Today I continue to feature more from the writings of John Wesley, this week’s featured Anglican theologian and writer. See my post on Monday for more information about Wesley. All three excerpts deal with God working in us at various levels. Enjoy
The Holy Ghost so works upon the soul by his immediate influence and by a strong though inexplicable operation, that the stormy wind and troubled waves subside, and there is a sweet calm; the heart resting as in the arms of Jesus and the sinner being clearly satisfied that God is reconciled, that all his “iniquities are forgiven, and his sins covered.”
—Sermon, The Witness of the Spirit
And this:
If the Spirit of God does really testify that we are children of God, the immediate consequence will be the fruit of the Spirit, even “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance.” And however this fruit may be clouded for a while during the time of strong temptation, so that it does not appear to the tempted person while “Satan is sifting him as wheat,” yet the substantial part of it remains, even under the thickest cloud…when we have once received this “Spirit of adoption,” that “peace which passes all understanding” and which expels all painful doubt and fear will “keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And when this has brought forth its genuine fruit, all inward and outward holiness, it is undoubtedly the will of him that calleth us to give us always what he has once given. So that there is no need that we should ever more be deprived of either the testimony of God’s Spirit or the testimony of our own, the consciousness of our walking in all righteousness and true holiness.
—Sermon, The Witness of the Spirit
And this:
This then is the salvation which is through faith, even in the present world: a salvation from sin, and the consequences of sin, both often expressed in the word justification; which taken in the largest sense, implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment, by the atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now believing on him, and a deliverance from the whole body of sin, through Christ formed in his heart. So that he who is thus justified, or saved by faith, is indeed born again.
—Sermon, Salvation by Faith