In May, I was ordained an elder in the Global Methodist Church. Each clergyperson ordained in a Methodist denomination has to answer 19 historical questions asked by bishops going back to John Wesley’s (the founder of the Methodist movement) time. I thought I might share my responses to these questions in hopes of sharing a bit more about myself and about Methodism. This is the second and third of the 19 questions. I hope it blesses you!

To read my other responses to the questions, check them out here:

1. Have you faith in Christ?
2. Are you going on to perfection?
3. Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?
4. Are you earnestly striving after perfection in love?
5. Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to God’s work?
6. Do you know the General Rules of our Church?
7. Will you keep the General Rules of our Church?
8. Have you studied the doctrines of the Global Methodist Church?
9. After full consideration do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?

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2. Are you going on to perfection?

By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit working in my life, I trust that I am going on to Christian perfection. While the whole body of Christ believes that all Christians will be perfected in love, or entirely sanctified, in heaven, Methodists have the distinction of believing that we can become entirely sanctified in this life.

Before we are made aware of God’s presence in our life and give our allegiance to Him as Lord of our life, God is wooing us to Him by His grace, which we experience as prevenient grace. God gives this grace to all as He calls each person into a right relationship with Him. Prevenient grace also convicts us of our sin and our need for God.

After the prevenient grace of God convicts us of our need for divine grace and we accept the truths of Scripture, we may move on to a full reliance on Jesus Christ, and a trust that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are sufficient for our salvation.[1] When that occurs, God’s justifying grace frees us from the guilt of sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

This justification is a grace that happens by faith, as we are, at the moment we believe in the saving work of Jesus and put our trust in Him. This work God does for us restores us to the favor of God, taking away the guilt of our sin. At the same time that justification occurs, regeneration also occurs. This new birth is what God does in us, specifically, that He restores us into relationship with Him and frees us from the power of sin.

However, God is not satisfied to simply leave us where we are as justified Christians. Though justification is the first step towards sanctification, God calls us to be sanctified entirely (1 Thess. 5:23-24). Therefore, though we who are justified are freed from the power of sin, we are not made immediately free from the very being of sin.

The sanctifying grace of God is what eventually frees children of God from the inbred sin that is in our human nature. The believer that experiences entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, is free from evil thoughts and evil tempers.[2] As with both prevenient and justifying grace, we know that sanctifying grace is a divine grace that solely comes from our God of perfect love, as no human (aside from Jesus) has the ability or capacity to create such a real change within their own lives.

“Perfection”, “being made perfect in love”, and “Christian perfection” are all ways of describing entire sanctification. There is an instantaneous moment when we are justified and an instantaneous moment when we will be entirely sanctified (even if we cannot identify those exact moments), but God leads us through a gradual process that gets us to those moments.[3] While we are unable to justify or sanctify ourselves, we can cooperate with God to create an environment that welcomes Him to bring the instantaneous moment of entire sanctification.

I see myself as someone who is in process to being entirely sanctified and am therefore, going on to perfection.

3. Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?

When I was in seminary, I expressed some hesitation about the doctrine of entire sanctification to one of my good friends. He said to me, “Do you believe that the power of God is greater than the powers of this world?” I told him I did. “Even in this life?” he asked. I told him that, yes, even in this life, I believed that the power of God is greater than the powers of this world. I had seen and experienced God’s power overcoming the powers of this world too much to deny that. “Then how can’t you believe in entire sanctification in this life?” my friend concluded.

That settled it for me. From then on, I believed that God could entirely sanctify me in this life. However, it took me a while longer to expect to be made perfect in love in this life. I had no doubts that God could and wanted to made me perfect in love in this life; I had doubts that I would be able to reach a state of holiness in which God would be able to make me perfect in love in this life. In short, I doubted whether I could be “good enough” to be made perfect in love in this life.

The more I learned about entire sanctification, though, the more I realized that—just like with justification—entire sanctification is not about what we are able to do or how good we are. After all, we are not saved by our own works, but by God’s grace through our faith. All that was needed from me was my faith, my allegiance to God, which would posture me in a way that I could receive the entirely sanctifying grace of God if and when He chooses to give that to me in this life. As John Wesley said of entire sanctification, “If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are: and if as you are, then expect it now.”[4]

Because I expect to be made perfect in love in this life, I seek to live in a way that aligns with that expectation. As I will discuss in response to the next question, I seek to intentionally posture myself with spiritual disciplines to create an environment in my life in which to receive God’s entirely sanctifying grace when He gives it to me. Surrendering to God to allow Him to choose when, how, and even if He makes me perfect in love in this life is a daily task for me, but it is a daily reminder of my need for Him each and every day. As a child does not have to try to convince his parents to give him a Christmas gift he’s already seen hiding in their closet, I do not have to try to earn the gift of being made perfect in love in this life because I expect that our good Father wants to give His children His good gifts.

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[1]. John Wesley, “Salvation by Faith,” in The Sermons of John Wesley, ed. Kenneth J. Collins and Jason E. Vickers (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), 128.
[2]. Kenneth J. Collins, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 301-302.
[3]. Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” in The Sermons of John Wesley, 589.
[4]. Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” in The Sermons of John Wesley, 590.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in getting the other responses to the 19 questions delivered to your inbox, subscribe to my blog below!

This blog is a hobby for me, but it does cost some money to maintain. If you’d like to support this blog, you can purchase any of the books I’ve mentioned in this post using the links on this blog, or you can “buy me a coffee.” Thanks!

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Also, to read my book review of GMC Bishop Carolyn Moore’s book The 19: Questions to Kindle a Wesleyan Spirit, check it out here.

You might also be interested in some of my other blog posts about the Global Methodist Church. If so, they’re below:

“The Two Preachers We Need”
“My Grandchildren’s Denomination”
“Why Do We Ordain?”
“Learning to Trust: From Calling to Ordination”