Holiness, Sanctification, and Christian Perfection — Unit 6: Objections Answered: Reformed, Keswick, and Pentecostal Views

Key Verse

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

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

1. State the Reformed objection to Christian perfection and give the Wesleyan answer from Scripture.

2. Explain what the Keswick movement teaches about victory over sin and where it differs from Wesley.

3. Describe how Pentecostal teaching on Spirit baptism relates to the Wesleyan-Holiness teaching on entire sanctification.

4. Explain why Wesley separated "sin properly so called" from mistakes and weakness.

5. Answer a questioner from another tradition with firmness, honesty and love.

The Voice of This Unit

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition for Wesleyan students. We are conservative evangelicals. We hold that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and our final authority. In Units 3 to 5 we set out what Wesley taught about perfect love, and we saw that Wesleyans have two main ways of describing the work. The Holiness bodies speak of a "second work of grace." Methodists in the line of Wesley describe growth in perfect love, which may be received in a moment but is approached through a gradual work. This course leans toward the second view, and it treats the first with respect.

Other Christians who love the same Lord read these questions differently. In this unit we state their views as they would state them. Then we answer from the Wesleyan side. Paul says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Why We Answer Objections

Wesley's teaching on holiness has always met questions. Some come from the Reformed churches (Presbyterian, Reformed, and Calvinistic Baptist). Some come from the Keswick movement. Some come from Pentecostal friends. A pastor who cannot answer these questions will soon be unsure of his own message, and an unsure message does not lead people to holiness.

Wesley himself was patient with objectors. He wrote that he and his critics often meant different things by the same words. We should begin the same way. Most quarrels about perfection become shorter when each side first says plainly what it means. So we begin by stating each view in its own terms. Reformed believers teach that God sanctifies His people progressively by the Spirit through the Word, that real growth in holiness is expected, and that the struggle with remaining sin lasts until death. Keswick teachers teach that the believer may live in victory over known sin by full surrender and by trusting Christ moment by moment, while the sinful nature remains. Pentecostals teach that baptism in the Holy Spirit is a gift of power for witness, separate from conversion, and Pentecostals differ among themselves on how it relates to sanctification. These are their statements, and we answer them after stating them more fully below. In Unit 3 we learned our meaning: perfect love, which fills the heart with love for God and neighbor. It is not sinless perfection, and it is not freedom from ignorance, mistakes or bodily weakness.

The Reformed Objection

What the objection says

The Reformed churches teach that sanctification begins at new birth and grows through life, but is never finished before death. The Westminster Confession of Faith, written in the 1640s, says that some remains of corruption stay in the believer in this life. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) says that even the holiest people have only a small beginning of the obedience God requires. Reformed teachers add four arguments.

First, 1 John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Second, they read Romans 7:14-25 as Paul speaking about himself as a believer, struggling with sin. Third, they say our only perfect righteousness is Christ's, given to us by faith, and that looking for perfection in ourselves takes our eyes from the cross. Fourth, they say that anyone who claims to be perfect shows pride. They note that Wesley himself, as far as the records show, never publicly claimed to have received the blessing. These are serious arguments, made by people who love Scripture and who have served Christ faithfully.

The Wesleyan answer

We answer in five steps.

First, we agree about the believer's need of Christ. Wesley taught that no one in this life is beyond the need of the blood of Christ. He separated "sin properly so called" from other failings. Sin properly so called is a willing breach of a known law of God. Mistakes of judgment, limits of knowledge and weakness of body are not that kind of sin, yet they fall short of the perfect law and still need the atonement. For this reason even the most mature believer keeps praying, "Forgive us our debts." Wesley's sermon "The Repentance of Believers" (1767) says this plainly. We do not teach that any Christian stops needing the Savior.

