Wesleyan Theology and the Doctrine of Salvation — Unit 8: The Way of Salvation: Wesley's Order of Salvation

Key Verse

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

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

1. Name the main stages of Wesley's way of salvation and say briefly what happens in each.

2. Explain why Wesleyans speak of one salvation that is past, present and future.

3. Describe Wesley's picture of the porch, the door and the house.

4. Explain how God's work and our response fit together, using Philippians 2:12-13.

5. State fairly the Reformed, Roman Catholic and "ladder of works" objections to the Wesleyan way of salvation, and give the Wesleyan answer to each.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition for Wesleyan students. It is theologically conservative: the Bible is the inspired and final authority, and God is one God in three persons. "We" means the evangelical Wesleyan-Holiness and Methodist churches. Other Christians see these matters differently, and we state their views fairly before giving our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Units 2 to 7 studied the parts of salvation one by one. This unit steps back and looks at the whole. The history of how the first Methodists lived and taught this way of salvation was told in Course 1, and we do not repeat it here.

Why Speak of a "Way"?

When people ask, "Are you saved?" they often expect a single yes or no. The Bible gives a fuller picture. Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). Salvation is something that has happened. Yet he also writes that "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Salvation is also something that is going on. And Paul says elsewhere that salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Romans 13:11). It is also something that will be completed.

John Wesley saw this clearly. He preached a sermon called "The Scripture Way of Salvation," and he took Ephesians 2:8 as its text. In it he taught that salvation is not only the first moment of pardon. It is the whole work of God, from the first stirring of grace in the heart to the glory of heaven. Wesleyans therefore speak of a "way" or "order" of salvation. We do not mean a rigid ladder that every person climbs in the same way and at the same speed. We mean the pattern that Scripture shows in God's dealing with sinners, and which pastors can use as a map.

The Stages of the Way

Here is the map in simple form. Most of these have their own units in this course, so we give only a short description of each.

Prevenient grace. God's grace goes before everyone. It awakens the conscience, shows the sinner his need, and makes it possible to respond (Unit 3). This grace is for all people because Christ died for all (Unit 2).

Repentance. The sinner turns from sin, sees his guilt, and knows he cannot save himself (Unit 5). Jesus began His preaching with the words, "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

Justification. Through faith in Christ, God pardons the sinner and receives him as a child. This is what God does for us (Unit 5).

The new birth. At the same moment God gives new spiritual life. This is what God does in us (Unit 6).

Assurance. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children (Unit 7).

Sanctification. God continues His work, making the believer holy in heart and life. It begins at the new birth and grows through the believer's life. Course 3 studies it in detail.

Glorification. At the resurrection, God completes His work. The believer is made fully like Christ (1 John 3:2). Paul writes of this in Romans 8:30.

In ordinary life these stages overlap. Justification and the new birth happen together. Repentance continues after conversion, since a believer will go on repenting of sin all his life. Sanctification begins at once. A pastor should not use the map to insist that everyone's experience must look the same. Some come to Christ in a moment after long struggle. Others grow up in the faith and cannot name a day.

The Porch, the Door, and the House

Wesley often used a simple picture to explain the way. He said that true religion is like a house. Repentance is the porch. Faith is the door. Holiness, or love in the heart and life, is the house itself, the religion we are called to dwell in.

This picture helps a pastor in three ways. First, it shows that repentance and faith are not the end. A person who stands on the porch has not entered the house. Second, it shows that repentance leads to faith, and faith leads to a holy life, so that no part is skipped. Third, it keeps the goal in view. The goal of salvation is not only to be forgiven and go to heaven. It is to be made like Christ and to love God and neighbor. The picture comes from Wesley's own writings, though he did not mean that a person never returns to the porch. Believers still repent, and still trust, as they live in the house.

Faith, Works and the Whole of Salvation

A common question is: Are we saved by faith or by works? Wesley's answer, which Wesleyans follow, is the answer of Scripture. We are saved by grace through faith, and "not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:9). Faith alone is the condition on which God justifies the sinner. No amount of good deeds can earn pardon.

But Scripture also says that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26), and that we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:10). Wesley taught that good works do not earn salvation. They come out of faith, and they are the fruit by which a living faith is known. He also taught that holiness is necessary for continued salvation, since Scripture calls us to "holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). He did not mean holiness replaces faith. He meant that faith, if living, leads to holiness.

God Works, and We Work

The key verse for this unit may seem puzzling at first. Paul tells the Philippians to "work out" their own salvation, and then adds, "for it is God who works in you." How can both be true?

Wesley preached a sermon on this text, "On Working Out Our Own Salvation." His answer is simple. God works first, and God works in us. That is why we can work at all. Without God's grace we could do nothing. Because God works in us, we are able, and therefore we are responsible, to cooperate. A farmer cannot make a seed grow, but he must plant it, water it and pull the weeds. The growth is God's gift, and the labor is ours.

Theologians sometimes use the word "synergism" for this idea that God and the believer work together, with God always working first and the believer's part only a response to grace. The word "monergism" is used for the teaching that God alone works. Wesleyans hold that salvation is wholly of grace, and yet that God makes us able to respond and then asks us to respond. We therefore hold to grace as strongly as any other Christians. We deny only that grace works without the willing consent of the person.

Wesley also taught that God has appointed "means of grace," the ordinary ways in which He gives His grace. These include prayer, the reading and hearing of Scripture, the Lord's Supper, fasting, and Christian fellowship. We use them not to earn favor but to open the heart to what God gives. Course 3 and Course 4 take these up.

