Arminian theology on sin covers a much wider conceptual range.
Some theologians believe that sin corrupts completely but the corruption has
been almost completely mitigated for every sinner by Christ’s death. Others
believe that man never became completely corrupted and that he has always
retained a measure of righteousness through the image of God he was originally
created in. Others simply declare that sin does not reside in the heart of man
at all, but is only a manifestation of our decisions. The Arminian must avoid admitting
to the corruption of sin if he is to uphold man’s volitional freedom, for the
ultimate sin is not violence to God, but against man and his ability to
determine himself.
To Wesley, the natural man is a “logical abstraction.” There
is no such man.[1] Christ’s death provided
sufficient grace to overcome the death and slavery of sin. Paul said that
“through one act of righteousness there resulted justification
of life to all men” (Romans 5.18). Great-house and Dunning tell us that this
refers to “prevenient grace,” which universally enables all men to freely trust
in Christ. Wesley equates spiritual grace and knowledge to the conscience. He
says
No man living is entirely destitute of what is vulgarly called natural conscience. But this is not natural: It is more properly termed preventing grace. Every man has a greater or less measure of this, which waiteth not for the call of man. Everyone has, sooner or later, good desires; although the generality of men stifle them before they can strike deep root, or produce any considerable fruit. Everyone has some measure of that light, some faint glimmering ray, which, sooner or later, more or less, enlightens every man that cometh into the world. And every one, unless he be one of the small number whose conscience is seared as with a hot iron, feels more or less uneasy when he acts contrary to the light of his own conscience. So that no man sins because he has not grace, but because he does not use the grace which he hath.[2]
This grace of Wesley’s completely renews the dead man. If a
man can choose to believe in God, he is no longer a slave to sin. Greathouse
and Dunning admit as much. He is no longer a sinner, for a sinner is a slave to
sin (John 8.34), dead in sin (Ephesians 2.1), unable to please God (Romans 8.7,
8), and “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17.9). Wesley’s grace completely
regenerates every man. Wesley famously believed that this “prevenient grace”
is “free for all, and free in all.”[3] This
free, “preventing grace” begins our salvation. It causes “the first wish to
please God, the first dawn of light concerning his will, and the first slight
transient conviction of having sinned against him.”[4]
Later Wesleyan theologians detail the effects of the atonement to include this regenerating grace. H. Orton Wiley says, “The grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all men, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.”[5] This benefit extends from Christ’s atonement, citing Wesley’s words, “God is so far reconciled to the world, that he hath given them a new covenant; the plain condition whereof being once fulfilled, ‘there is no more condemnation’ for us, but ‘we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’”[6] Wiley quotes John Fletcher’s Checks to Antinomianism, describing the first of “four degrees” of justification, “The first justification engages the sinner’s attention, encourages his hope, and draws his heart by love.” Again, this “first degree” of justification applies to all, according to Wesleyans. Paul tells us in Romans 8.1 that there is “therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Wiley continues, “the Arminians taught that there was a ‘free gift’ of righteousness, unconditionally bestowed upon all men through Christ.”[7] Thomas Summers adds, “If a decree of condemnation has been issued against original sin… likewise a decree of justification has been issued from the same court, whose benefits are unconditionally bestowed through the Second Adam.”[8] Everyone has been redeemed through Christ’s death. Not only did Christ’s atonement grant to every sinner the faith to trust in Christ, but it redeemed him from the penalty of sin, regardless of his faith. Orton continues
The second effect of the free gift was the reversal of the condemnation and the bestowal of a title to eternal life… [Condemnation] was arrested in Christ as regards every individual, and thereby changed into a conditional sentence. Man is not now condemned for the depravity of his own nature…its culpability was removed by the free gift in Christ. Man is condemned solely for his own transgressions.[9]
Later I may tackle the disparity about scripture teaching one
atonement for two kinds of sin, universally redeeming all while simultaneously leaving
all condemned, but for now I will stay with this application of “preventing
grace.” I mainly intend to show that Wesleyan theology teaches that all men
have received grace that restores, regenerates, or cleanses them from sin,
bringing them to life, opening their eyes, setting them free from sin, and
places them in Christ, without any faith on their part.
Wesley encountered this inherent problem in Arminianism: how
do we uphold absolute freedom of the will yet stay true to the doctrine of sin?
Wesley and later Wesleyan theology solve it in two ways: natural conscience and
the atonement. Our conscience draws us to God, and every man has received this
grace that draws him to God, “the first wish to please God, the first dawn of
light concerning his will, and the first slight transient conviction of sin.”[10] We
receive this grace through Christ’s atonement, universally applied to all
unconditionally.
