Growing up in the Wesleyan Church, I was treated to a fair amount of discussion surrounding Wesley's views on sanctification. I heard all the objections, from the pragmatic to the theological. One of the most common objections that always comes up, in some form or another, is that entire sanctification sounds nice in some ways, but its just overly optimistic. Humans are not actually capable of achieving that which Wesley proposed.
In the past, I've always wanted to argue with that accusation from the standpoint of humanity. Sin and failure is not an essential part of what it means to be human. Otherwise, for instance, how could we call Jesus fully human and yet also say that he did not sin? I must confess that I sort of cringe inside whenever I hear the oft-repeated phrase "well, what you expect, I'm only human," or one of its many derivations. Sinfulness is not humanity's natural state, it is a disease, a perversity, with which we are affected.
What I realized in reading this week is two things. First, John Wesley is more optimistic, at least at times, than even I am willing to be. I am thinking particularly of his sermon "Marks of the New Birth" here. He fully expects that one of the marks of the new birth, of true conversion, is victory over sin. This is not even the highest mark, it is the most basic one! His language in this sermon (and elsewhere) is so optimistic at times that it is startling.
The second thing that I realized, however, is that his optimism is all centered on God's action and not human ability. I am thinking here primarily of the sermon "The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God." Wesley describes the life of faith like this: "a continual action of God upon the soul, and re-action of the soul upon God; an unceasing presence of God, the loving, pardoning God, manifested to the heart, and perceived by faith; and an unceasing return of love, praise, and prayer, offering up all... our body, soul, and spirit, to be an holy sacrifice, acceptable unto God in Christ Jesus." This is a beautiful picture, I think, of what Wesley means by sanctification. He does not have any faith in humanity to achieve holiness. What he does believe is that God, who is loving, gracious, and active, is able to overcome our weakness. Without negating the need for humanity to respond to God's action, he places the focus at every moment, in every right action, on the work of God within us. If Wesley is to be accused of over-optimism in the power of God, then I think I can accept that charge.
The question remains, though, how to account for and deal with sin in those who truly seem to be believers. At times, Wesley seems very harsh on this topic. In "The Great Privilege", Wesley talks about how a believer who sins must in some sense lose their faith before sin is even possible. This is a scary direction in which to go, because you run headlong into the issue of eschatological destiny. The question of who is "in" and who is "out" and how often you can flip between the two becomes pressing.
That is why I was surprised to see how Wesley dealt with the issue in "Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, IV." First, it was interesting to see the concessions Wesley made to human weakness. His point in the sermon, in part, is to suggest that Christians must be out among the world, doing good. He discusses at some length, however, the necessity of avoiding any real friendships with non-believers, since we would inevitably be drawn into sin. "It [friendship with non-believers] must necessarily expose him to abundance of dangers and snares, out of which he can have no reasonable hope of deliverance." This is a significant concession to human weakness for Wesley. Up to this point, I don't remember him ever acknowledging a situation in which a true believer would succumb to sin.
He goes on to discuss Hebrews 6:4 in relation to the salt that has lost its saltiness. He makes a sort of typical Wesley claim by saying that those who have been saved and then turn from the Lord's commandments are rightfully tossed aside. He then quotes the Hebrews 6 passage as further evidence of this phenomenon, but he is very careful to qualify his meaning. "The falling away... which is here spoke of... is an absolute, total apostasy. A believer may fall, and not fall away." Wesley here explicitly makes room for the possibility of a true believer sinning and yet not stepping outside the bounds of salvation. We see again a concession to human weakness.
I wonder if this was not a function of his continuing experience in ministry. I don't think Wesley lost his optimistic faith in the power of God, at least not at this point. He still believes that God is able to overcome our weakness, to impart grace in our lives in such a way that we are engaged in a never-ending cycle of God's gracious action and our own loving response. He seems more willing to make concessions for lapses, however, as we start reading later sermons. I'll be interested to see how he continues to develop.
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