Sermon 1: Salvation by Faith

"Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation."

Salvation. In my experience, it seems that the doctrine of salvation is one of the most debated and divisive doctrines in the Christian Church. John Wesley takes it head on without shame.

Do you receive salvation through faith alone or by your righteous works? Or, is it a complicated combination of the two?
Does an individual have the opportunity to choose to trust in Christ's atoning sacrifice or must they be chosen before creation as a recipient of God's grace through Christ?
Can you have confidence in your sure salvation or must you always be working to be righteous so not to lose the approval and grace of God.

In this sermon and other works by John Wesley he chooses the first option in each of these questions. He renounces salvation by works in saying, "for none can trust in the merits of Christ, till he has utterly renounced his own."

Faith. Faith is defined in "A Handbook of Theological Terms" by two different viewpoints. It is viewed as either an intellectual assent to the truth of the Biblical God (impersonal) or as a "basic orientation of the total person that is best described as trust, confidence, or loyalty" (personal).

John Wesley's view of faith is clearly defined in the following quote from the sermon:

"Christian faith is then, not only an assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ; recumbency (leaning) upon him as our atonement and our life, as given for us, and living in us; and, in consequence hereof, a closing with him, and cleaving to him, as our 'wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption' or, in one word, our salvation."

Sin. Any honest discussion of the doctrine of salvation should begin with a biblical view of the true need for salvation, the separation caused by the sinful nature of humans. John Wesley only spends two paragraphs on the subject of sin, but he uses those paragraphs well. He boldly says, "There is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can deserve the least thing at God's hand." He reminds us of Romans 3:23 saying that "(man's) heart is altogether corrupt and abominable; being 'come short of the glory of God,' the glorious righteousness at first impressed on his soul, after the image of his great creator."

Salvation by Faith. Paul is rather clear that he also supports salvation by faith in scriptures such as Romans 10:9-10 and Ephesians 2:8-9. However, Paul and James are emphatic on balancing saving faith, in Ephesians 2:10 and James 2:14-26 respectively, with a lifestyle of righteous works in response to the true reception of the free gift of grace.

Wesley jumps into a discussion of what faith is not. Faith is not the faith of a "heathen," because the heathen believes in a supernatural spirit or person(s), lives by their own moral code, and worships their god how they choose. Faith is also not the faith of a devil who believes in the true God yet willfully chooses to oppose Him and reject Him as Lord.

He asks, "What faith is it then through which we are saved?" Faith is a true disposition of the heart that trusts in "Christ and God through Christ" and "acknowledges the necessity and merit of his death, and the power of his resurrection." And this salvation is "the atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now believing on him."

Wesley builds on Scripture like Romans 8:15 to propose that we are saved from the guilt, fear, power, and (eternal) consequences of sin. Passages from 1 John remind us that in Christ a person is a new creation "born of God" and is no longer under the power of their sinful nature, proving that after salvation sin becomes a conscious choice of disobedience.

I will conclude with his strong conclusion. "Thou shalt march on, under the great Captain of thy salvation, 'conquering and to conquer,' until all thine enemies are destroyed, and 'death is swallowed up in victory.'"

March on,
Daniel