead. But after that, I didn’t have any tangible feeling of God’s love (since I consider myself in a wilderness season or dark night of the soul). However, a peace came over me (not quite tangibly though as I had felt times before). This time it was just like whatever was stirring inside me had been made calm, and I just instantly and spiritually knew at that point that the lusts of the heart were defeated and would no longer rise. So, in this way, my experience is more one of abiding peace rather than a continual tangible experience of God’s love. So, there is a sense in which I am lacking a very vital and necessary element to this. But, as I have said, being in a dark night of the soul, all my senses are darkened or muted so that I don’t feel much of anything. Yet, at the same time, I am free and at peace, and I await the time when God will lift the veil again from this dark night so that I can experience God’s fullness. But as of now, it is not time.

I have also previously experienced the second blessing filling of the Spirit but without tongues and it lasted only two weeks and then left for some unknown reason out of my control. It came upon me when I was meditating on God’s jealous love for me and it was like a revelatory experience at the time. So, I certainly know what the heights of God’s love, joy, and presence feel like. I even did everything I could to continue stoking the flame and make sure I was continually yielded to God in every single thing but for some reason, the flame died out. This was an experience I had seven years before the one I just described.

In the Wesleyan perspective, Christian perfection seems to be this dynamic experience in one’s relationship with God whereby God’s love dwells in you and flows out from you very naturally so that in whatever you do, you’re always thinking about love to God and love to neighbor and such a loving response comes so naturally that the law of love is fulfilled continually. It’s like this well of water within you springing up and overflowing so that it cannot help but love people. Jesus said that all the commandments were fulfilled in that one word, love (Mt 22:34-40). And then Paul writes, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Ro 13:8-10; Gal 5:14). It is for this reason that many can say within this experience that they are not committing willful conscious sin because their minds and hearts are continually and consciously willing and fulfilling the law of love. It is of my opinion, however, that the love Wesley attributed to Christian perfection should have instead just have been attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit and the experience of the Holy Spirit’s filling as one continues to yield themselves to God every single day. Though, this filling I speak of is not reflective of the average Christian but more reflective of the experience of the Pentecostals and new believers. It is an experience of God’s fire within that is sustained typically through Christian service to God, loving God and neighbor, praising God, meditating on the Word, and using one’s spiritual gifts.

If I had to more precisely define Christian perfection in terms of biblical language and my own experience, I would call it entering into God’s rest as Hebrews 3-4 describe. In that sense, the emphasis would be more on peace rather than on love. It is a Christian journey of growing in grace through the means of faith and self-denial to day by day choose to believe God’s truth and to sacrifice the things that you desire for the sake of God and for the sake of others and not violating God’s commandments. It is this journey of growth which is what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. Jesus showed us how to crucify the flesh through faith and self-denial and calls us to walk in His footsteps this life of complete surrender to God so that we may finally put to death the sinful inclinations and live in freedom, which is God’s rest. The Christian life is a journey to reach the point of God’s rest. However, it is not as though this is the end goal of the believer’s life. We still continue to grow in Christlikeness. But from that point, service to God can be more enjoyable and more effective, since we operate now from this place of rest and peace rather than from a place of striving. We are not sinless either because there are still unintentional sins and imperfections that need to be worked out of us and also because we live in this fallen world and there are temptations all around, willful sin is still an option. However, for the one who has forged their will through the flames and trials of life and faith, having constantly struggled against the sinful inclinations and hated them, wishing and praying for many years for them to be gone, it would seem strange and very unnatural that now living in freedom, one would choose to willfully sin.

However, during this breakthrough, there does seem to be a transitional phase of accepting and truly believing the fact that the sinful inclinations and lusts of the heart are dead. For, the mind may still have a recollection of certain affixed emotional memory ties to the previous pleasures of sin. However, to do those sins no longer brings the same pleasure as before. So, there is a transition of reframing one’s mind to this new reality and experience. Past sinful habits also need to be put away and there can be a process of putting those habits off, recognizing one’s freedom in Christ, recognizing and believing that those sinful habits do not bring worthwhile pleasure anymore and need to be done away with for the glory and pleasure of God. Though the sinful inclinations of the heart are dead, the fleshly inclinations of the body need to be fully squashed as there may be a remnant of life. The mind also needs to be fully renewed in this new state of freedom so that it fully believes it is free, the past pleasures of sin are no longer worthwhile, and to accept this new level of consecration to God as the new normal. Regarding the bodily inclinations for the pleasures of sin, it is the process described by Paul when he exhorts his readers, “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:22-24).