Second, we agree that sin remains in the new believer. Wesley's sermon "On Sin in Believers" (1763) teaches that after new birth there is still an inward tendency toward evil, though it no longer reigns. The question is not whether this tendency remains at first. The question is whether God promises to cleanse it in this life. We say He does. Ezekiel 36:25-27 promises a clean heart and a new spirit. Paul prays that God would "sanctify you completely" (1 Thessalonians 5:23) and prays for the Ephesians to be filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). John writes that "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

Third, we read 1 John 1:8 with its neighbors. The next verse says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and "cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Verse 8 warns against denying our past and present need of forgiveness. It does not say that cleansing is impossible. John also writes that "whoever has been born of God does not sin" (1 John 3:9), and that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). Wesleyans read these verses as describing a life in which willing sin no longer rules.

Fourth, we read Romans 7 differently. Historians point out that Christians have long been divided here. Some early Greek writers read the passage as describing a person who is awakened by the law but not yet freed. Augustine first read it that way and later changed his mind, and the Reformers followed his later view. Wesley held the earlier reading. He saw in Romans 7 a person under the law, who wants to do right but is a slave to sin. Then Romans 8:2 gives the answer: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." We admit that this is a debated passage. We ask only that the Reformed reading not be treated as the only one the Bible allows.

Fifth, we answer the charge about Christ's righteousness. Wesley taught both. Christ's righteousness is counted as ours when we are justified, and by the Spirit Christ's holiness is also worked into us as we are sanctified. The first is what God does for us. The second is what God does in us. Both come by grace through faith, and no one can boast. As for pride, Wesley warned that those who think themselves perfect are in danger, and he taught that perfect love is humble. He also told people to judge such claims by fruit, not by words.

The Keswick Objection

What Keswick teaches

The Keswick Convention began in England in 1875, and its teaching grew out of the wider nineteenth-century "Higher Life" movement. The American writer Hannah Whitall Smith, in The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (1875), gave the message to a very wide audience. Later speakers included F. B. Meyer and Andrew Murray. Keswick has been a blessing to many churches, especially for missions and for hunger after a deeper walk with God.

Keswick teaching, put simply, is this. The believer can live in victory over known sin by full surrender to Christ and by faith, trusting Him moment by moment. The old sinful nature is not removed in this life. It is held down, or "counteracted," by the Spirit's power, as long as the believer keeps trusting. Most Keswick teachers stayed within Reformed or Anglican churches, and they kept the Reformed teaching that sin remains in the heart until death. You may hear their message summed up in the popular saying, "Let go and let God." That saying is a slogan, not the whole teaching, and fairness requires us to remember it.

Where we agree

We agree with Keswick more than with most critics. We agree that there is a deeper life in Christ than many believers live. We agree that surrender and faith are the way in. We agree that the Spirit's power, not our effort, makes holiness real. We agree that Christians should expect victory over willing sin.

Where we differ, and our answer

We differ in three ways.

First, Keswick speaks of the old nature as held down. Wesley spoke of the heart as cleansed. The Bible uses both pictures, but its promises of cleansing are plain: in 2 Corinthians 7:1 Paul calls believers to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." A heart that is only held down must be guarded without rest. A heart that is made clean by God can rest in His love, though it must still watch.

Second, we are concerned that "let go" language may make believers passive. Wesley taught that faith works through love (Galatians 5:6), and that God gives grace through the ordinary means He has set: prayer, Scripture, the Lord's Supper, fasting and fellowship. Unit 7 studies these. Holiness is God's gift, but we are told to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you" (Philippians 2:12-13). Both halves of that sentence matter.

Third, Wesley's central word is love. Keswick often speaks first of victory. Victory over sin matters, but Jesus said the great command is to love God with all the heart, soul and mind, and to love the neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). A person can have a record of victory and still be cold and proud. We measure holiness by love.

The Pentecostal Question

The Pentecostal teaching

Pentecostalism grew out of the Holiness movement (see Pentecostal Course 1, Unit 2, and our own Course 1, which tells that history). The early Holiness Pentecostals taught three works of grace: new birth, entire sanctification, and then baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues as the first sign. Many Pentecostals after 1910, following William Durham, taught instead that sanctification begins at conversion and grows through life, so that Spirit baptism is the second great step. Pentecostals of both kinds read Acts 1:8 as a promise of power for witness, a separate gift from holiness.

