John Wesley on Assurance of Salvation
Assurance of salvation is a vital topic for anyone who desires to be with Christ in eternity. A young man once asked Jesus, “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16). No matter what people might think today, Jesus taught there was an eternal future for everyone in either heaven or hell (e.g., Matt. 25:46). While scripture clearly teaches that salvation requires a person to repent and believe in Christ for salvation (Mk. 1:15, Jn. 3:16), the question of assurance still remains – how can I know that I am saved?
We cannot just base it on a profession, our church attendance, our good deeds, or some other aspect of ourselves. For we are sinners and can be deceived by our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9).
So, how does one know they are saved?
John Wesley on Assurance
The Evangelical Revival of the 18th century was sparked by the desire to have a confident assurance of salvation. This was what John Wesley received at his now famous Aldersgate conversion on May 24, 1738:
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
What Wesley experienced that evening he proclaimed to the masses — that God bears witness to a person’s salvation when they trust in Christ alone. He called it the “witness of the Spirit,” wherein the Holy Spirit testifies directly & indirectly to a person in their heart of God’s forgiveness and new birth in Christ.
In the 1746 sermon, The Witness of the Spirit, Wesley explained in detail how these two witnesses function. He based both of these witnesses on Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Wesley understood the preposition “with” to mean there are actually two witnesses, the Holy Spirit and our own spirit.
The testimony of the Holy Spirit he defined as an “inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God directly ‘witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God’; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God” (I.7). This is what Wesley experienced at his Aldersgate conversion when his heart was “strangely warmed.” This witness can be felt immediately upon believing in Christ. There is no need to wait, for the Spirit testifies directly to the person’s heart.
The testimony of our own spirit was defined as the immediate awareness a person has of the change which God has work in their life. They begin to feel the love of God in their heart. They sense they are now alive to God and have a relationship with him. They see the work of God in their lives, called the fruit of the Spirit. They see the marks of a Christian in the bible and can testify that these are real in their life. Wesley describes this aspect of assurance in sections I:2-6 of the sermon. Wesley considered this testimony an indirect witness of the Spirit, because the assurance comes through the fruits of the Spirit’s work (whereas the direct witness is immediate to the heart).
In the sermon Wesley further taught that a clear assurance of salvation in Christ is vital to the Christian life. It is essential to having confidence to wage spiritual warfare, to grow in the faith, to overcome sin, and to persevere in obedience and holy living.
Wesley’s Sermons on Assurance
Wesley published three sermons on assurance over his career, though the topic is discussed in other places as well. Two sermons – The Witness of the Spirit I and The Witness of Our Own Spirit – were published in 1746, as part of his first collection of sermons. This collection focused on themes found in his evangelistic preaching over the prior 8 years. Then, 21 years later Wesley published a second sermon, titled The Witness of the Spirit II (1767). By comparing the first sermon on the Spirit’s witness to this second sermon we see that over the period of two decades Wesley’s views did not materially change, but how he expressed it did. In the second sermon he quote from the first one to define the Spirit’s direct witness, yet there is more of an emphasis on the love of God in the second sermon. Altogether, these three sermons contain Wesley’s full thoughts on the subject.
Here are Wesley’s three sermons:
The Witness of the Spirit I
The Witness of the Spirit II
The Witness of Our Own Spirit
Studies on Wesley’s Theology of Assurance
If you are interested in further study, check out the following,
Joseph Cunningham, John Wesley’s Pneumatology (2014).
Mark Olson, Wesley and Aldersgate (2019).
Ken Collins, The Theology of John Wesley (2007).
[This post was taken from the Featured Monthly Resources Page on Mark K. Olson’s website.]
