Before I turn to the sermons for the week, I am curious about plenty of Wesley’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, and would like to touch on that a bit first. I am interested to hear what you think about Wesley’s explanation of the Holy Spirit’s work in conviction and repentance. According to Collins, the Holy Spirit plays a leading role in the process of repentance, leading the yet to be justified sinner toward conviction, and then continuing in illumination and teaching (p123). The Spirit plays this vital role in a person coming to repentance and justification. However, once the sinner has been brought to repentance, the Holy Spirit now sets to a different work of conviction, this time not of actual sin but of inbred sin. This is a second work of the Spirit, which is a brand of convincing grace Wesley calls ‘evangelical repentance.’ I don’t think I disagree with what Wesley is saying here, but for some reason I keep coming back to it. Something doesn’t sit right with me here. Perhaps I have not thought enough about this particular understanding of sin and repentance, but I think what is getting me stuck is this idea that repentance and sin are different on either side of justification (except for that obvious part of the before and after sin changing from unforgiven to forgiven). But, this idea that we repent differently before and after we are justified is interesting, and then out of that difference comes these dual roles of the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that convicting people of sin would be the same on either side of justification, so how is the Holy Spirit engaged in two distinct facets of conviction and repentance? I think what I really want to understand is the scriptural backing for this. Is there any, or is this an idea Wesley conveys in order to make other pieces of his theology fit together more coherently? The only component that Collins sites as different between these two difference works of the Holy Spirit is the presence of the moral law in the evangelical repentance, where the use of the law is absent in conviction before justification. Where does this whole idea come from? Any thoughts?

Now to the sermons. I have to admit that I am struggling to find things I really need to dig into this week with Wesley. I feel like we are getting such a good grasp on the themes Wesley seeks to employ sermon after sermon, and thus it is becoming difficult to find a new idea he is exposing that I just need to settle into a bit longer.

The most difficult portion of our reading for this week came in A Caution Against Bigotry. At the very outset of the sermon, Wesley seeks to explain first the work of the devil before then moving on to how we seek to cast out devils. Beginning on p288, he discusses the dominion the devil has over the world. He claims that the devil has absolute dominion over the world, and cites Paul as describing the devil as ‘the god of this world,’ due to the devil’s uncontrolled power over worldly men. I am willing to concede that the devil exists, clearly works in this world, and has power over people. I am not debating the existence or works of the devil here. However, to say that the devil has power that is uncontrolled or has dominion over the world not only seems to overinflate the power of the devil, but also appears to seriously limit the power of God. Wesley claims that those who are not of God live and move in the evil one, in the same way those who are of God live and move in God. What are your thoughts on this? To eliminate the possibility of God’s working or dwelling in people who are of this world is a difficult sell for me. Then, to go so far as to claim that the devil first has a godly status, and second is in any way uncontrolled, this takes so much away from God. Sure, it eliminates those pesky questions of ‘where is God in pain or evil or natural disaster or tragedy’ etc. And as much as those questions are unanswerable, shouldn’t we have to wrestle with those? Isn’t there benefit to trying to find God in our tragedy and sadness? If God isn’t there, I’m not sure I want to be there.