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Invitation to a Journey Sessions Ten and Eleven: Nourishment and Strength for the Journey
The choice of our title for this session is deliberate. If the spiritual life, or the way of salvation, is a dynamic and progressive journey involving God's gracious initiatives toward us and our faithful and continued response to those gracious overtures, then it follows that God has ordained numerous means through which his grace can come to us, including the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
I. THE MEANS OF GRACE DEFINED
Wesley: "outward signs, words, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end - to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace. ("Means of Grace," 11. 1)
Wesley's definition of sacrament: "an outward sign of inward grace, a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." (cf. "Means of Grace," 11. 1)
Randy Maddox has argued that Wesley understood the means of grace in a two-fold sense:
Practices through which God's pardoning and empowering Presence is truly communicated to us for the healing of our sin-diseased nature;
Exercises that co-operantly nurture the healing of our sin-diseased nature. (Cf. Responsible Grace, pp. 201-202) Commenting further on this, Maddox observes:
When one understands sanctification on Wesley's terms, as a lifelong process of healing our sin-distorted affections, there is an obvious need for continually renewing the empowerment for this healing. 7he other essential requirement is a persistent deepening of our awareness of the deceptive motivations and prejudices remaining in our life, because co-operant healing entails some discernment of that which still needs to be healed. (p. 202)
II. THE MEANS OF GRACE LISTED
Prayer (personal and corporate). Note: private prayer can shape our growth in holiness in a substantial way, especially when it's guided prayer. Cf. Wesley's "A Collection of Forms of Prayer."
Study of Scripture (reading, hearing, meditating)
Devotional and Catechetical reading
Works of Mercy
This involved caring for the welfare of others. Wesley believed that WOM were a means of sanctifying grace, along with the eucharist. They "exercise all holy tempers, and thereby improve them." (Cf. "On Zeal," II.5) The principle: Disciplined practice leads to greater embodiment of that which you practice.
Self Denial
This included fasting and the avoidance of "frivolous pleasures." For Wesley, self-denial was essential to the Christian life. It was not asceticism, but a willingness to embrace God's will when it was contrary to your own. Wesley's most consistent application of this principle was in relation to wealth, For him, we should earn enough to provide our basic necessities, and the rest should be given away to help those in need. (Cf. Responsible Grace, p. 216)
Corporate [liturgical] worship
Wesley tried to convince his followers of the need for parish [Anglican] worship, not out of a sense of duty but a sense of sustenance. Liturgical worship provided spiritual nurture, which persons would abandon to their great loss. (Cf. Responsible Grace, 205; cf. Also Wesley's "Reasons Against a Separation From the Church of England.")
Important elements of corporate worship:
Formal prayers. Wesley saw extempore prayer as a valuable supplement to formal prayers, but rejected the exclusive use of extempore prayer on practical-theological grounds. Formal prayers, especially the elements of confession, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving, proved invaluable in forming and shaping believers' lives.
Scripture/lectionary. In a day when many others were abandoning the lectionary, Wesley retained its use, with the conviction that the whole of Scripture greatly shapes and patterns believers' lives in profound ways.
The Church Year. Although Wesley drastically reduced the number of "holy days" and saints days in forming his Sunday Service for the Methodists in North America, he did so precisely because of his belief that the entire year was to be holy, not just certain days. Wesley valued the saints as honored exemplars, not intercessors.
Hymns. Whereas current Anglican worship utilized only metrical Psalms for worship, Wesley, borrowing from the Moravians, added hymns to the worship repertoire. Some have argued Wesley did this because the hymns allowed the expression of intense feeling and emotion. While this is certainly true, there was a more important reason for Wesley. He believed that the hymns had great power to shape believers' lives. Hymns help to direct and instruct the faith of others, not merely to allow the expression of intense feeling and emotion. (Note: In our day, we should not be naive about the formative and shaping influence of what we sing over our lives.)
Sermons. As a means of grace, the sermon was to communicate Christ in all of his offices. The sermon assures us of God's pardoning love (Priest), while simultaneously revealing our remaining need (Prophet), and leading our further growth in Christlikeness (King). (Cf. Responsible Grace, 209)
The Societies as a means of grace
The societies were a means of grace in that they provided communal support by gathering persons around a common vision of the Christian life. This included such elements as mutual accountability (discipline), the Love Feasts, Watch-Night Services, and Covenant Renewal services.
