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 eighth installment is on Wesley’s sermon “The Great Privilege of Those Born of God” from 1748.
Text: 1 John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not sin. (KJV)
Wesley was a committed Arminian his entire life. He derived it from his parents – Samuel and Susanna – and his High Church Anglicanism. The Anglican Articles of Religion were formulated in the 16th century and included articles that upon their face supported both a Reformed and Arminian interpretation (e.g. see Art. 17 & 31). By the early 1600s both views developed in the Established Church with the Puritans championing Reformed views and the High Church wing supporting the Arminian position. With the return of the monarchy is 1760 and the expulsion of the Puritans a couple years later, the Arminian perspective became dominant in the Church of England. There is no solid evidence that the early Wesley read Arminius, so he derived his Arminianism primarily from his English tradition.
As a lifelong Arminian, Wesley naturally opposed the Calvinist doctrines of absolute predestination, irresistible grace, limited atonement, and eternal security. Instead, he advocated conditional predestination (based on God’s foreknowledge), general atonement, resistible grace, and the possibility of apostasy and backsliding. Still, he was unswerving in his belief in original sin and in the universal gift of prevenient grace that includes the gracious gifting of free response to divine truth (Wesley rejected the notion of a natural free will in spiritual matters).
After his spiritual awakening in 1725, Wesley started to define salvation in relation to sin and holiness. This became a permanent pattern in his explications of gospel salvation (for example, see Salvation by Faith). A key verse that Wesley appealed to was 1 John 3:9. This verse captures succinctly Wesley’s belief that the new birth radically changes how one lives their life in relation to God and Christ. Since nominal faith was rampant in British society, this became the great privilege that Wesley stressed in his teaching to believers.
Sermon text: Great Privilege of Those Born of God
Background
The Great Privilege of those Born of God is the third sermon in the second series of Sermons on Several Occasions, published in 1748. After publishing a dozen sermons that expressed his evangelical message of salvation, in the second series Wesley turned to the subject of living out the Christian life. He knew that young converts needed to be instructed in their privileges in the gospel and also warned of the repercussions of not growing in the faith. This sermon answers both needs. It spells out the great privilege of freedom from the enslaving rule of sin and warns of the possibility of becoming enslaved again.
New Life in Christ
The sermon opens with Wesley distinguishing between justification and regeneration. Justification is a relative change while the new birth involves real change. In justification our standing before God changes from condemnation to acceptance. Our guilt is forgiven and the slate is wiped clean. Regeneration, on the other hand, involves a change of heart and life with the Holy Spirit transforming our “inmost souls.” This inward regeneration sets the new believer free from the power of sin. By “power” Wesley meant sin’s rule that enslaves (see Rom. 6).
Wesley likened our spiritual birth to physical birth. When a baby is born their physical senses come alive to the world around them. So, in a similar way a person’s spiritual senses come alive to God in the new birth. They now see, hear, feel, and taste God’s saving presence in their lives. Just as our physical life is kept alive by breathing, in a similar manner our spiritual life is maintained by “spiritual respiration” – by breathing in God’s presence and life and exhaling back to him our worship, devotion, and service. Also, the new believer “clearly perceives the pardoning love of God” and his “exceeding great and precious promises.”
Freedom from Sin
The central promise that Wesley’s wants new converts to learn in this sermon is that they do not have to sin. They are now delivered from sin’s enslaving power. Since Wesley believed in two decisive moments of victory over sin – new birth and perfect love – he now elaborates on the freedom that is available to every child of God as soon as they are born again: freedom from outward sin. Later, at Christian perfection, is when inward sin is overcome. Outward sin is defined as an actual voluntary transgression of God’s revealed will in his word. It is to knowingly and voluntarily sin. In essence, Wesley is teaching that a believer can live with a clean conscience (just as Paul claimed before the Sanhedrin in Acts). There is no reason for a Christian to continue to live enslaved to sin.
Of course, since Wesley taught there is a deeper deliverance from sin, meaning from inward sin, the early Methodists did not conclude that Wesley’s definition of outward sin is his full doctrine of sin (a mistake made by many). For Wesley taught there is also original sin, involuntary transgressions (that continue through this life), and inward sin (which is overcome by perfect love).
Possibility of Apostasy
Even with these great privileges – justification, new birth, indwelling Spirit, freedom from sin’s rule – the possibility of backsliding remains. Wesley mentions several biblical heroes that committed outward sin – David, Barnabas, Peter – to warn his followers that falling back into outward sin is a real possibility. He therefore urged his readers (and us today) to maintain a solid walk with Christ.
Wesley then walks through the steps by which one falls into outward sin, and if not checked falls away from the faith. In his description of nine steps, it begins with temptation and resistance to the Spirit’s voice, and proceeds by inward sin in the heart to outward sin in one’s actions. He even warns that as “evil desires” gain dominance, a person’s spiritual life suffers and eventually dies out. Saving faith can become extinct in a person.
Wesley concludes with this important truth: “For it plainly appears God does not continue to act upon the soul unless the soul re-acts upon God.” Bottom line – Wesley considers salvation in relational terms. While our salvation is by grace, such grace is not irresistible nor coercive. Grace invites and empowers, but in the end a relationship built on love must have freedom.
Sermon text: Great Privilege of Those Born of God
