United Methodist Theology and Doctrine Arborlawn United Methodist

United Methodist Theology and Doctrine Arborlawn United Methodist Church Fort Worth, Texas

Ordo Salutis

Order of Salvation

“The Way”

Our Human Condition

Our Human Condition Created Tainted perfect by “the fall, ” corrupted nature Original Sin separated us from God “Total Depravity” A corrupt state of disobedience We have no intrinsic ability to restore a right relationship with God We need help

Atonement

Atonement Clears the way for a return to God Grace So given through the Christ event serious were our sins that only an act of sacrificial love costly to God could provide the grace necessary to atone for our sin Wesley pondered several theories of atonement (Ransom, Moral Influence, Penal Substitution, Satisfaction), but finally insisted on its mystery

Source of Grace Atonement provides the source of grace Wesley went on to describe different “levels” of grace Prevenient Justifying Grace Sanctifying Grace

Prevenient Grace

Prevenient Grace Available Offered to all because of the atonement to all without exception Source of freedom in that it allows us to make a choice We see ourselves as we really are Like a conscience, but more

Prevenient Grace Restores some of the natural capacities that had been distorted by original sin Instills in us an uneasiness A “spiritual spark” that causes us to long for God Prevenient grace leads to repentance

Repentance

Repentance Sorrow over our sin Awareness of our inability to save ourselves Combined “Turn with a desire to change around” away from old ways and back toward God

Repentance Wesley The on repentance “porch” of salvation Sometimes The called “convincing grace” fruit of repentance is a changed life As we change, we move toward

Justification

Justification The Pardon Rather than affirm Anglican traditions of salvation through moral achievement, Wesley saw this pardon as God’s action Conditioned upon our own faith Our part in the process is that we trust in Christ We accept the pardon

Justification The For beginning of actual salvation Wesley, a faith experience Before After Aldersgate – servant’s faith Aldersgate – child’s faith Justification is that joint effort of God’s pardon offered in response to our faith As we are justified, we are regenerated

Regeneration

Regeneration Occurs alongside justification Sense of unmerited favor on the part of God For Wesley, a work of the Holy Spirit Another way to describe it is conversion Wesley believed this conversion to be both conscious and instantaneous Event marks a new spiritual understanding and awareness Closely associated with assurance

Assurance

Assurance Complete Pure Not gift of the Holy Spirit grace a permanent condition of salvation Not assurance of salvation, but assurance of God’s pardon One could still fall from grace Assured of the presence of God

Assurance in God’s presence allows the opportunity and responsibility for salvation to be presented over and over again For United Methodists, “assurance” is assurance of God’s love In the human heart, an inward witness to salvation That witness moves us toward sanctification

Sanctificatio n

Sanctification For Wesley, another work of the Holy Spirit “Growth in holiness” Not just a joyless exercise in doing good works Continuation of the justification process Ongoing event that marks our knowledge that we are not sinless, but pardoned

Sanctification Movement Being “perfected” in love Working For toward entire sanctification toward Christian Perfection Wesley, perfect love of God and neighbor was the Spirit’s greatest gift

Christian Perfection

Christian Perfection For Wesley, “the way” of salvation meant progressing toward perfection Not perfection in the absolute literal sense In the sense of being perfected in love

Christian Perfection Wesley “When writes: I began to make the Scripture my study (about seven-and-twenty years ago), I began to see that all Christians are called to love God with all their heart and serve Him with all their strength: which is precisely what I apprehended to be meant by the scriptural term perfection. ”

Christian Perfection Often referred to as the Grand Depositum of Methodism Has been both useful and problematic Useful in that it expresses promise for the transformation of life opened to the believer in relationship with Christ Problematic in that it is often misunderstood

Christian Perfection The great Methodist historian and theologian Albert Outler writes: Wesley “could never grasp the fact that people formed by the traditions of Latin Christianity were bound to understand ‘perfection’ as perfectus (perfected). ”

Christian Perfection Perfectus Latin term “perfected” Wesley Greek had a different word in mind term “teleios” Being brought to an end, finished

Christian Perfection n. Matthew 5: 48 nesesqe oun umei. V teleioi w. V o pathr umwn o ouranio. V teleio. V estin. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ” teleio. V = perfect • Perfecting, not perfected t

Christian Perfection Is Not Literally being perfect Without sin Without mistakes Intended to mean that we can somehow work out our own salvation, it we strive for perfection hard enough If we do enough holy acts Works righteousness

Christian Perfection Is A response Salvation, By faith alone Faith We for Wesley, is sola fides in God through Christ still have a response to make Process to work