III. LIMITATIONS OF THE MEANS OF GRACE
The means of grace are exactly that - means, not ends. Wesley observes:
But we allow that the whole value of the the means depends on their actual subservience to the end of religion; that consequently all these means, when separate from the end, are less than nothing, and vanity; that if they do not actually conduce to the knowledge and love of God they are not acceptable in his sight; yea, rather, they are an abomination before him; a stink in his nostrils; he is weary to bear them... (Cf. "The Means of Grace," 11.2)
The means of grace have no inherent or magical power in themselves; it is God who works through them.
The use of all the means of grace will not atone for one sin - only the blood of Christ does that. Wesley also acknowledges that many persons abuse the means of grace, resting content in the "form" of godliness without the "power" - to their soul's destruction. But Wesley is careful to note that the abuse of a practice should not be cause for the abandonment of a practice:
Some ... in their fervent zeal for the glory of God and the recovery of souls from that fatal delusion [i.e., that the means of grace are ends in themselves], spake as if outward religion were absolutely nothing, as if it had no place in the religion of Christ ... So that unwary hearers might believe they condemned all outward means as altogether unprofitable, and as not designed of God to be the ordinary channels of conveying his grace into the souls of men. ("The Means of Grace," 1.5)
IV. GUIDES FOR USING THE MEANS OF GRACE
Remember that God is above all means. God is sovereign. We don't use the means of grace to "manipulate" God into acting or to presume upon God.
Remember that there is no inherent power in the means, nor any merit in our using them. We use them because God commands us to do so:
Settle this in your heart, that the opus operatum, the mere work done, profiteth nothing; that there is no power, to save but in the Spirit of God, no merit but in the blood of Christ, that consequently even what God ordains conveys no grace to the soul if you trust not in him alone. ("The Means of Grace," V.4)
Remember to seek God alone through the use of the means. Wesley adds, "in and through every outward thing look singly to the power of his Spirit and the merits of his Son." ("The Means of Grace," V.4)
Guard your attitude against spiritual pride.
V. WESLEY ON BAPTISM
A. Historical context - I 7th / 18th century Anglicanism. Maddox has noted (Responsible Grace, pp. 218ff.) that during Wesley's time there was widespread neglect of catechism training and the practice of confirmation. Many of his hearers considered themselves Christian by virtue of their infant baptism, but showed little evidence that they had personally appropriated the renunciation of' sin and newness of life that was expressed in their baptism. They equated the act of infant baptism with their final salvation. To such persons, Wesley is abrupt and clear: Say, not then in your heart, I was once baptized,- therefore I am now a child of God. Alas, that consequence will by no means hold. How many are the baptized liars and common swearers, the baptized railers and evil-speakers, the baptized whoremongers, thieves, extortioners! What think you? Are these now the children of God? (Wesley, "The Marks of the New Birth.")
The point Wesley is making here is that regeneration and the new birth do not always accompany baptism. They do not always necessarily go together. Unfortunately, this necessary affirmation has tended to obscure another equally important point in Wesley, stated by Ole Borgen:
... [Wesley's insistence] that baptism and the new birth do not always go together ... implies that they go together most of the lime. (Cf. Ole Borgen, John Wesley on the Sacraments: A Theological Study, p. 155).
It is clear that Wesley held a sacramental view of the new birth by associating it with baptism, at least in some instances. Speaking of himself, he states:
I believe till I was about ten years old I had not sinned away that 'washing of the Holy Ghost' which was given me in baptism. (WJW, Vol. 17)
And, in his sermon, "The New Birth," Wesley states, "it is certain our church presupposes that all who are baptized in their infancy are at the same time born again" (WJW, 2:197).
The upshot of this is that while Wesley chided many who trusted in their infant baptism for salvation in spite of the fact that the fruit of the Spirit was missing in their lives, he never took this as evidence that the Spirit was not conveyed through infant baptism - although he faced this argument many times from members of believer's churches.
