Wesleyan Theology and the Doctrine of Salvation — Unit 5: Repentance and Justification by Faith

Key Verse

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define repentance and describe its parts, using Scripture.

2. Explain why Wesley taught that repentance is a gift of God and that fruits of repentance are, in a sense, necessary, though faith alone is the condition of justification.

3. Define justification as pardon and acceptance, and distinguish it from sanctification.

4. Explain what faith is, and why it is not a work.

5. Answer the main objections from Roman Catholic, James 2, antinomian and Reformed viewpoints, and apply the doctrine to a sinner who wants to be forgiven.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for Wesleyan students. It is conservative and evangelical. When it says "we," it means the churches that follow John Wesley's teaching. With this unit we move from the doctrines that lie behind salvation to the experience of salvation itself. Here we stand very close to our Reformed brothers and sisters, because both of us inherit the Reformation teaching that sinners are made right with God by faith alone. We state other views fairly and then answer.

The Great Turning

The preaching of Jesus began with a call: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Peter's first sermon at Pentecost closed with the same call: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). Paul told the Athenians that God "commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).

The two words, repent and believe, belong together. In Wesley's teaching, when grace has awakened a person (Unit 3), the sinner is brought to repentance, and faith then receives God's pardon. Unit 8 will draw the whole order together. In this unit we study the first two steps: repentance and justification by faith.

Repentance

What repentance is

The New Testament word for repentance, metanoia, means a change of mind. But the change reaches the whole person. Repentance has these parts.

Knowing our sin. The sinner sees himself as God sees him. David prayed, "Against You, You only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). Wesley taught that repentance begins with true self-knowledge: we see that we are guilty and that our hearts are sinful at the root.

Sorrow for sin. Paul writes, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted" (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is not only fear of punishment or shame before people. It is sorrow that we have wronged a holy and loving God.

Confession and turning. The prodigal son said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight" (Luke 15:21), and he went home. The tax collector in the temple "would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'" (Luke 18:13). Repentance is not only a feeling. It is a turning away from sin and toward God.

Fruits that fit repentance. John the Baptist called for "fruits worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:8), and Paul preached that people should "repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance" (Acts 26:20). Zacchaeus gave half of his goods to the poor and promised to repay anyone he had cheated four times over (Luke 19:8). Change of life shows that the change of heart is real.

Repentance is a gift

Can a sinner repent by his own power? No. After Peter told the household of Cornelius, the believers said, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life" (Acts 11:18). Paul told Timothy that God may grant opponents repentance (2 Timothy 2:25). This is prevenient grace at work. God draws, the conscience is awakened, and the sinner is enabled to turn. The sinner turns freely, but only because grace has made the turning possible.

Repentance and works

Here Wesley made a careful distinction. In his sermon "The Scripture Way of Salvation," he taught that repentance and the fruits that fit repentance are, in a certain sense, necessary before faith. If a man has time and opportunity, God does not expect forgiveness for a person who refuses to stop sinning and make things right. But Wesley was clear that repentance and its fruits do not earn forgiveness. Faith alone is the immediate condition for justification. Someone who has no time to do any works, like the thief on the cross, can still be saved by trusting Christ.

Repentance continues

Repentance does not belong only to the beginning. Wesley preached a sermon called "The Repentance of Believers." Believers who are justified still find sin that clings to them, and they repent of it daily. This is not a return to condemnation. It is the humility of a child who still needs the Father. We shall return to this in Course 3.

Justification

What justification is

Paul writes, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24). To justify is to declare righteous, to acquit. It is a word from the court of law. The Judge looks at a guilty person and says, "I pardon you, and I receive you as one who is right with Me."

Wesley's way of saying it was plain: justification is what God does for us, and sanctification is what God works in us. Justification changes our relationship to God. Sanctification changes our nature. In justification, our sins are forgiven. David described the blessing: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Romans 4:7). In justification, we are also accepted as God's children and the penalty of our sin is removed.

Wesley used the word "pardon" often, since he wanted the simplest and most human picture. A condemned prisoner who is set free by the king has been pardoned. He walks out of prison without a debt.

The ground of justification

On what basis can a holy God pardon a guilty sinner? The answer is Christ. We are "justified by His blood" (Romans 5:9). God set Christ forth "as a propitiation by His blood, through faith" (Romans 3:25). Paul says that for our sake God made Christ "to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The ground of justification is what Christ has done, not anything we have done or will do. The atonement, which we studied in Unit 2, is the foundation.

Wesley agreed with the Reformation teaching that the righteousness of Christ is counted to the believer. He taught this plainly in a sermon called "The Lord Our Righteousness." At the same time, he warned against teachers who used the words to say that a believer need not be holy. He wanted people to hear that Christ's righteousness is given to us and that Christ's life is also worked in us.

The condition of justification: faith alone

Paul says, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified" (Galatians 2:16). Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Wesley's own life was changed by this teaching. In 1738, soon after Aldersgate (see Course 1, Unit 3), he preached a sermon called "Salvation by Faith" at Oxford. He declared that salvation comes through faith. He kept to this message for the rest of his life. The Church of England's own Articles and Homilies, which Wesley loved, teach that we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works. The Methodist Articles of Religion of 1784 repeat the same.

What faith is

Faith is not only agreeing that the facts are true. James writes, "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" (James 2:19). The devils have correct belief, and they are not saved.