Christian Perfection Is To live in the context of discipleship and participate in it by loving God with our whole hearts To serve God through lives of holiness Love of neighbor Passion for justice Active pursuit of renewal in the life of the world

Christian Perfection Is “Solitary religion is not to be found there. ‘Holy Solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than ‘Holy Adulterers. ’ The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection. ” John Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), Preface, page viii

Christian Perfection Is Having what Wesley described as a heart “habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor” Not for the sake of moral achievement But in joyful response to God’s grace Whole-heartedness The product of a dynamic course of piety, nurture, activity, and expectation of fulfillment Wesley death often expected to occur at moment of

The Process

The Heater In the beginning there is a fire within all of us Essence As of God beings created in God’s image, that essence is within us as well

The Heater That fire is extinguished when we turn away from God in our disobedience The human condition Once the fire is out, we have no way to relight it on our own

The Heater Prevenient a spark grace provides Flicker of fire that illuminates our own condition Shows short us how we have fallen

The Heater Prevenient Always burning Placed Gives Turn Grace is like a pilot light there by God us a choice on gas Turn Leave Turn toward God gas off away from God

The Heater When God we choose to turn toward Turn on the gas Justification Process of that pilot light becoming a burning flame Power of God’s pardon combined with our faithful response

The Heater Sanctification Stirring of the fire Bringing more fuel to bear so that the flame grow more intense

The Heater Stir fire through means of God’s grace “Ordinary” means Baptism, Holy Communion, Scripture “Prudential” (Everyday) means Doing no harm, good works, mutual accountability

The Heater Yet the fire may still go out Free will Free Not to turn away “once saved, always saved” We can choose to turn our back toward God But God remains

The Heater Entire Sanctification When the fire spreads through all a person is and does Consumed No room for anything else but God’s love Whole-heartedness Christian Perfection

Ordained Clergy All candidates for Elder’s Orders are asked these questions: “Are you going on to perfection? ” “Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? “Are you earnestly striving after it? ”

Question for Everyone Bishop Scott Jones in his book United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center, asks this question: “If you’re not going on to perfection, where Our are you going? ” Wesleyan theology says that the goal of human life is to allow God’s grace to shape us into the kind of mature human beings God intended us to be

Our Goal Rather than pursue the goals of the world Christians seek to be filled with the love of God and neighbor For us as United Methodists, that kind of holiness is the highest form of human happiness That is what “Christian Perfection” is all about

John United Methodist Authorities Wesley appealed to Scripture as his primary authority Article “The V of our UM Articles of Religion Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation…”

homo unius libri

A man of one book

Primary Authority of Scripture United alone sola Methodists believe in Scripture scriptura But United Methodists also believe that Scripture properly interpreted is never alone We experience, understand, interpret Scripture (and the rest of the world as well) by

United Methodist Authorities Tradition Reason Experience Along with the primary authority of Scripture, these four authorities combine to form what is often referred to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Scriptur e. Reason Tradition Experience

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Not created by Mr. Wesley Created by Professor Outler “The term ‘quadrilateral’ does not occur in the Wesley corpus – and more than once, I have regretted having coined it for contemporary use, since it has been so widely misconstrued” Albert Outler in The Wesleyan Theological Heritage: Essays of Albert C. Outler, ed. Thomas C. Oden

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Not A doctrine proposed method for theological reflection “When challenged for his authority, on any question, his first appeal was to the Holy Bible… Even so, he was well aware that Scripture alone had rarely settled any controverted point of doctrine…

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Thus, though never as a substitute or corrective, he would also appeal to ‘the primitive church’ and to the Christian tradition at large as competent, complementary witnesses to ‘the meaning’ of this Scripture or that…

Wesleyan Quadrilateral But Scripture and tradition would not suffice without the good offices (positive and negative) of critical reason. Thus, he insisted on logical coherence and as an authorized referee in any contest between contrary positions or arguments. And yet, this was never enough. It was, as he knew for himself, the vital Christian experience of the assurance of one’s sins forgiven that clinched the matter. ” Professor Outler

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Professor Outler: It was Wesley’s “special genius” to add experience to the Anglican “triad” of Scripture, tradition, and reason. Wesley did this, on Outler’s account, in order to “incorporate the notion of conversion into the Anglican tradition”

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Not just any experience Not merely an experience with a person you find to be a good or decent person “Christian Not experience” just any Christian experience Experience forgiven. ” “of the assurance of one’s sins

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Professor Outler: “Christian experience adds nothing to the substance of Christian truth; its distinctive role is to energize the heart so as to enable the believer to speak and do the truth in love. ”

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