To Wesleyan Seniors:

As your faculty, we know some of you are thoughtfully preparing for interviews with District Boards of Ministerial Development (DBMD). Thus, you should be in the process of examining yourselves seriously in relation to what The Wesleyan Church believes. To help you, we have prepared these explanations of two key statements from our 21 Articles of Religion. Below you will find Article 5 on the Bible and Article 14 on Sanctification.  The Wesleyan Articles of Religion are in bold face type and our narrative explanation is interspersed in regular type-face.

We want you to understand not only what The Wesleyan Church believes, but that we, your Religion faculty, also stand firmly behind these statements. We encourage you to examine these two questions in your head and heart before meeting with your DBMD.  

Always your advocate,

The IWU Religion faculty. Spring, 2008

What Wesleyans Believe about Sanctification

14. Sanctification: Initial, Progressive, Entire

a. We believe that sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the child of God is separated from sin unto God and is enabled to love God with all the heart and to walk in all His holy commandments blameless.

Wesleyans not only believe that God forgives the sins of our past, not only gives us a "not guilty" verdict as our Judge.  We believe that God actually addresses the part of us that drives us to sin in the first place.  God empowers us to beat the temptations that come our way after we have believed.  Sanctification is the work of God in which the Holy Spirit gives Christians victory over the power of sin and transforms us to be more like Christ.  We are separated from sin not only in the sense that we no longer need fall into sin.  We can actually exchange our "bent to sinning" for a drive to "fulfill the righteous requirement of God" as we walk in the Spirit and no longer in the flesh (Rom. 8:4).

Wesleyans believe such power boils down to the ability to love God with all the heart while we are still in this life.  We strongly resist the views of others who are pessimistic about the power of God to change lives.  God would not have commanded us to be holy if He had not at the same time made it possible (1 Pet. 1:16; cf. Matt. 5:48).  Some are of course prone to rankle over what it might mean to love God with all your heart (Matt. 22:37).  They might mistake this for some absolute or "Adamic" perfection.  But we would simply ask: What decision will you make when you are clearly confronted with the choice to obey or disobey God?  Will you eagerly make the choice for God or will you resist?  Those who constantly and eagerly choose for God are those who love God with all their heart.

If we love God with our whole heart, we will be faithful to Him.  We will walk in all His holy commandments.  When we love God completely, we will obey Him completely (John 14:15).  From time to time one might fall short of the example Christ modeled for us when he became humanity.  But we do not have to.  God does not expect us to.  To live a life of love in the imitation of Christ is the natural outgrowth of his Spirit inside us (cf. Phil. 2:5).  Living constantly and eagerly in loving obedience is possible—indeed far more possible that the average lives of believers today demonstrate.

b. Sanctification is initiated at the moment of justification and regeneration.

To Wesleyans, sanctification begins at the moment of justification and regeneration.  This work of God to separate us from the power of sin begins when we are first saved.  The Holy Spirit takes residence in us as the decisive element in our becoming part of the body of Christ (Rom. 8:9).  We receive the Spirit of Christ that inhabits the body of Christ and partake of Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:3). The impurity of our past sin acts is cleansed in what Wesleyans call "initial sanctification," and God begins to change us.  

Wesleyans reject the notion that it is only our legal status before God that changes when we are saved.  We believe God actually changes us at conversion as part of a true regeneration.  Christians begin to find that they are able to resist temptation when it comes (1 Cor. 10:13).  They may still struggle with temptation, but they find themselves largely victorious in that struggle through the power of the Holy Spirit.  They find that the Holy Spirit has begun perfecting them, even though they might still wrestle with the tug of sin.

c. From that moment there is a gradual or progressive sanctification as the believer walks with God and daily grows in grace and in a more perfect obedience to God.

Wesleyans do not believe sanctification ends at conversion.  From the moment of regeneration the Spirit begins the process of transforming our attitudes, interests, and actions daily.  What used to be a struggle increasingly becomes an easy choice, so that we may find former temptations lose their power to bring us constant defeat.  Wesleyans call this process of inward transformation and outward conformity to Christ gradual or progressive sanctification.