Maddox notes:
[Wesley's] diagnosis did not focus on the absence of the Spirit's Presence but on his hearer's lack of responsiveness to that Presence ... Accordingly, he tried vigorously to awaken them to the realization that the crucial question was not whether one had been baptized, but whether one was continuing to participate responsibly in the transformation of lift that the grace signified in baptism empowers. (Responsible Grace, p. 218)
Benefits of Adult Baptism for Wesley.
Lower: Forgiveness of sins
Higher: The regenerating effect of the Holy Spirit. This higher benefit reflects, according to Maddox, Wesley's therapeutic concern, As such, the defining purpose of baptism is to begin or initiate the graciously empowered transformation of our lives, not to bestow our legal pardon. Summarizing, Maddox notes:
While the grace of baptism is sufficient for initiating Christian life, it becomes efficient only as we responsibly participate. That is why, from early in the revival, Wesley declined to identify the New Birth with baptism in any rigid sense ... He carefully eliminated from the Articles any suggestion that baptism inevitably conveys the benefits of justification and regeneration. Likewise, though he retained the language of regeneration in those parts of the baptismal liturgies preceding the actual baptism, he deleted it from prayers after the baptism - with the apparent intent of affirming the availability of regeneration in baptism, while protecting against presumption by removing the suggestion of assured reception...Since baptism is not a juridical guarantee of salvation or a source of irresistible grace, it is always possible to neglect the empowering Presence that it conveys and eventually to quench the pardoning relationship that it signifies. (Responsible Grace, pp. 222-23)
Benefits of Infant Baptism for Wesley
Many scholars argue that Wesley came to reject regeneration as a benefit of infant baptism, citing as evidence Wesley's deletion of affirmations of regeneration from the liturgy for infant baptism in the Sunday Service. (Note: As with the liturgy for adult baptism, Wesley retained affirmations of regeneration in portions preceding the actual baptism, and deleted only the affirmations that followed the baptism. Again, the purpose most likely was not to reject the possibility of regeneration, but to avoid the impression of its inevitability.) Maddox concludes:
On balance, then, it seems best to say that Wesley remained convinced that infant baptism conveyed the regenerating Presence of the Holy Spirit, though he emphasized that the full effectiveness of this gracious Presence emerged gradually, as the developing child responsibly appropriated it. (RG, pp. 224-25)
Wesley also changed his view concerning the purpose of infant baptism, especially as it related to the remission of the inherited guilt of Original Sin (a concern of Western theology). The early Wesley affirmed the remission of the guilt of Original Sin as one purpose of baptism, but the later Wesley rejected this notion, arguing that the inherited guilt of Original Sin was cancelled at birth by prevenient grace.
VI. WESLEY ON THE LORD'S SUPPER
A sanctifying ordinance. As we've already seen, Wesley saw the Eucharist as a means of grace for the ongoing renewal of our souls in the image of God and the heating of our sin-diseased nature: As our bodies are strengthened by bread and wine, so are our souls by these tokens of the body and the blood of Christ. This is the food of our souls: This gives strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection. ("The Duty of Constant Communion.")
A converting ordinance. Wesley saw the Lord's Supper as a channel of God's grace to persons in various states of need - including preventing, justifying, and sanctifying grace (Cf. "The Means of Grace"). The evidence that he saw the Eucharist as a means of justifying grace is unmistakable (Cf. Rob Staples, Outward Sign and Inward Grace: The Place of Sacraments in Wesleyan Spirituality, pp. 251-264).
At least one reason for this was that the import of the atonement for Wesley was a demonstration of God's love in Christ, not just the satisfaction of God's justice. In Christ's sacrifice, we are convinced of God's love for us. The celebration of the Eucharist becomes the primary way this conviction of God's love is initially sparked and recurrently nurtured. (Cf. Maddox, RG, 203) This has led Staples to comment:
There is a supreme irony in the spectacle of present day Wesleyans, with great concern for evangelism, plainly neglecting one of the most meaningful tools for evangelism ever conceived within their own tradition! (Outward Sign and Inward Grace, p. 252)
An ordinance of the Real Presence of Christ.
