Daniel Prince
May 5, 2011
I’ve posted below a list. This list was written by John Wesley as a tool for accountability used in what was called “The Holy Club.” It’s easy for me to recognize that there are going to be differing opinions about not only what is written in each number, but also the very fact that a person would write such a list. This will be for you to determine. It would be nice to hear your opinion, but, as in some cases, it might be better for your opinion not to be shared. That will be your conviction and choice.
One might be lead to think that what I have posted below is legalistic and evidence that Wesleyans and “all them Methodists” believe in a “works-based” salvation, but ask yourself: what real harm is there in taking note of whether you live your life oblivious of your own sins, or live aware of your sins and strive not to sin. There is greater harm in ignoring the significance of one’s sin and receiving its payment of death than striving (even if in vain) to live a blameless life. This is also the case with the conditionality or unconditionality of a Christian’s security. That’s for another time and place.
To assume that you are a “better Christian” or that you are somehow “closer to God” simply because you have made it through a day or two without “sinning” is to miss the mark of what it means to become more like Christ. Christ was not holy and perfect only for the fact that he lived a sinless life. He was perfect in that he was “one with the Father”; entirely subject to the priority of the Father. He was subject not to the law, but to the law-giver. He was one with the Father and prayed the same for his disciples and also “for those who will believe…on account of their word”, that we would be one with the Father.
There is a calling which goes beyond and deeper than living a life without willful sin: we “can become partakers of the divine nature”; participants in the activity of the triune God; lovers of the one who is love. There is more to be gained through God’s grace than there is by living without sin. Ceasing to sin does not automatically escort you into perfect fellowship with Christ.
It is to be noted that one who seeks first to love God in every aspect of the word will find himself unwilling to sin. John isn’t lying when he writes that “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” Neither is Jesus when He concludes a thought in the Sermon on the Mount saying “therefore you are to be perfect (blameless) as your heavenly Father is perfect.” If God’s life is within us and we do not willingly (and freely) reject his presence, how can we say that we sin? If a person prays without ceasing, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to do, can we logically as well as rightly claim that “we are (still) sinners?” I’m aware that Paul bluntly exclaims “may it never be!” to the idea of following this emblem-like statement (we are sinners). Do not go on sinning! How can you? In this we see that man is free and even expected to lead a blameless life, pleasing to God.
Perhaps, it is Wesley and the Methodists who are arrogant in thinking that they should and can live a “blameless” life! Perhaps I am arrogant in believing that this is the calling of every believer and has been from the beginning of time. Perhaps we should hop out of the boat that we’ve put ourselves in with every heathen-sinner and row to a different current.
Ask yourself
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