Some move in this direction more quickly than others, but such movement is evidence of the Spirit in our lives (e.g., Gal. 5:16).  We reject the notion that we remain "at the same time saint and sinner, as long as we are always repenting."  Certainly the Christian may still sin from time to time.  From time to time they may still fail to love God with all their heart and not live in full obedience.  But the Christian grows in grace and in a more perfect obedience to God.  God's grace is leading them toward a consistent and pervasive victory over sin. 

d. This prepares for the crisis of entire sanctification which is wrought instantaneously when believers present themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ, being effected by the baptism with the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart from all inbred sin. The crisis of entire sanctification perfects the believer in love and empowers that person for effective service.

Wesleyans believe that God's work of sanctification is "not just in part, but the whole."  God will not be satisfied until believers present themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, and do so entirely (our part).  Only when we have completely consecrated ourselves to God will we be able to experience the "fullness" of the Holy Spirit and full power over sin and temptation (God's part). 

The progressive sanctification of the Spirit thus leads to the crisis of entire sanctification.  The Holy Spirit has sanctified us gradually as we have gradually surrendered parts of our lives to God.  In response, the Spirit has been transforming us gradually in our attitudes, interests, and actions in progressive sanctification. But full surrender requires a decision at a point in time.  And thus in response, entire sanctification is wrought instantaneously by the Spirit at God's pleasure after we consecrate ourselves entirely to God.  It takes place through faith in Jesus Christ, for it is possible to be fully surrendered and not have the faith that God will do it.  Similarly, one might have the faith that God can do it but not be fully surrendered to where He will do it.

The result of such sanctification is not only victory over temptation, which we should have experienced from conversion.  The result is more than victory over temptation in some or most areas of our lives.  But we now can experience an ease of victory over temptation in all aspects of our lives due to the constant, positive empowerment to do the good we want to do (cf. Rom. 7:19).  God perfects the believer in love and empowers that person for effective service.  We truly can become "fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ"!

We cannot do any of these things in our own power.  Part of the crisis is the realization that we are powerless on our own against the stubborn power of sin over and within us—the inbred sin humanity has inherited from Adam.  Only through faith in Jesus Christ can it happen, through a baptism with the Holy Spirit so that we can love and obey God with our whole heart. 

Wesleyans believe this work of God is not only possible; it should be the norm.  We are optimistic about the power of God to transform a Christian into what God calls us:  to fully love and obey God and love our neighbor as ourselves.  God would not have suggested that our bodies, souls, and spirits might be sanctified completely unless it was actually possible (1 Thess. 5:23).  Living constantly and eagerly in loving obedience is not only possible; it is the normal expectation of the New Testament.

e. It is followed by lifelong growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Wesleyans teach that "entire sanctification" does not produce a life without room for improvement.  Even a Christian who is totally consecrated and full of love for God and others should experience lifelong growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Wesleyans see a difference between entire sanctification and Christian maturity.  It is possible for a person to be full of love and obedience to God yet still not have the wisdom, experience and knowledge typical of a fully mature Christian.  

Thus a fully consecrated and entirely sanctified Christian still grows, learns, and develops throughout the rest of life.  New areas arise that the believer will need to surrender to God.  No one is static, and our identities as human beings are constantly changing and developing.  But the believer has "settled the question," and can gladly surrender these new dimensions of life to God as they arise.

f. The life of holiness continues through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving obedience to God's revealed will.

Wesleyans believe that growth in the life of holiness does not happen by our own effort.  We grow and mature through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ.  Wesleyans believe that all holiness is a result of Christ's work, not our own.  We must never fall into the error of thinking that we try to be holy or that obedience is something we work at.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit that maintains us, and only in relationship to Him can we continue to love God and our neighbor with our whole heart.

What is the evidence of entire sanctification?  This work of God evidences itself by loving obedience to God's revealed will.  It does not evidence itself in a particular look or even in a specific set of convictions a person has or does not have.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  The person whose life evokes this kind of fruit is the person who is full of the Holy Spirit, a person who lives in full obedience to God's known will.

Signed, Your IWU Professors