In Colossians 3, Paul also speaks in a similar way where it is this putting off or putting aside the former deeds of the body, the former habits. It’s like this imagery of taking off dirty clothes to put on clean clothes. Or rather, to take off the outer soiled clothes so that the clean clothes underneath are revealed and unhindered. Though, once freedom has been obtained through God’s peace, and there is this putting off of old habits, those habits should then be gone. This shouldn’t be a lifelong process to put off old habits. There should be rapid progress from this point of God’s rest. For, without the sinful inclinations of the heart, every habit can be easily put off and once they are off and the body is given no provision to its desire, then there will not be any alive inclinations to pull you back so that these habits continue to stay off. Therefore, I find then that in the beginning state of God’s rest, the heart has been purified from evil and what remains is the renewing of the mind and putting off old habits of the body. But as I said, these two things should progress rapidly at that stage.

What remains after the renewing of the mind and putting off of old habits is simply the continuation of walking by faith and walking by the Spirit, where our obedience to God originates from faith and is directed by the Spirit. We continually grow into the image of Christ in this manner from one level of glory to another. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, or directs us in a particular action, then we yield and obey. We continually by faith and the Spirit, put out from ourselves unintentional sins and remaining impurities of imperfections. We can say with Paul, “I am conscious of nothing against myself” (1 Cor 4:4). And, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (Acts 24:16). And, our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience so that we don’t live with sin-consciousness (Heb 10:2, 22). We live by faith in God’s love rather than in guilt and the condemnation of the law. The Bible is meant to renew our minds in the truth, bolster faith, impart wisdom, and point us to the love and goodness of God so that we can love and praise God. The laws, instructions, commandments, and exhortations written in the Bible are there to inform the conscience so that the Holy Spirit can empower and direct us in whichever particular command of action that He is impelling us to do at the time because we are now under the law of the Spirit (Ro 8:2-4; Gal 5:18). Therefore, it is not as though we are sinning because we are not doing every single good deed that we can possibly do with every single second of our lives. If you think that way, you need to die to that way of thinking because trying to live that way is living by self-effort rather than Spirit-effort and it is the way of man-made religion. God hasn’t called you to do a million things all at once, He has called you to have a relationship with Him and take upon His yoke which is easy and light and where His commandments are not burdensome (Mt 11:30; 1 Jn 5:3). So, if His commandments are burdensome to you, then you are doing or thinking something wrong. Even the Old Testament saints loved God’s law (see Psalm 119). How much more then shall we be glad to have and obey God’s commands, instructions, and Word? They were written for our benefit and to show us the way of life so that we may truly be happy and have joy. They were not written to oppress us.

Unfortunately, many Christians will never reach Christian perfection because they are too much in love and too comfortable with their filthy language, addictions, complaining, selfishness, anger, gossip, lies, and dishonest business practices that they do not treat these things as their enemies but live with them as friends and make accommodations for these sins to be comfortable within them. They continually make excuses for their sin rather than kicking it out of the house at its first uprising. But what they should be doing is obeying Jesus, following after Him by taking up their crosses to put their flesh to death. All the distractions and pleasures of Egypt are constantly on their mind so that they do not live the cross life fully dedicated and so these people will never enter into the promised land that God has prepared for them. Rather, they will wander around in the wilderness in this life and will die in the wilderness just like the Israelites. But if you don’t want that to be you, fight against your sin to put it to death and pursue faith in God.

If you think you’ve been fighting hard against your sin, think again. You have not yet reached to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin (Heb 12:4). Consider Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendego (Daniel 3). They didn’t just bow down to the idol that Nebuchadnezzar lifted up by saying to themselves, “it’s not that big of a deal, God knows my heart that I’m not actually worshipping this thing. I’m just moving my body to bend the knee.” No, they didn’t do that, they didn’t make excuses or treat sin less than what it was—rebellion to God and idolatry which God hates. But they went to the edge of death in their striving against sin. Yet God rescued them from the flaming furnace so that they did not die. Yet, they were ready to die in striving against sin, even before Jesus came to this earth to show us the way of taking up our crosses to follow after Him, of which, these three men had no great example to follow. How much more then should we strive against sin, having Jesus as our great example, even if it might cost us greatly? For what reward on this earth can compare to the peace of God and a heaven which invades the soul?

In the previous article I wrote, in part 1 of sanctification, I distinguished how in the Bible that there is a place of immaturity and carnality in a believer’s life. However, this isn’t a fixed state or the identity of those believers. Therefore, it would not be the most proper language to say that these are carnal Christians or immature believers (nouns) but it would be more proper to say that they are Christians who are acting carnally or immaturely (verbs). In this way, they are not sinners (identity) but Christians who are sinning (a behavioral or action problem). The way I explained those categories of immaturity and Christian maturity, is probably not the way Wesleyans would explain it but I did it that way to convince those who could not be convinced otherwise except for biblical language. Some might see Christian perfection though as a higher form of the Christian life; however, I do not think that would be an accurate understanding. Christian perfection ought to be the normal standard of Christian living and for anyone who does not reach that standard is simply living beneath their privileges and are not accessing all the grace available to them through the Spirit of Christ’s life within them.