Saving faith is trust. It is leaning the whole weight of my need on Christ. It is receiving Him as my own Savior, and not merely believing that He lived and died. Wesley taught that faith is first of all a trust in the heart, and it has the mind's agreement inside it. A man who believes that a bridge is strong has only agreed with a fact. A man who walks across it has trusted the bridge.

Faith is also a gift. Paul says it is "the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). God gives the ability to believe through prevenient grace, and the sinner uses that gift in believing. Faith is thus not a work that earns. It is the empty hand that receives. As Romans 4:5 says, "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: The Roman Catholic view says that justification includes an inner making righteous, and that it grows through faith, works and the sacraments.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563), in its decree on justification, rejected the Reformers' teaching of faith alone. Catholic teachers hold that justification is both pardon and inner renewal, and that good works increase it.

Our answer. We agree with Catholics that God does not leave sinners as they were. Wesley taught that new birth and holiness always follow justification. But we do not mix justification with sanctification, because Scripture separates them. Paul says that God "justifies the ungodly" (Romans 4:5), which means He pardons people before they are made holy. If works were part of the ground of justification, then the sinner would earn something, and Paul says that "to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt" (Romans 4:4). We hold that holiness is a gift that comes after pardon, and is not its price.

Objection 2: James says that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.

James 2:24 seems to say the opposite of Paul.

Our answer. Paul and James fight different enemies. Paul answers the person who thinks he can earn God's favor by keeping the Law. James answers the person who says he has faith but shows none of its fruit. James 2:19 shows that mere belief is not saving faith. Both apostles describe the same living faith. Paul himself says that what counts is "faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). Works do not cause pardon. They show that the faith is real, and that is the sense in which James speaks of being justified before others.

Objection 3: The antinomian says that if faith alone saves, then holiness does not matter.

Some taught that since Christ has done everything, believers may live as they like.

Our answer. Paul meets this at once: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!" (Romans 6:1-2). The faith that receives Christ's pardon also unites the believer to Him, and those who are joined to Christ share His life. John Fletcher, Wesley's close friend, wrote Checks to Antinomianism to defend this point. We preach justification by faith alone and holiness of heart and life together.

Objection 4: Some Reformed teachers say that your view of repentance puts a human work before faith.

They fear that to demand repentance before pardon, or to say that fruits are necessary, makes salvation depend on human effort. They also hold that faith and repentance themselves are the result of God's regenerating work.

Our answer. We stand with the Reformation in saying that no work of ours earns pardon. Repentance is a gift of God, as Acts 11:18 shows, and faith alone is the condition of justification. We do not say that a man must be good before he can be forgiven. We say that a man who is truly turning to God will turn from his sin, and God asks for no more than that turning and trust. On how grace enables repentance and faith, the Reformed and Wesleyans differ, and we explained our position in Units 3 and 4.

Objection 5: Some modern voices say that God forgives everyone, so repentance is unnecessary.

Our answer. Jesus said, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The love of God does not remove the call to turn.

Justification and the New Birth

Wesley taught that justification and the new birth happen at the same moment in the experience of the believer, but that they are different in idea. Justification is a change in relation: we go from being under condemnation to being God's children. The new birth is a change in nature: the Holy Spirit gives new life within. The next unit will study the new birth.

Pastoral Application

Hector is a man in his forties who comes to the pastor late one evening. For several years he took small amounts of money from his employer. He feels that he has sinned deeply and thinks God cannot forgive him. "I think I must live a clean life for ten years, and give a lot of money to the church, before I can pray," he says.

The pastor listens without shock. He opens Luke 18 and reads the tax collector's prayer. He explains that Hector's sorrow is a sign of grace, and that God does not ask him to earn pardon. He reads Romans 3:23-24 and Romans 4:5. Then he says that true repentance will show itself, and he brings up Zacchaeus. Hector should confess to his employer, repay what he took, and ask forgiveness. These actions are not the price of pardon. They are fruits that fit repentance.

Then the pastor kneels with Hector, who confesses his sin to God and puts his trust in Christ alone. The pastor tells him from Romans 5:1 that he has peace with God. In the weeks that follow, Hector meets his employer, repays the money in agreed payments, and joins a class meeting.

Summary

Repentance is a gift of God and a turning of the whole person. It includes knowing our sin, godly sorrow, confession and turning, and fruits that fit repentance. Wesley taught that these fruits are in a sense necessary, though they do not earn pardon and faith alone is the condition of justification. Justification is what God does for us: He pardons our sins and receives us as His children, on the ground of Christ's blood and righteousness. Faith is trust in Christ, not mere agreement, and it is God's gift. We answer the Catholic, James 2, antinomian, Reformed and modern objections, always holding together justification by faith alone and a holy life. The justified have peace with God.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "Salvation by Faith" (Sermon 1), in the Standard Sermons.

• John Wesley, "Justification by Faith" (Sermon 5).

• John Wesley, "The Scripture Way of Salvation" (Sermon 43).

• John Wesley, "The Repentance of Believers" (Sermon 14).

• John Wesley, "The Lord Our Righteousness" (Sermon 20).

• The Homilies of the Church of England, on Salvation, and the Methodist Articles of Religion (1784), on justification.

• John Fletcher, Checks to Antinomianism, a primary source.

• The Arminian sections of the CTS Systematic Theology course (CTSST).

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