Wesley confuses natural conscience with regenerating grace. The
Bible nowhere equates conscience with regeneration or repentance. Men who
believe in right and wrong do not necessarily believe in God. This is not
because they choose not to. They have no “first wish to please God”; they hate
him. They may be moral men, but in no way do they have “the first slight
transient conviction of sin,” as from a cosmic Judge. Christ is the light of
the world in that he lived God’s commands for us to observe. In scripture, light
is knowledge. Christ came to “enlighten every man” by convicting men of their
sin (John 3.20; 16.8-9). In John 1, though John says “Christ enlightens every
man,” he also says “the world did not know him” (John 1.9, 10). The world had the
light of Christ, but they still did not believe in Christ. Only those who
received Christ became sons of God, and this only because they were born of the
will of God (1.13). Light does not equal grace, faith, or repentance. In John
3, Christ speaks of the Light, not as an internal influence drawing men to him,
but as an external conviction, exposing their evil deeds. The Light brings
judgment.
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.[11]
This Light of
Christ convicts us of sin, and those who are born of God (John 1.13) come to
the Light and practice the truth.
Paul speaks of the
natural light of conscience in Romans 1.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.[12]
God reveals himself
through Creation and through the moral law (Psalm 19). In every society, we see
God’s nature revealed through human relationships that can only exist through
God’s moral law:
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be
prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.[13]
The Law lies within us as our conscience and reveals God’s
will, but it does not give us a desire to love, please, or trust in God. The Law
incites the rebellion that lies within us, in fact. Paul tells us, much as
Christ’s light convicts us of sin, that the Law exposes our sin:
I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind.[14]
Conscience convicts us of sin, and unless God gives us his
life, not light, which we all have, we remain condemned in this sin.
Only Christ releases believers from condemnation. Faith
trusts in Christ and applies the benefits of Christ’s death. Paul only speaks
of the spiritual benefits of salvation for those who are “in Christ,” and only
believers in Christ live “in Christ.” Justification that removes the
condemnation results from faith; it is not the source of faith. Wesley believed
that God provided this justification to all men. In “On the Fall of Man,” he
says, “God hath also, through the intercession of his Son, given us his Holy
Spirit, to renew us both ‘in knowledge,’ in his natural image; opening the eyes
of our understanding , and enlightening us with all such knowledge as is
requisite to our pleasing God.”[15]
Later he describes this grace as “an universal remedy for an universal evil,”
applying Romans 5.18 to the discussion:
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
Wesley applies this verse too broadly. Paul restricted this
justification to those who trust in God through faith, but Wesley applies it to
all as this “preventing grace” that enables all men to believe in God. Wesley elsewhere
applies Romans 8.32 to the world at large:
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” How freely does God love the world! While we were yet sinners, “Christ dies for the ungodly.” While we were “dead in our sin,” God “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” And how freely with him does he “give us all things!” Verily, free grace is all in all! The grace of God, whence cometh our salvation, is free in all, and free for all.[16]
Paul does not speak of all men, but only of believers. All
the benefits of Romans 8 apply only to those who trust in Christ. This verse
follows the Great Chain of Redemption, where Paul traces God’s work of
foreknowledge, to election, to calling, to justification, and finally to
glorification. In no way does this apply to all men, but exclusively to
believers.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Wesley teaches universalism, that everyone will be saved
regardless of their faith in Christ.
What does scripture say of those who are “in Christ Jesus”?
We are alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6.11
We have eternal life. 6.23
We have no condemnation. 8.1
We are free from the law of sin and death. 8.2
We can never be separated from God. 8.39
We are one body. 12.5
We are sanctified. 1 Corinthians 1.2
We have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 1.30
We have brotherly love. 16.24
We are new creations. 2 Corinthians 5.17
Etc., etc., etc.
To apply even a single benefit of the atonement to all men without
regard to the humility that faith in Christ requires, completely disregards
Christ’s work and sinless life, openly mocks his death on the Cross, and destroys
divine justice. It places saint and sinner alike in the family of God. It places
the harlot of Revelation on equal status with the holy bride of Christ, to the
point that God loves both equally, as if he were some indiscriminating
adulterer. How does a theologian proceed from this travesty?
[1]
William M. Greathouse and H. Ray Dunning, An
Introduction to Wesleyan Theology, (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1989),
page 72.
[2] John
Wesley, “On Working Our Own Salvation,” III.4.
[3]
Wesley, “Free Grace,” 2.
[4]
Wesley, “Working,” II.1.
[5] H.
Orton Wiley, Christian Theology: Volume
II, (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1952), page 129.
[6]
Quoted in Wiley, 129. From Wesley, “Justification by Faith,” I.9.
[7]
Wiley, 132.
[8]
Thomas Summers, Systematic Theology:
Complete Body of Wesleyan Arminian Divinity, (Nashville: Publishing House
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1888), page 41.
[9]
Wiley, 135.
[10]
Wesley, “Working,” II.1.
[11] John
3.19-21.
[12]
Romans 1.18-21.
[13]
Exodus 20.12-17.
[14]
Romans 6.7, 8.
[15]
Wesley, “On the Fall of Man,” II.8.
[16]
Wesley, “Free Grace,” Advertisement.
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