Because of the present condition of the church, I am undecided on whether to use these terms maturity and immaturity as it can come across as either belittling or condescending. However, that is certainly not my intent. I’m just trying to use biblical language here. However, I would prefer to use the terms of God’s peace and God’s rest and the Christ life vs. the works and strivings of the flesh and the way of the natural man. It is the crucified life vs. the crucifying life. It is living in the victory of full faith vs. living in doubt or partial faith.

I previously mentioned different books in the Bible that largely speak to an audience that hasn’t entered into God’s rest yet like Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and parts of Romans. However, the book of 1 John could be seen as a group of believers that had entered into God’s rest and were living very victoriously over sin. The Wesleyans would acknowledge this fact about that book and say that it makes much more sense when you read it in the light of understanding the doctrine of Christian perfection. Consider the fact that 1 John was written not as a letter of exhortation to correct a bunch of bad behavior. Rather, it was written as a letter of encouragement so that they would have their joy to be full and nothing would shake their assurance. John even praises them for their obedience in following the commands of Jesus and overcoming the evil one (1 Jn 2:12-14). That is definitely a big contrast in audience if you compare it to something like 1 Corinthians who had all kinds of fleshly problems in that church.

When it comes to the life of faith and the life of self-denial to strive to enter into God’s rest, I would theorize that it probably works this way: Imagine two diagonal lines rising up towards each other. One line is faith, hope, and trust, and the other line is surrender, self-denial, and love. But we’ll just call them faith and love. Both lines point towards the direction of each other and where they intersect is where God’s rest is found. Both are necessary to attain God’s rest—you cannot have one without the other. However, the angle and strength of one may compensate for the lack of the other. In other words, you may live a life of great surrender, love, and self-denial, and this may make up for where your faith lacks. However, a degree of faith is necessary nonetheless. Alternatively, your faith may be very strong and by that strong faith, it can make up for where you lack in love and the crucifying of the flesh. However, in my theoretical opinion, I would put more stock in faith rather than in surrender. You could seek to be yielded to God in every single minutia of life but without enough faith, you will not attain God’s rest. You may even be able to modify your behavior to stop your besetting sins and think that you’ll enter God’s rest at that point. But no, faith is still necessary. This is the whole purpose of the articles I write on this website, to strengthen people’s faith in God’s love and goodness so that faith can overcome the evil heart by the purging away of the darkness by God’s cleansing love. Besides the lines of faith and love, there is another line. This is the line of the filling of the Holy Spirit. This line is not a solid line like the others but a dotted line. It is a line which supports the other two to give them more vigor. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a means of grace and all His activities which produce love, joy, peace, fire, conviction, prompting, unction, spiritual gifts, etc., enable the believer to crucify the flesh more easily.

However, it is possible to crucify the flesh without any of these means of grace, even in a dark night of the soul, as I myself have done through faith and many years of self-denial which I started when I was about eighteen years old and now, I am thirty-three years old. That’s fifteen years of carrying my cross fighting past church hurt, false accusations, misunderstandings, bitterness, unforgiveness, pietism, a legalistic spirit, false doctrines that led to the oppressing of my mind, besetting sins, isolation, selfishness, unanswered prayers, God’s silence, not feeling the Holy Spirit or God’s presence, feeling numb and ashamed and unspiritual, doubting God, backsliding, giving up on myself, extreme frustrations at work, many things I could have “justifiably” complained about and said they were “unfair”, people who treated me terribly, the negative influence of worldly people, and many more obstacles to which my faith had to overcome and I had to deny myself. But after all those challenges, I have finally entered into God’s rest and have ceased from my striving. It is perhaps a possibility that all those things were necessary for me to face and overcome to break down my pride, self-reliance, self-effort, and all my own problem-solving solutions to come to the end of myself so that this flesh would be crucified. But it was faith in God’s love that delivered the fatal blow.

Of all the views presented in the book, Five Views on Sanctification, the Wesleyan perspective is the only one that believes Christians can become truly free from the sinful inclinations. But by the term, sinful inclinations, this does not just mean the tendency to sin. It means that those inclinations of desiring to sin are dead within and therefore will not produce any willful sin. It isn’t a tug-of-war anymore. Though, of course, with free-will, it is still possible to willfully sin. In the next few articles, we will take a deeper look into some biblical theology on sanctification in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 John, and the spiritual condition of those churches. After that, we’ll move on to the Pentecostal perspective of sanctification.

Here are some other related articles to check out:

Piety or Pietism?

Romans 7 is Not What You Think

How to Walk by Faith

Also, check out Dan Mohler on YouTube