The Wesleyan answer

We do not despise this teaching, and we do not deny that the Spirit gives gifts. Paul writes, "Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy" (1 Corinthians 14:1). We answer in four ways.

First, the Holiness bodies connected the Spirit's coming with cleansing. Peter said that God gave the Holy Spirit to the household of Cornelius and purified their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9). So the Holiness tradition has taught that the baptism with the Spirit is chiefly about purity and love. In 1919 the Church of the Nazarene dropped the word "Pentecostal" from its name because of the way the word had come to be used. John Fletcher of Madeley, Wesley's friend and defender, used Pentecost language about the fullness of the Spirit. Wesley himself usually did not.

Second, Scripture does not make tongues the proof of holiness. Paul tells the Corinthians that a person may speak in the tongues of men and of angels and still have no love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). The Corinthian church had abundant gifts and serious sin. So we test holiness by fruit, not by a sign.

Third, we reject any teaching that makes some believers second-class. Wesley's message was that every believer is invited to perfect love. Gifts are given as the Spirit wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). Love is for all.

Fourth, we speak plainly about our differences without anger. Many Wesleyan churches today welcome the gifts under Scripture's order. Others are more cautious. The Wesleyan family is not of one mind about the gifts, and Wesleyans do not make agreement on them a test of fellowship. What binds us is the call to a heart made perfect in love.

What These Objections Teach Us

We learn three things. First, the three groups are not our enemies. Reformed believers remind us that Christ's work is complete and that boasting is wrong. Keswick reminds us that surrender and faith matter. Pentecostals remind us that the Spirit is a living power and not only a doctrine. Second, each of them has seen something true that a careless Wesleyan could forget. Third, none of them has shown that Scripture forbids what Wesley taught. He taught that God, who commands us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16), also gives what He commands.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Marcos serves a small church in a river town. A deacon returns from a conference in a Reformed church and says, "Pastor, you teach that people can be perfect. The Bible says we all sin. That is pride." Others in the room are listening.

Marcos does five things. First, he listens, and he asks what the deacon heard preached, because the objection may come from a wrong picture. Second, he states what he does and does not teach: perfect love, not a claim that anyone cannot err or needs no forgiveness. Third, he opens 1 John 1:7-9 and 4:17-18 with the deacon, and reads them in full. Fourth, he admits that Romans 7 is debated and that godly people differ. Fifth, he thanks the deacon for caring about Scripture and about humility. He does not need to win the argument that day. He asks the deacon to watch how the church lives for three months and then to judge by fruit.

Summary

Reformed Christians teach that sin remains in the believer until death and that claims of perfection show pride. We answer that Wesley taught perfect love, not sinless perfection; that "sin properly so called" is a willing breach of God's known law while mistakes and weakness still need Christ's blood; that 1 John 1:7-9 and 4:17-18 promise cleansing; that Romans 7 may be read as describing a person under law; and that we hold both imputed and imparted righteousness. Keswick, from 1875, teaches victory by surrender and faith, with the old nature counteracted and not removed. We welcome the surrender and faith and reply that Scripture promises cleansing, that faith works through love, and that love is the measure. Pentecostals treat Spirit baptism as a separate gift of power. The Holiness bodies link the Spirit's coming with purity, and all Wesleyans test holiness by fruit, not by a sign. We answer all three with firmness and kindness.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766).

• John Wesley, sermons "On Sin in Believers" (1763), "The Scripture Way of Salvation" (1765) and "The Repentance of Believers" (1767).

• John Fletcher, Checks to Antinomianism.

• Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (1875), a primary source for the Higher Life message.

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1640s), chapter on sanctification, and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), as statements of the Reformed view.

• Holiness Through the Ages, the Master's textbook for this course.

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