John Wesley's 'Methodist Theology Of Grace'

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DAY 11

Methodist Theology

Read: First Kings 12

John Wesley taught a theology of grace. He wrote about salvation and the disciplines taught as means of grace toward entire salvation. What is “entire salvation” about, as if you could be partially saved?

Well, I have never met a human being, who could give the ultimate reality of the entire understanding of God. I sense that Wesley is correct in his teaching that entire salvation comes in death. In other words, our journey is incomplete until we make it home. Allow me the joy of expressing this theology by comparing it to a baseball diamond. Being in New York, as well as being a Yankees’ fan, what I’m about to do is a departure for me, but to make my point and stay true to my Methodist roots, …show more content…

Justifying Grace is first base. (Some might argue that it should be 2nd base.)
Today some call God's justifying grace "conversion" or being "born again." When we experience God's justifying grace, we come into that new life in Christ. Wesley believed that people have freedom of choice. We are free to accept or reject God's justifying grace.
3. Regenerating Grace is second base. (Some might argue that it should be 1st base.)
The Wesleyan argument would be that there no regeneration before new birth, so that regeneration follows being born again. The strangeness in the warming of the heart is life transforming by which in dying with Christ, believers are regenerated unto the new life with Christ.
4. Sanctifying Grace is third base.
Wesley believed that, after we have accepted God's grace, we are to move on in God's sustaining grace toward perfection. Wesley believed the people could "fall from grace" or "backslide." We cannot just sit on our laurels, so to speak, and claim God's salvation and then do nothing. We are participants in what Wesley called "the means of grace" and continue to grow in Christian life.
5. Glorifying Grace is home plate. The goal is that in time, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians

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