The key issue in the debate about the Lord's Supper in Wesley's day (and perhaps still today!) Was this: "Is Christ really present in the sacrament?"
For Wesley, the answer to that question was "yes," but not in the sense that Roman Catholics, Luther, or even Calvin understood it. For Wesley, the Presence of Christ in the sacrament was a spiritual Presence. That is, it is the Presence of the Holy Spirit, bestowing the benefits of Christ's redemptive work in all of his offices: prophet, priest, and king. The objective presence of Christ in the Eucharist "cannot be thought of as the static presence of an object, but rather as that of a living and acting person working through the means" (Cf. Borgen, John Wesley on the Sacraments, pp. 68-69). Wesley's emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the means by which Christ is present to communicants reinforces the notion of "uncreated" grace prevalent in Eastern theology. Thus, what persons encounter in the Lord's Supper is not the static presence of "benefit," but the pardoning and empowering Presence of a Person. (Cf. Maddox, RG, 204)
In affirming the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament, Wesley rejected the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation (a change in the substance of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ), and Luther's view of consubstantiation (the elements remain what they are, but Christ is bodily present in, with, and under the elements). He also rejected the view of Ulrich Zwingli (the memorialist view), who believed that the sacrament did not convey grace but was a sign of grace already received. For Zwingli, Christ is present in the Supper not in essence or reality, but only in the contemplation of faith. As such, the Eucharist is not strictly a means of grace, but a memorial designed to remind us of the sacrifice of Christ.
As scholars such as Cutler, Maddox, Staples, and others have noted, Wesley's position regarding the Eucharist is characteristically Anglican. Borrowing from Richard Hooker, Wesley related the Real Presence of Christ to the communicant more than to the elements. When one faithfully partakes, one participates directly in the Presence of Christ with all its transforming benefits. In true Anglican fashion, Wesley held firm that the Lord's Supper is a true sacrament that conveys to believers the gracious gift of Christ. Thus, Charles Wesley would say:
Ah, tell us no more the spirit and power of Jesus our God is not to be found in this life-giving food. (Cf. "Hymns on the Lord's Supper," # 92).
Likewise, John Wesley would say that the Eucharist was the "grand channel" for conveying God's grace to human souls. (Cf. "Sermon on the Mount, VI," III.2; "On Working Out Our Own Salvation," II.4).
Summary of Wesley on the Eucharist
The Eucharist conveys power for transforming our sin-distorted lives;
The Eucharist plays a role in shaping our transformation within the context of corporate liturgical worship:
By providing occasion for guided reflection on and confession of our sins. This deepens our awareness of motives, prejudices, and practices in our lives still in need of healing;
By providing occasion for us to offer ourselves in consecration and living sacrifice to Christ, in response to his gracious salvation. (Cf. Maddox, RG, p. 205)
SUMMARY
Albert Outler reflects on Wesley's view of the means of grace and the challenges posed to him in his day:
Wesley's view of sacraments and the means of grace was thoroughly Anglican. His challenge: How to appropriate this tradition for people whose sacramental sense had atrophied and whose spontaneous experiences of grace were so much more vivid than their usual experiences of its ordinances anti means.
Ironically, this challenge is equally relevant to those who claim to be Wesley's heirs today.
For Further Reading:
John Wesley. "The Means of Grace."
John Wesley. "The Duty of Constant Communion."
John Wesley. "The Marks of the New Birth."
John Wesley. "The New Birth."
John Wesley. "On Zeal."
John Wesley. A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week (reprint). Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1992.
John Wesley. The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (reprint). Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1992.
John Wesley. Thoughts Upon Infant-Baptism, Extracted from a Late Author. Bristol: Farley, 175 1.
Kenneth Collins. A Faithful Witness: John Wesley's Homiletical Theology. Wilmore, KY: Wesley Heritage Press, 1993.
Randy Maddox. Responsible Grace: John Wesley's Practical Theology. Nashville: Kingswood, 1994.
Ole Borgen. John Wesley On the Sacraments: A Theological Study. Nashville: Abingdon, 1972.
Rob Staples. Outward Sign and Inward Grace: The Place of Sacraments in Wesleyan Spirituality. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1991.
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