This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to read John Wesley's sermon (85), On Working Out Your Own
Salvation. In that sermon there is a great section where Wesley talks about what he calls the two grand branches of salvation. Here is what he says:
[After God's "preventing grace"] . . . we experience the proper Christian salvation, whereby 'through grace' we 'are saved by faith', consisting of those two grand branches, justification and sanctification. By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin, and restored to the favour of God: by sanctification we are saved from the power and root of sin, and restored to the image of God. All experience, as well as Scripture, shows this salvation to be both instantaneous and gradual. It begins the moment we are justified . . .. It gradually increases from that moment . . . till in another instant the heart is cleansed from all sin, and filled with pure love to God and man. But even that love increases more and more, till we 'grow up in all things into him that is our head', 'till we attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ'.
Thoughts from a pastor who understands himself to be classically Wesleyan in theology and who embraces a Wesleyan/Anglican view of liturgy and the sacraments.
Monday, August 30, 2021
The Two Grand Branches of Salvation: Justification and Sanctification
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John Wesley
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