Saved By Grace Part 1 & The Wesleyan Church

“Saved By Grace”

"The Maximum you give, will always determine the Minimum you get back."

The Wesleyan Church

The Sufficiency and Full Authority of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Wesleyan Church  - 218. We believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments constitute the Holy Scriptures. They are the inspired and infallibly written Word of God, fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all human authority, and have been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential doctrine. 

We believe that they contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man or woman that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. 

Both in the Old and New Testaments life is offered ultimately through Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and humanity. The New Testament teaches Christians how to fulfill the moral principles of the Old Testament, calling for loving obedience to God made possible by the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit.

Personal Choice

224. We believe that humanity’s creation in the image of God included ability to choose between right and wrong. Thus individuals were made morally responsible for their choices. But since the fall of Adam, people are unable in their own strength to do the right. 

This is due to original sin, which is not simply the following of Adam’s example, but rather the corruption of the nature of each mortal, and is reproduced naturally in Adam’s descendants. Because of it, humans are very far gone from original righteousness, and by nature are continually inclined to evil. 

They cannot of themselves even call upon God or exercise faith for salvation. But through Jesus Christ the prevenient grace of God makes possible what humans in self effort cannot do. It is bestowed freely upon all, enabling all who will to turn and be saved.

Church. The Discipline 2016: The Wesleyan Church . Wesleyan Publishing House. Kindle Edition. 

Good Works

232. We believe that although good works cannot save us from our sins or from God’s judgment, they are the fruit of faith and follow after regeneration. Therefore they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and by them a living faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.

15. Sanctification: Initial, Progressive, Entire 236. 

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

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. 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. It is followed by lifelong growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The life of holiness continues through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving obedience to God’s revealed will.

Church. The Discipline 2016: The Wesleyan Church . Wesleyan Publishing House. Kindle Edition. 

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

John 10:9 (CEB) 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.

Acts 4:12 (ESV)

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Old Testament

Isaiah 45:22 (ESV) “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other.

[Christ] died for all” (2 Cor. 5:14); “Who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6); “That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9); and, “He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2; cf. also John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:18; and Gal. 4:4). 

Closely related are those verses which describe the Atonement in such terms as could only mean the inclusion of all persons within its scope: “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17); “I came not to judge the world,

Those references which represent God’s will as including the salvation of all men. It is inconceivable that God should love and desire the sal vation of all and not make such possible through the Atonement. Jesus is spoken of as “The Savior of the world” (John 4:42) and “of all men, specially of those that believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). Jesus himself said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh, … for the life of the world” (John 6:51). 

Paul records, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). Peter affirms, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

 

Sinners Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin. Please forgive me. Come into my life. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. I come to you now and ask you to take control of my life; I give it to you. From this day forward, help me to live every day for you. Help me to live for you the rest of this life. In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

 

References

Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible : English standard version. Wheaton, IL: Author.

Purkiser, W. T. (1960). Exploring our Christian faith. Kansas City: Beacon Hill.

Wesleyan Church. (2016). The discipline of the Wesleyan Church. Marion, IN: Wesleyan Pub. House.

I His love and grace,

Pastor Bob

realpurpose.pastorboblenz@gmail.com