The Nature of Christian Perfection Part 4

This is the final portion of this reading of the nature of Christian Perfection according to the Rev. John Wesley. Please read the first 3 parts before reading this conclusion. 

"Well, but what more than this can be implied in entire sanctification? It does not imply any new kind of holiness: let no man imagine this. From the moment we are justified till we give up our spirits to God, love is the fulfilling of the law, of the whole evangelical law, which took place of the Adamic law when the first promise of 'the seed of the woman' was made. Love is the sum of Christian sancti­fication; it is the one kind of holiness which is found only in various degrees, in the believers who are distinguished by St John into 'little children, young men, and fathers.' The difference between one and the other properly lies in the degree of love. And herein there is as great a differ­ence in the spiritual, as in the natural sense, between fathers, young men, and babes."—

Sermons, vol. ii. p. 221.

 

"And all this, with abundantly more than this, is con­tained in that single expression, 'the loving God with all our heart, and serving Him with all our strength.' Nor did I ever say or mean any more by perfection, than thus loving and serving God. But I dare not say less than this; for it might be attended with worse consequences than you seem to be aware of. If there be a mistake, it is far more dan­gerous on the one side than on the other. If I set the mark too high, I drive men into needless fears; if you set it too low, you drive them into hell fire."—

Works, vol. vi. p. 535.

 

"Thus you experience, that He whose name is called jesus, does not bear that name in vain; that He does, in fact, 'save His people from their sins;' the root, as well as the branches. And this salvation from sin, from all sin, is another description of perfection, though indeed it expresses only the least, the lowest branch of it, only the negative part of the great salvation."—

Sermons, vol. ii. p. 170.

 

"But surely we cannot be saved from sin, while we dwell in a sinful body" A sinful body? I pray observe, how deeply ambiguous, how equivocal, this expression is! But there is no authority for it in Scripture: the word, sinful body, is never found there. And as it is totally unscriptural, so it is palpably absurd. For no body, or matter of any kind, can be sinful; spirits alone are capable of sin. Pray in what part of the body should sin lodge? It cannot lodge in the skin, nor in the muscles, or nerves, or veins, or arteries; it cannot be in the bones any more than in the hair or nails. Only the soul can be the seat of sin."—Sermons, vol. ii. p. 172.

 

It will be noticed in these expositions and statements of Mr. Wesley, given during forty years of his ministry, that he used the terms "perfection," "Christian perfec­tion," "sanctification," "entire sanctification," "perfect love," and "holiness," interchangeably, and as synonymous; implying the same gracious state of deliverance from all sin, and love to God with all the heart.