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 seventh installment is on Wesley’s sermon “Salvation by Faith” from 1738.
Salvation by Faith
This famous sermon of John Wesley has been labeled his “evangelical manifesto” (Albert Outler). Wesley always included it first in his publications of sermon collections, and for good reason. For Salvation by Faith enunciates in the clearest terms what he often called his “new gospel.”
Here is the sermon: Salvation by Faith
Background
The story of Wesley’s journey to find an assurance of salvation is well-known and does not need to be repeated here (see Wesley’s first journal). In early 1738 he returned from Georgia questioning whether he had ever truly been converted as a Christian. In early February he met the Moravian Peter Bohler, who would mentor both John and Charles in the evangelical experience of the new birth. At first, Wesley questioned the scriptural basis for Bohler’s gospel of instantaneous conversion by faith in Christ alone, bringing both an assurance of pardon (justification) and freedom from sin’s enslaving power (new birth). But by late April Wesley was convinced after hearing the testimonies of several people and reading the Book of Acts. He then began to seek after the gift of saving faith and received it on May 24, 1738, at a religious meeting in Aldersgate, London.
By the time of his evangelical conversion, Wesley had been preaching his “new gospel” of salvation by faith alone at several Anglican churches and received a negative response from the Anglican clergy. When his turn came up to preach once more at Oxford before the University on June 11th, Wesley took the opportunity to proclaim his new evangelical gospel of faith alone.
Contents
Kenneth Collins and Jason Vickers describe Salvation by Faith as “remarkable in many respects, due to its strong Reformation themes.” The sermon is organized into three sections that address: (1) the nature of saving faith, (2) the nature of the salvation which this faith brings, and (3) Wesley’s answers to objections to this new view of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Before we briefly look at the three sections, the introduction opens the subject by declaring that all of God’s blessings are from his free grace. And, if any sinner is to find favor with God it is only by the freeness of his divine grace.
Section 1: Wesley defines saving faith by contrasting it to three other degrees or kinds of faith. The most generic form of faith is that of a heathen, who believes in the existence of God and in his goodness and justice. The next level of faith is that of a demon. The demons know Jesus is the Son of God and that he is the Savior, but do not commit to him from the heart. Wesley saw this kind of belief to be mere intellectual faith. A person professes belief but their faith lacks any saving power in their life. The third level of faith is that which the disciples of Jesus had before the cross and Pentecost. They followed Jesus and even worked miracles, but their faith knew nothing of his death and resurrection and its power to transform their lives. This became the essence of saving faith – it is a “full reliance” and “trust” in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as “given for us” and “living in us,” producing a real transformation of life, called the new birth.
Section 2: After defining what saving faith is, Wesley explains what kind of salvation this faith brings into a person’s life. First, he stresses that it is a present salvation. That is, it is more than a salvation from hell but involves (1) deliverance from the guilt of all past sin, (2) freedom from all servile fear stemming from a sense of divine wrath, and (3) deliverance from the enslaving power or rule of sin experienced in the new birth (and declared by Paul in Romans 6:14, 17-18). So, for Wesley salvation by faith in Christ alone brings a solid assurance of justification and new birth.
Section 3: In answering objections, Wesley explains that this gospel of faith alone produces all holiness of heart and life by the inward working of the Spirit. He therefore rebutted the idea that salvation by faith alone does not excuse continued sinful living. To the contrary, our new birth in Christ regenerates the moral heart to love God and one’s neighbor. In other words, authentic faith produces a changed life and spiritual growth as its fruit.
Publication
Salvation by Faith was first published in London in the fall of 1738 and thereafter released numerous times as a single tract and in the sermon collections (first being in 1746).
Here are early editions:
Salvation by Faith 1st ed 1738
Salvation by Faith 6th ed 1743
Salvation by Faith 8th ed 1747
