John Wesley believed in entire sanctification meaning that he believed it was possible, in this life, to obtain perfection which Wesley called “perfection in love”. One has to note that the Bible calls some people “blameless” such as Noah in Genesis 6:9. God told Abram in Genesis 17:1 to walk before Him and be blameless. Paul prayed for the Corinthians to be “made complete” (NASB) or “perfect” (NIV) in 2 Corinthians 13:9. Many today hold, based on Romans 7, that no person can ever overcome sin. As one woman told me once, “I sin everyday” or the guy who use to always end his prayers with “and God forgive us our many sins that we committed this day”. If that is your experience of the Christian life, how sad your life must be. Does not 1 Corinthians 10:13 offer us the promise that God will provide a way of escape from sin if we look to Him? Yes I am thankful for 1 John 1:9 but let us bear in mind that John’s exhortation to the believers in 1 John 2:1 was that they may not sin.
I fully believe that we will only be (absolutely) perfect in heaven. Hebrews 12:23 speaks of the spirit of the righteous now made perfect. The deceased righteous are now perfect because they are now in the presence of God where there is no sin. However, I do believe that we should seek to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16; Hebrews 12:14) and I believe that our passion should be to be like Jesus in all that we say or do (Colossians 3:17). Furthermore, I often pray 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 and I pray that God would not just sanctify me but others as well (John 17:17-20).
Below are the thirty texts that John Wesley used to exhort people toward holiness and perfection.
Ezekiel 36:25-26, 29
Matthew 5:8, 48; 6:10; 22:37
John 8:34-36; 17:17, 20-23
Romans 2:29; 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 7:1
Galatians 2:20
Ephesians 3:14-19; 5:27
Philippians 3:15
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Titus 2:11-14
Hebrews 6:1; 7:25; 10:14; 12:14
James 1:4
1 John 1:5-9; 3:3, 8-10; 5:13
Grateful
2 comments:
Thanks boss, I'll keep this in my bag ;)
Peace
Thanks for doing this.
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