For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11–14)
Wesley saw salvation from beginning until end as a work of God’s grace. He ascribed all good to the free grace of God.((Minutes of the 1745 Conference; Wesley, BE Works, 10:153. See also Reasoner, “John Wesley’s Doctrines on the Theology of Grace” chapter 10 in Grace For All, Pinnock and Wagner, eds. Wipf & Stock, 2015.)) This passage in Titus covers the full scope of divine grace.
1. Preliminary Grace
The grace which appears to everyone is prevenient or preliminary grace. Preliminary grace restores the capacity of every person to accept salvation. This grace appears to everyone, creating a temporary condition in which we are enabled to respond to the drawing of the Father. The issue which divides Wesleyan-Arminians from Calvinism is not grace. The question is whether this grace is irresistible and whether election is unconditional. We understand that this preliminary grace appears to everyone unconditionally, but it may be resisted. Those who accept and submit to this initial grace are the elect.
2. Justifying Grace
Wesley stood with the Protestant Reformers, regarding the nature of justification as a forensic declaration by God by which he graciously forgives and accepts sinners. The basis of this justification is faith alone.
However, Wesley broke with the majority Reformation opinion concerning the results of justification. He rejected the view that the Christian is at once just and yet a sinner. He declared, “I believe God implants righteousness in everyone to whom he has imputed it.”((Wesley, “The Lord Our Righteousness,” Sermon #20, 2.12.)) He explained that at the same moment that we are justified, sanctification begins.1
Redemption is a broad term. It carries the picture of a slave who has been bought. We are redeemed from the power and guilt of all our sins. Freedom from the guilt of our sins is termed justifying grace. We are “justified, pardoned, and accepted through the alone merits of Christ, not from any desert in us, but according to his own mercy by his grace, free, unmerited goodness.”
Regeneration also occurs at the new birth, and Paul teaches in Titus 3:5 that we are saved by the washing of regeneration. This is symbolized externally by water baptism. This initial cleansing purifies the soul as water cleanses the body. This is described in 1 Corinthians 6:11 as well. We also are renewed in the whole image of God and empowered to live as Christians through the renewal of the Holy Spirit. This is also initial sanctification.
However, redemption goes beyond that level of freedom. We also may be redeemed from the “very being” of sin.((Wesley, Notes, 558–59.))
3. Perfecting Grace
But the cure for sin is as radical as the disease. God has made provision through Christ to save us from all sin or the “very being” of sin. God’s grace can enable us to love him with our whole heart. It displaces everything contrary to that love.
In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, John Wesley argued for entire sanctification based on the promises, prayers, commands, and examples of Scripture. He responded to the question, “But how does it appear that this is to be done before the article of death?” by pointing out that the commands are not given to the dead but to the living and by citing two passages: Luke 1:69 and Titus 2:11–14.
Furthermore, this grace instructs all who do not reject it on how to live in all purity and holiness. Wesley argued that we are commanded to live holy in the present world—as we look for the blessed hope of Christ’s return. The grace which enables us to live holy is based on the atoning work of Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people who are set apart from sin which belong to him. If we are to be redeemed from all iniquity, we need a deeper cleansing than the washing of regeneration.
The Greek word iniquity is anomia. This is lawlessness. Wesley referred to it as the “very being” of sin. This refers to an inward orientation toward sin. The very nature of sin is lawlessness. According to Romans 8:7, the carnal mind is hostile to the law of God and will not submit. While a believer submits, he or she still struggles. According to 1 John 3:4, Christ came to destroy this principle of lawlessness. If we can be cleansed from all iniquity, then we can be entirely sanctified.
Sermon Suggestions
Our definition of grace often means little more than forbearance. When we are late, we presume on a “grace period.” When we fail a test, we want to be graded on the curve. But an old holiness song declared joyously, “Grace has changed the world I’m living in.”((Haldor Lillenas, “Under the Atoning Blood,” (1918).)) Thomas Oden wrote The Transforming Power of Grace (1993).
Our definition of grace must be expanded. Grace is God at work for us, in us, and through us. Are we set apart as God’s own possession? The biblical doctrine of election is not an unconditional, capricious mystery. God has chosen whosoever will to be made holy. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13, God’s election is not restricted to whomever he chooses, but it defines what we are chosen to become.
Is this grace at work in your life and mine? If so, it will redeem us from sin, purify us as his holy people, and make us zealous to serve others.
Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation
Edited by Clark H. Pinnock and John D. Wagner
$41 (Paperback; 328 pages)
Did Christ atone for the sins of humanity on the cross? Does God desire all people to be saved and direct his grace toward all people for that purpose? There are some Christians following a deterministic paradigm who believe this is not true. They believe God has predestined some people for heaven and many, or even most, for hell. The rising tide of Calvinism and its “TULIP” theology needs to be respectfully answered.
Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation features a distinguished international panel of scholars to examine this controversy. These writers address issues such as election, free will, grace, and assurance. They make compelling scriptural arguments for the universality of God’s grace, contending that Christ atoned for the sins of all people and that God sincerely offers forgiveness for all through Christ.
This book strives to uncover the biblical position on salvation. We hope the reader will enjoy this stimulating series of articles on the Arminian perspective and that it will spur further writing and discussion.
Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation is an updated and revised version of Grace Unlimited, a 1975 collection of scholarly articles assembled by the late Clark H. Pinnock of McMaster Divinity College.
- Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” Sermon #43, 1.4. [↩]