Wesley on Involuntary Sin and Condemnation
For my small group at church, we are reading a Richard Foster book of excerpts. One (which by the way Foster rearranges without telling us) is excerpts from John Wesley’s sermon, THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. It is a sermon worth pondering, on the topic of the effect of a Christian’s sins. His past sins are imputed to Christ and bear no condemnation, all agree. But what about present sins? And what about self-condemnation?
One thing I realized from this sermon is that when people talk of Wesleyan “perfectionism” as the idea that a Christian can avoid all sin, that can perhaps be true if “sin” is defined, as Wesley does below, to exclude inward and “involuntary” sin. It is a lax standard.
I will comment in between excerpts.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1 [+/-]
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3. They who are of Christ, who abide in him, “have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.” They abstain from all those works of the flesh ; from “adultery and fornication”; from “uncleanness and lasciviousness”; from “idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance “; from “emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings”; from every design, and word, and work, to which the corruption of nature leads. Although they feel the root of bitterness in themselves, yet are they endued with power from on high to trample it continually under foot, so that it cannot “spring up to trouble them”; insomuch that every fresh assault which they undergo, only gives them fresh occasion of praise, of crying out, “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”…
Here, Wesley is excluding almost everybody from being “in Jesus Christ”. That is wrong. Many who are saved– all, I would say, still succumb to sin.
And, first, to believers in Christ, walking thus, “there is no condemnation” on account of their past sins. God condemneth them not for any of these; they are as though they had never been; they are cast “as a stone into the depth of the sea,” and he remembereth them no more. God, having “set forth his Son to be a propitiation “for them, “through faith in his blood,” hath declared unto them “His righteousness for the remission of the sins that are past.” he layeth therefore none of these to their charge; their memorial is perished with them.
2. And there is no condemnation in their own breast; no sense of guilt, or dread of the wrath of God. They “have the witness in themselves:” they are conscious of their interest in the blood of sprinkling….
This is orthodox.
3. If it be said, “But sometimes a believer in Christ may lose his sight of the mercy of God; sometimes such darkness may fall upon him that he no longer sees him that is invisible, no longer feels that witness in himself of his part in the atoning blood; and then he is inwardly condemned, he hath again “the sentence of death in himself” ‘: I answer, supposing it so to be, supposing him not to see the mercy of God, then he is not a believer: For faith implies light, the light of God shining upon the soul. So far, therefore, as any one loses this light, he, for the time, loses his faith.
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Point 3 is contrary to 5-Point Calvinism but it is correct that to the extent that a person feels condemned, he does not have faith. I’d still call him a believer, but not a perfect believer.
4. They are not condemned, secondly, for any present sins, for now transgressing the commandments of God. For they do not transgress them: they do not “walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is the continual proof of their “love of God, that they keep his commandments”; even as St. John bears witness. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God:” he cannot, so long as that seed of God, that loving, holy faith remaineth in him. So long as “he keepeth himself” herein, “that wicked one toucheth him not.”…
Wrong. Believers do sin presently, all the time. But the Cross propitiates for all sins, regardless of temporal position.
5. They are not condemned, thirdly, for inward sin, even though it does now remain. That the corruption of nature does still remain, even in those who are the children of God by faith; that they have in them the seeds of pride and vanity, of anger, lust, and evil desire, yea, sin of every kind; is too plain to be denied, being matter of daily experience….
Here, we see the standard relax remarkably. What about adultery in one’s heart?
6. And yet, for all this, they are not condemned. Although they feel the flesh, the evil nature, in them; although they are more sensible, day by day, that their “heart is deceitful and desperately wicked”; yet, so long as they do not yield thereto; so long as they give no place to the devil; so long as they maintain a continual war with all sin, with pride, anger, desire, so that the flesh hath not dominion over them, but they still “walk after the Spirit”; ” there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” God is well pleased with their sincere, though imperfect. obedience; and they “have confidence toward God,” knowing they are his, “by the Spirit which he hath given” them. (1 John 3:24 [+/-]
True, God is pleased with their imperfect obedience, but so he is in the same way with imperfect outward obedience.