Objection 1: The Reformed Order of Salvation

The Reformed tradition also speaks of an order of salvation. It points to Romans 8:29-30: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son... Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." Some call this a "golden chain," since the links cannot be broken. The Reformed teach that God chooses His people unconditionally, calls them effectually, gives them new life first, and keeps them to the end. They are concerned that if the sinner's response has any place in the order, then man shares the credit and grace is weakened.

Our answer. The concern for God's glory is right, and we share it. We agree that every part of salvation is a gift. The difference is in how the gift reaches us. Wesleyans read Romans 8:29 in the light of "foreknew": God, who knows all things, foresaw who would receive Christ and chose them in Him (Unit 4). The response of faith is not a work that earns anything. It is the empty hand that receives. Philippians 2:13 shows that even our willing is God's gift, since "it is God who works in you both to will and to do." God gives the will, and we use it. The credit belongs to God, and the responsibility to respond belongs to us. Scripture holds both together, as the key verse shows. Unit 9 takes up the matter of final perseverance, where the Reformed chain meets the Wesleyan warning.

Objection 2: The Roman Catholic Order

The Roman Catholic Church, especially in the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, taught that justification is not only a pardon but a making-righteous, in which grace is poured into the soul, and that the believer's cooperation with grace is part of his growing in righteousness. Catholic teaching speaks of merit, of sacraments that convey grace, and of the Church as the channel of salvation. The Catholic concern is that Protestants may separate forgiveness from change of life.

Our answer. Here Wesleyans stand between the churches. We agree with the Catholic concern that salvation changes the whole person, and Wesley taught strongly that grace makes people holy. That is why he did not stop at justification. But we hold with the Reformers that justification itself is a pardon received by faith alone, based on the finished work of Christ, and not on our merit. Then the Holy Spirit works the inward change that Wesley called sanctification, as the fruit and not the price of pardon. We do not teach that our works earn grace. We honor the sacraments as means of grace (Course 4), but we deny that a person is saved by outward acts alone. The Catholic emphasis on a holy life is something Wesleyans share. The Catholic doctrine of merit is not.

Objection 3: A Ladder of Works

A third objection comes from within the Protestant world, from those who fear that the Wesleyan way mixes justification and sanctification. They say that a "way" with many stages sounds like a ladder to heaven, and that making holiness necessary turns grace into works.

Our answer. The fear is understandable, and Wesley guarded against it. He insisted on a clear difference between justification, which is what God does for us, and sanctification, which is what God does in us. Faith is the only condition of the first. Holiness is the fruit and aim of the second. The way of salvation is not a ladder we climb to God but a path on which God comes to us and walks with us. At each step it is God's grace that carries us.

Wesley also had to answer the opposite error, called antinomianism, which said that because we are saved by grace, the law of God no longer matters. His friend John Fletcher answered this in the Checks to Antinomianism. Between the ladder of works and the cheap grace that ignores holiness, the Wesleyan way holds to grace that both pardons and changes.

Where Wesleyans Differ

One further point should be stated honestly. All Wesleyans agree that God calls believers to full holiness of heart and life. They differ on how this is received. The Holiness churches, such as the Nazarene and Wesleyan bodies, teach a "second work of grace" in which a believer is entirely sanctified in a moment. The Methodist view sees Christian perfection as growth in perfect love, which may be received in a moment but is approached through a gradual work. Course 3 sets out both views fairly, and weighs them. This course leans toward the Methodist view.

Pastoral Application

A young man in a new believers' class asks his pastor, "I prayed to receive Christ last month. Which step am I on now? Am I finished?"

The pastor takes a sheet of paper and draws a house with a porch and a door. He explains that repentance is the porch, faith is the door, and the house is a life of holiness and love. He tells the young man that by faith he has entered the door, that he is forgiven and born again, and that God has begun a work in him. But he is not finished. He is in the house, and now must learn to live there. The pastor then gives him three simple practices: read the Gospel of John, pray each morning, and meet weekly with a small group. He also tells him that he will still need to repent when he sins, and that this does not undo his salvation but keeps him walking. He reads Philippians 2:12-13 with him and says, "God is working in you. Now you work with Him."

Summary

Wesleyans teach one salvation that is past, present and future. The way of salvation includes prevenient grace, repentance, justification, the new birth, assurance, sanctification and glorification. These stages overlap in experience and are not a rigid ladder. Wesley used the picture of the porch, the door and the house: repentance, faith and holiness. Salvation is by grace through faith, and good works are the fruit of faith and not its price. God works in us, and so we can and must work with Him (Philippians 2:12-13). The Reformed chain of Romans 8:29-30 is answered by foreknowledge and by the grace that gives us the will to respond. The Roman Catholic emphasis on a changed life is welcomed, but its doctrine of merit is not shared. The charge that the Wesleyan way is a ladder of works is answered by the clear difference between justification and sanctification. Wesleyans differ on how entire sanctification is received, and Course 3 studies this.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, sermons "The Scripture Way of Salvation," "On Working Out Our Own Salvation," and "The Means of Grace," primary sources.

• John Wesley, The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained, the passage on the porch, door and house, a primary source.

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

• John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Ephesians 2 and Philippians 2, a primary source.

• Course 1, Unit 5 (the controversy with Calvinist friends); Course 2, Units 2 to 7; Course 3, Units 2 to 4.

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