It is estimated that John Wesley traveled around 250,000 miles and preached over 40,000 sermons in a span of 66 years. This series by Mark K. Olson, taken from his website Wesleyscholar.com, includes summaries and links to some of Wesley’s most famous and important sermons. This tenth installment is on Wesley’s sermon “The Righteousness of Faith” from 1746.
The Righteousness of Faith
Text: Romans 10:5-8
Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim…
A central feature of English Reformed/Puritan theology in the 17th and 18th centuries was covenant theology. The main idea is that there are two covenants in regard to salvation – a covenant of works and a covenant of grace. The first was instituted to Adam in his innocence; the second was enacted after his fall into sin. Covenant theology was also prevalent in Anglican theology at the time, since the Established Church had been influenced by Reformed theology since its separation from Catholicism in the 16th century.
John Wesley inherited his covenant theology from his parents, Samuel and Susanna Wesley, who were raised in the Puritan tradition and conformed to the Established Church as young adults. Wesley was also schooled in covenant theology through his Anglican education, first at Charterhouse and then at Oxford. Wesley’s covenant theology reflects the basic points of his parents’ views and that of mainstream Anglican theology in the 18th century.
In his extant writings from his early period (1725-38), Wesley does not discuss the subject directly. The closest he comes to discussing it is in his devotional and sacramental writings. However, when he became an evangelical Christian in 1738 covenant theology came to the forefront in his proclamations of gospel salvation.
Background
The Righteousness of Faith was published in 1746 as part of a series of twelve sermons, titled Sermons on Several Occasions. The series would evolve into 4 volumes and serve as the foundation for Methodist doctrine and teaching. The first volume encapsulates the evangelistic preaching of Wesley beginning in 1738. The Righteousness of Faith is number six in the volume and immediately follows Wesley’s sermon on gospel justification (which includes features of his covenant theology in the introduction). The two sermons thematically fit together.
While the first four sermons of volume 1 were preached at Oxford between 1738 and 1744 – and therefore have a certain priority for Wesley – while the eight sermons that follow spell out his evangelical principles. The Righteousness of Faith is critical for it spells out how Wesley understood that our salvation in Christ fits into God’s eternal purposes.
Righteousness by the Law or by Faith
Here is the sermon: The Righteousness of Faith 1740
In the sermon we learn that covenant theology serves as the framework for Wesley’s doctrine of justification and his soteriology in general. His explanation of the two covenants (works and grace) matches that of his parents and mirrors the viewpoint of Anglican Bishop William Beveridge in his influential work Private Thoughts Upon Religion and the Christian Life, which Wesley read at Oxford.
For a short summary of Wesley’s views, he holds that Adam in his innocence was under a covenant of works, since he was able to live perfectly before God and thereby earn eternal life. But with his transgression Adam and his posterity fell under the sentence of death and became enslaved to sin. God then instituted the covenant of grace – beginning with the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 – to redeem the human race from sin and death.
In contrast to a standard view in Puritan theology, Wesley does not conflate the covenant of works with the Mosaic Law. Instead, the Mosaic Covenant was a temporary means in God’s redemptive purposes until Christ would come. It was never meant to serve as a means for earning salvation by the “righteousness of the law.” But this where the Jews erred and many today err when they trust in their own goodness to save them.
Wesley contrasts the covenants of works and grace by pointing out that (1) covenant of works was intended for someone who is already holy and happy in God, whereas the covenant of grace assumes one is now unholy and unhappy in sin; (2) the former requires Adam and us to merit salvation while the latter looks to Christ to earn our salvation; (3) the first covenant requires “unsinning obedience” but the latter looks to God’s mercy and pardon to recover a right standing before God.
There is one area in which Wesley’s covenant theology did change due to his evangelical conversion at Aldersgate. It concerns how he understood the “‘righteousness which is of faith’” (1.11). Whereas before the Early Wesley held a sacramental view that identified this “righteousness” with our inward renewal in the imago Dei, Wesley now states it refers to the “condition of salvation” that does not “require us to do anything . . . but only to believe in him” who justifies the “ungodly” and “imputes his faith to him for righteousness” (I.7-8).
In Wesley’s “new gospel” of salvation by faith in Christ, righteousness begins as a gift of divine grace purchased by Christ’s death as a “‘propitiation for our sins’” (I.13). Wesley defines propitiation as to “appease the wrath of God, or to avert the punishment we have justly deserved” (II.6). Thus, “Christ makes compensation and satisfies the justice of God precisely by standing in the place of sinful humanity . . . and in the end by bearing the penalty, the very wages of sin” (Collins, Theology of John Wesley, 102). It is clear in this sermon (and other writings) that Wesley held to an Arminian version of penal substitution regarding the atonement.
Summary
In the Righteousness of Faith Wesley clarifies that since the fall of Adam no one can be saved by merit. The covenant of works – righteousness by the law – ended with Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden. Since then salvation is only through the work of Christ in his death and resurrection. And righteousness – a right standing before God – is a gift of pure grace. The sole condition is faith by which one trusts in the work of Christ and receives his indwelling Spirit to work righteousness in their daily lives (called sanctification).
Here is the sermon: The Righteousness of Faith 1740
