TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

transform all of life, and all that lacked was time to practice the love
now poured out.
Wesley's optimism about the immediate effects of assurance or
faith or the witness of the spirit or regeneration or justification (at
first these were all confused in Wesley's mind) was assaulted not
only by his own experience but by the testimony of experienced
Christians (including some of the Moravians) and by the analysis of
the lives of new Methodists. It became clear that most did not find
entire holiness at the point of initial transformation, 13
Over the course of several decades Wesley developed a new view
of the means by which we become holy. Wesley returned to his idea
of the disciplined life, which had earlier characterized the
Methodists. But this disciplined life was now more clearly grounded
on the grace of God. Since grace was the foundation, holiness was a
possibility for all. The dominant metaphor for the process of
becoming holy was growth toward maturity. This growth always has
its basis in divine grace, but it requires our cooperation as well. That
is Wesley's Arminianism.
Wesley's mature view of what we might call conversion was that
it was a means to this end. God gave us this infusion of grace so that
we might become truly holy, so that we might manifest in all aspects
of our lives the love of God and neighbor. Unlike the "gospel
preachers" of his day, Wesley never viewed conversion as an end. 14
Faith in Christ was merely the means to that end (and moreover not
an indispensable means). 15
Even the doctrine of assurance came to
be regarded as a dispensable means to that end. 16
This helps explain why Wesley constantly discounted the
enthusiasm of early converts. Time and again in his Journal he notes
that many claimed to have been justified or regenerated, then
remarks, "But how many of these flowers will fade?" He was
interested in "converts" only insofar as they really began and
continued on the road to the holiness. Wesley always subjected
claims of religious experience and of conversion to one rigorous
test: does it produce holiness? Does it lead to a life which embodies
love for all humanity and especially for the least of these? Does it
bring an end to enmity and division? Does it bring peace and
humility? Does it produce sacrificial solidarity with the poor? Only
if it does can it really be termed a conversion.
8 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993