The Once and Future Wesleyan Movement by Jones Scott J.;

Author:Jones, Scott J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2016-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Wesley frequently emphasized that we are saved by grace through faith for good works, as pithily taught in Ephesians 2:8-10. Thus, for each of these stages it is appropriate to talk about how the grace of God is leading the individual to make progress toward the ultimate goal of entire sanctification. In one place, he summarized God’s work as “preventing, justifying or sanctifying grace.”7

Thus, when the UMC describes its mission as “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” it is proclaiming its role as a means of God’s grace. It affirms that all persons are valuable in God’s sight as creatures created in God’s own image. It also affirms that every human being is a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness and transforming power. The church then teaches that every person needs to repent, which means to turn his or her life Godward. Justification is the decision point where one decides to accept God’s offer of salvation and to become a disciple of Jesus. It is the identity point where one moves from being a seeker to a self-avowed Jesus-follower. Justification is normally accompanied by baptism (if not experienced previously) and church membership. The rest of one’s life is sanctification—growing by grace through faith to become a mature Christian. Such maturity involves giving one’s time, talents, and money to be used by God to transform the world.

Transformation of the world is multifaceted. Part of it means bringing the world to worship the one true God and God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. The hymn in Philippians 2 is still our prayer, that

at the name of Jesus everyone

in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

(Phil 2:10-11)

Such transformation should not be superficial, but to have all human beings become fully devoted followers of Jesus.

On our understanding as Wesleyans, such devotion means our hearts will be transformed and the world filled with love of God and love of neighbor. Hence the next two characteristics of the Wesleyan movement.

Preach Personal Holiness

In Wesley’s “The Character of a Methodist,” he emphasizes that a Methodist is someone who has “the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him”; one who “loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength” and who “accordingly loves his neighbour as himself; he loves every man as his own soul.” Wesley continues,

And the tree is known by its fruits. For as he loves God, “so he keeps his commandments.” Not only some, or most of them, but all, from the least to the greatest. He is not content to “keep the whole law, and offend in one point,” but has, in all points, “a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man.” Whatever God has forbidden he avoids; whatever God hath enjoined, he doth—and that whether it be little or great, hard or easy, joyous or grievous to the flesh.

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