7. Nay, fourthly, although they are continually convinced of sin cleaving to all they do; although they are conscious of not fulfilling the perfect law, either in their thoughts, or words, or works; although they know they do not love the Lord their God with all their heart, and mind, and soul, and strength; although they feel more or less of pride, or self-will, stealing in, and mixing with their best duties; although even in their more immediate intercourse with God, when they assemble themselves with the great congregation, and when they pour out their souls in secret to him who seeth all the thoughts and intents of the heart, they are continually ashamed of their wandering thoughts, or of the deadness and dulness of their affections; yet there is no condemnation to them still, either from God or from their own heart. The consideration of these manifold defects only gives them a deeper sense, that they have always need of that blood of sprinkling which speaks for them in the ears of God, and that Advocate with the Father “who ever liveth to make intercession for them.” So far are these from driving them away from him in whom they have believed, that they rather drive them the closer to him whom they feel the want of every moment. …
Point 7 has a lot in it. The believer is ashamed, but does not feel condemned. That seems right to me. He is disappointed that he has displeased God, but not because he fears punishment. And it is a very good point that this kind of sin drives us closer to God, not further away.
8. They are not condemned, fifthly, for sins of infirmity … by sins of infirmity I would mean, such involuntary failings as the saying a thing we believe true, though, in fact, it prove to be false; or, the hurting our neighbor without knowing or designing it, perhaps when we designed to do him good. Though these are deviations from the holy, and acceptable, and perfect will of God , yet they are not properly sins, nor do they bring any guilt on the conscience of “them which are in Christ Jesus.” They separate not between God and them, neither intercept the light of his countenance; as being no ways inconsistent with their general character of “walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
I’m not so sure of that. When I kill someone accidentally, I have done wrong, even though with no ill intent. It is a bad thing. And I often would rather deal with a competent sinner than with an incompetent Christian— the Christian will do me more harm, even if not intentionally.
9. Lastly. “There is no condemnation “to them for anything whatever which it is not in their power to help; whether it be of an inward or outward nature, and whether it be doing something or leaving something undone. For instance, the Lord’s Supper is to be administered; but you do not partake thereof. Why do you not? You are confined by sickness; therefore, you cannot help omitting it; and for the same reason you are not condemned. There is no guilt, because there is no choice. As there “is a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, not according to that he hath not.”
10. A believer, indeed, may sometimes be _grieved_: because he cannot do what his soul longs for. He may cry out, when he is detained from worshipping God in the great congregation, “Like as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: When shall I come to appear in the presence of God?” he may earnestly desire (only still saying in his heart, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt”) to “go again with the multitude, and bring them forth into the house of God.” But still, if he cannot go, he feels no condemnation, no guilt, no sense of God’s displeasure….
What of people who cannot keep themselves from stealing or murdering? There is a fine line to be found here, and Wesley does not help us to find it.
11. It is more difficult to determine concerning those which are usually styled sins of surprise: as when one who commonly in patience possesses his soul, on a sudden and violent temptation, speaks or acts in a manner not consistent with the royal law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Perhaps it is not easy to fix a general rule concerning transgressions of this nature. We cannot say, either that men are, or that they are not, condemned for sins of surprise in general: but it seems, whenever a believer is by surprise overtaken in a fault, there is more or less condemnation, as there is more or less concurrence of his will. ….
Weakness of will is in itself a sin.
13. On the other hand, there may be sudden assaults, either from the world, or the god of this world, and frequently from our own evil hearts, which we did not, and hardly could, foresee. And by these even a believer, while weak in faith, may possibly be borne down, suppose into a degree of anger, or thinking evil of another, with scarce any concurrence of his will. Now in such a case, the jealous God would undoubtedly show him that he had done foolishly. He would be convinced of having swerved from the perfect law, from the mind which was in Christ, and consequently, _grieved_ with a godly sorrow, and lovingly _ashamed_ before God. Yet need he not come into condemnation. God layeth not folly to his charge, but hath compassion upon him, “even as a father pitieth his own children.” …
Look back to point 7. How does this dffer from intentional sin?