The Scripture Way of Salvation

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. 2 TIMOTHY 1:9

If a reader wanted to read only one sermon of Wesley’s, this might be the one to choose. The Scripture Way of Salvation, published in 1765, is his mature summary of the whole Christian life, from the first dawn of grace to perfect love, and it is written with a clarity that makes it one of the finest short pieces of theology in English. It also shows how Wesley held together two things that are often set against each other: that salvation is entirely by faith, and that it is a life of growth in holiness.

Plain and simple

Wesley begins by noting how complicated religion has often been made to seem, and how plain and simple the genuine religion of Jesus Christ is when taken as Scripture describes it. The end it proposes is salvation; the means, faith. These two little words, he says, “include the substance of all the Bible, the marrow, as it were, of the whole Scripture.” So he asks three questions. What is salvation? What is the faith by which we are saved? And how are we saved by it?

Salvation is present

First, salvation is not what is often meant by that word, going to heaven. It is not a blessing on the other side of death. It is a present thing, a blessing which we are now in possession of. Taken in its widest sense, it includes everything God does in the soul from the first dawning of grace until it is consummated in glory: all the work of preventing grace, all the drawings of the Father and the convictions of the Spirit.

But in the narrower sense of the text, salvation consists of two general parts: justification and sanctification.

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. ROMANS 6:22

Justification, he says, is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins and our acceptance with God, procured by the blood and righteousness of Christ. Its immediate effects are the peace of God and a rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

And at the same moment that we are justified, sanctification begins. We are born again, born from above; there is a real as well as a relative change. We feel the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, producing love to all mankind and expelling the love of the world, together with pride, anger and self-will.

Growth, and the goal

Then Wesley describes, with great realism, what follows. The new believer thinks sin is gone, and soon finds it only stunned. From the time of the new birth, he says, the gradual work of sanctification takes place. By the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God. We go on from grace to grace, abstaining from evil, zealous of good works, walking in all God’s ordinances, taking up our cross daily.

It is thus, Wesley says, that we wait for entire sanctification, a full salvation from all our sins. And he defines its heart in a sentence that deserves to be remembered: perfection “means perfect love. It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.”

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16–18

What faith is

Second, Wesley asks what faith is. In general, it is, as the writer to the Hebrews says, the evidence of things not seen: a divine evidence and conviction of the invisible things of God, a spiritual sight given by the Holy Spirit. In a more particular sense, it is a divine evidence and conviction not only that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, but also that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. HEBREWS 11:1

The only condition

Third, how are we saved by faith? Here Wesley makes his central claim. “Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of justification.” No one is justified without faith, and everyone who believes is justified, whatever else he has or has not.

But does not God command repentance and its fruits too? Yes, Wesley answers, and they are necessary in some sense. But not in the same sense or degree as faith. The fruits of repentance are needed only if there is time and opportunity; the thief on the cross was justified without them. And repentance is needed only remotely, as a step toward faith, whereas faith is immediately necessary.

Then the surprise. Exactly as we are justified by faith, Wesley says, so we are sanctified by faith. His opponents had accused him for twenty-five years of teaching that we are sanctified by works. He had always said the opposite. “Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of sanctification, exactly as it is of justification.”

The place of works

Does this make works unnecessary? Not at all. Repentance and good works are necessary to sanctification in the same qualified way that repentance and its fruits are necessary to justification: they are the way in which God has appointed His children to wait for full salvation. And Wesley names them. First, works of piety: public, family and private prayer; the Lord’s Supper; searching the Scriptures by hearing, reading and meditating; and fasting as health allows. Second, works of mercy: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, instructing the ignorant, comforting the feeble-minded. The believer who wilfully neglects them cannot expect to grow in grace or even to keep what he has received.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. GALATIANS 6:9

Expect it now

The sermon ends in a rising appeal. Does God work this great work gradually or instantaneously? It may be gradual in some, Wesley says, but it is desirable that it be instantaneous, and he believes God generally does it so. Therefore look for it every moment. And here is his test for whether you seek it by faith or by works: if by works, you want something done first; you think you must first be or do this or that. If by faith, you may expect it as you are, and expect it now. There is an inseparable connection, he says, between three points: “expect it by faith; expect it as you are; and expect it now!”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 CORINTHIANS 6:2

Where to read with care

Wesley’s confidence that God generally sanctifies believers instantaneously is the part of this sermon most open to question. Scripture speaks of both decisive moments and long growth, and many mature Christians have known far more of the second than the first. Wesley himself allowed that the work may be gradual in some, and his followers who made an instantaneous second blessing the test of true holiness went beyond him. Read the sermon for its main lines: salvation is present, it includes both pardon and renewal, it comes by faith alone, and it bears fruit in works of piety and mercy. On those lines Wesley is on firm ground.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Wesley says salvation is a present thing. How does that change the way you think about your life this week?

2. Write down his two parts of salvation, justification and sanctification, and thank God for each in your own words.

3. Are you seeking holiness by works, waiting until you are better, or by faith, trusting Christ as you are? Be honest.

4. Choose one work of piety and one work of mercy from his lists that you have neglected, and do each this week.

5. Read The Scripture Way of Salvation in the Ochorus library in one sitting.

A PRAYER

Lord, You have made salvation plain: salvation the end, and faith the means. Thank You that it is a present gift and not only a future hope.

Thank You for pardon through the blood of Christ, and for the new life of Your Spirit that began in the same moment.

Let me go on from grace to grace, in prayer and Scripture and at Your table, and in works of mercy to all.

And let me look to You by faith, as I am, and now, for the love that fills the heart and casts out sin. Amen.