John Wesley and Faith

In Wesley's view, the Christian faith is fully reliant upon the blood of Christ, as a demonstration of trust in the worthiness of his life, death, and resurrection. It is an admission of a need to rest upon his breast as the sole means of atonement for sin. Sin manifests itself in the lives of individuals through guilt and the inability to overcome the power of that guilt. There is no mechanical means by which one can effect his or her own salvation apart from the saving grace of Christ.

Justification according to Wesley is God's free act of pardoning from sin, and from the guilt which is thereby acquired, in the past life of the believer, and the deliverance from the consequence (punishment) of sin, which is eternal damnation. Conditioned upon a profession of faith in the

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rtality most likely inhibits the attainment of total perfection until the instant just prior to immortality. Despite this, however, Wesley's concept of entire sanctification allows for the likelihood that through faith, alone, one can presently be released from all future bonds to sin. "Perfect love," "Christian perfection," and "sanctification" were all synonyms for "holiness" in Wesley's theology (Outler, 1984, p. 242). Faith alone (sola fide) and holy living, taken together, are the sole requisites for being perfected. Thus, Christian perfection must be obtainable in this life, and not just at the instant before death. Wesley believed that Methodism was fundamentally distinguishable from Roman Catholicism in that the Bible provides "the only and sufficient rule both of Christian faith and practice" (Langford, 1984, p. 13). The inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures is tacitly implied in this statement. Methodism could further be distinguished from other denominations in its disdain for peculiar actions, words, or customs; it would not adopt special dress or postures, nor would it abstain from marriage, or particular foods and beverages (pp. 13-14). Methodist theologians, preachers, and lay evangelists i
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