John Wesley's Prevenient Grace

John Wesley believed there were three dimensions of faith (preventing or prevenient grace, justifying grace and sanctifying or sanctification grace), called “The Way of Salvation”. Wesley believed all preachers should “preach in a way that included the whole gospel and justification and sanctification”. Wesley’s Soteriology, which is the theology of salvation, displays Wesley’s emphasis on grace. As United Methodist we acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, which is the divine love surrounding all of humanity. It is the idea that God was working in and for us before faith in Christ. We are led by prevenient grace to repentance, sorrow over sins, and the realization that we are unable to save ourselves. It is through this religious experience that souls are awakened to Christ and we begin to understand and know we need help. It is because of prevenient grace that my

It was love that lifted me”.

The Book of Discipline paragraph 102 states; while the grace of God is undivided, it precedes salvation as “prevenient grace”. We believe that God reaches out to believers with acceptance and pardoning us with love. Wesley suggests that we will have a change in heart under the prompting of grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As I look back over my life I realize God has indeed lifted me out of all my trials and tribulations. He was always there and because God gave me freedom to makes choices, I was able to repent and turn toward God and away from sin.
Through justification we are forgiven of sin and restored to God’s favor. We understand this as a process of new birth or regeneration (conversion experience). The experience that forgives sin does not rely on our good works, but on our repentance and the atonement provided by Christ. In our Wesleyan theology, Wesley believed that the new birth happened at Baptism for infants but for mature people it occurs simultaneously with justification in the moment a person