70. Is true holiness possible?
Yes. Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness, and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain.
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With this and the following questions we come to the distinctive Wesleyan doctrine of “Christian perfection,” a teaching that has tended to be referred to more recently as “entire sanctification”—a more accurate and less problematic label. The attention Wesley gave to this doctrine reflects the seriousness with which he took Jesus’s own charge to his disciples: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48 NIV). Christian perfection refers simply to the state of living with such an overwhelming awareness of God’s love that no room remains for baser desires or impulses. It is perfection only in regard to holiness, to love for God and neighbor, motivating and shaping all of one’s thoughts, words, and actions.
Wesley believed that entire sanctification was possible not because he was naive about human beings, but because he was confident in God’s promises. He looked to the promises in Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:31–34, and Ezekiel 36:25–27 about God himself intervening to make it possible to obey God’s law, to live in righteousness and holiness before him, and believed that God would fulfill these promises for those who trusted in Christ. Wesley also believed that entire sanctification was possible not because he had confidence in what believers could accomplish, but because he had absolute confidence in what the Holy Spirit could accomplish in those who gave themselves over fully to the Spirit’s work—to “walking in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 DST). As with every other facet of our salvation, Christian perfection (or entire sanctification) is not a burden laid upon believers’ shoulders to attain by our own efforts, though it certainly does call for diligence in attending to the means of grace in a manner worthy of the label “spiritual disciplines.” It remains, rather, the gracious outcome of the work that God greatly desires to accomplish in every believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul gave expression to this in Romans: “God, by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the Law might be fulfilled among us who walk, not in line with the flesh, but in step with the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3–4 DST).
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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Rom. 8:28–29 NIV)
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thess. 5:23–24 NIV)
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. (1 John 5:3–4)
See also Ex. 19:6; Lev. 11:44–45; 19:2; Deut. 7:6; 14:2; Matt. 5:43–48; 1 John 3:2–3; CoF XI
This is an excerpt from Christian Faith and Doctrine: An Annotated Catechism for the Global Methodist Church. Seedbed is pleased to partner with The Global Methodist Church to offer this companion resource to A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church.
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