Going on to Salvation, Revised Edition: A Study of Wesleyan Beliefs - Softcover

Dunnam, Maxie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687653134 ISBN 13: 9780687653133

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2008

Synopsis

The church today desperately needs to recover the depth, richness, and wonder of the biblical and Wesleyan doctrine of salvation. In this book, author Maxie Dunnam offers his perspective on how to make this recovery possible. Drawing deeply on biblical and Wesleyan sources, Dunnam leads his readers on a rich and challenging tour of what it means to say that we are going on to salvation—saved by grace. Ten well drawn chapters map the full terrain of justifying, sanctifying, and perfecting grace, and mark off those detours that too frequently have confused the way of salvation.

About this title

About the Author

Maxie D. Dunnam became the fifth president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky and served for 14 years. Dunnam came to Asbury after 12 years of fruitful ministry at the 5,000-member Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1975-1982, Dunnam was world editor of The Upper Room. Dunnam is the author of more than 40 books, including the best-selling Workbook of Living Prayer (over one million copies sold). Dunnam presently serves as director of Christ Church Global at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Going on to Salvation, Revised Edition

A Study of Wesleyan BeliefsBy Maxie Dunnam

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2008 The United Methodist Publishing House
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-687-65313-3

Chapter One

The Keystone: Salvation by Faith

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived.... But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:1, 2, 4-10)

If you were asked, "What is the goal of your life?" how would you respond? To be happy? To have a healthy, happy family? To be a success in business? To be wealthy? To serve other people and make others happy? To find the right marriage mate? To be fulfilled in your profession? Listen to the founder of Methodism, John Wesley:

To candid, reasonable men, I'm not afraid to lay open what have been the inmost thoughts of my heart. I have thought, I'm a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: Just hovering over the great gulf; til a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! (John Wesley's Fifty-Three Sermons, edited by Edward H. Sugden [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983]. This quotation is taken from the Preface to the Sermons.)

This word expressed the fire burning in Wesley's soul: "I want to know one thing—the way to heaven—how to land safe on that happy shore." This desire of Wesley was like that passionate expression of Paul to the Philippians:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

The goal of Wesley's life was his own salvation. History verifies that once he was certain of that—his own salvation—the passion became other-directed, and he started one of the great revivals of history as he sought to share the salvation message with others. Over and over in this Journal, he records his preaching activity in his simple sentence: "I offered them Christ."

John Wesley published four volumes of sermons—in 1746, 1748, 1750, and 1760. In 1763, he prepared a model deed for his preaching houses that set forth his intentions after his death. In that deed, it was provided that persons appointed by the conference should "have and enjoy the premises" only on condition "that the said persons preach no other doctrine than is contained in Mr. Wesley's Notes upon the New Testament and four volumes of sermons" (John Wesley's Fifty-Three Sermons, Ibid.; p. 1).

"Salvation by faith" was the first of Wesley's standard sermons. So this is where we begin, the keystone of his understanding of Christian doctrine—"salvation by faith."

Paul developed this theme systematically in his Letter to the Romans. His Galatians letter was an expression of the same truth primarily from his heart, not his head. Our scripture from Ephesians is a spontaneous outpouring of this conviction about salvation by faith in the midst of a commentary on the nature and mission of the church.

Since Paul, volumes have been written on this theme of salvation by faith; and I boldly propose to capture the essence of it (at least enough for us to go on) in this chapter by asking, in the style of Mr. Wesley's sermon on this theme, three questions:

One, who needs it? Two, what is it we need? Three, how do we get it?

WHO NEEDS SALVATION?

First, who needs it? The answer is clear, simple, and encompassing: we all need it.

Paul stated our predicament: "You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient" (Ephesians 2:1-2).

In Romans 3, Paul deals specifically with the universality of sin, quoting passages from five psalms and one verse from Isaiah. Consider his terrible word:

"There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:10-18)

Paul begins this catalog of our common predicament by contending that we are all under sin. Think about that for a moment. Wesley was as adamant as Paul. Sin is universal. Likewise, as we will discuss later, the offer of salvation is universal. As all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), all are offered the saving grace of Jesus Christ. There is a sense in which Wesley's understanding of salvation is summed up in four "alls": all need to be saved; all may be saved; all may know they are saved; all may be saved to the uttermost.

In Romans 3:9, Paul contends that everyone, "both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin." The Greek phrase that Paul uses for this state of being under sin when we are without Christ is hypo harmartian, and it means "in the power of" or "under the authority of" sin. You get the scope of it by seeing the way Paul uses that phrase in other places: he described the relationship between a schoolboy and his teacher in Galatians 3:25 (KJV) as being "under a schoolmaster." In 1 Timothy 6:1, he said slaves were "under the yoke." In both these instances, to be "under" means to be dominated by or under the authority of.

That's the predicament of all of us. Paul summed it up: "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22-23).

Do you have problems believing that? Is the description Paul uses too terrible? In another chapter, we will deal with the whole issue of "original sin." For now, let's not debate the universality of sin, but seek to see where we are in the picture. Without dealing with such glaring sins as adultery, killing, and stealing, answer these questions:

• Do you sometimes think more highly of yourself than you ought to think?

• Is there any person of whom you are jealous?

• Do you occasionally look at a person of the opposite sex and feel lust in your heart?

• Do you sometimes hate people of other races or nations?

• Do you get anxious about the future because you feel you don't have enough financial security?

• Do you judge others by what they have? By their station in life? Whether they are cultured or not? Their level of educational achievement?

When the publisher and I decided to publish this new edition of the book, I wanted a couple of my friends who are Wesley scholars to read the original edition to offer any suggestions they thought helpful. The book was out of print, so I had to order used copies online for them to have a text to read. In one of the used copies, the original owner had made notes. After the first of the above questions, he had written "sometimes." After the second question, he named the person he was jealous of; and he put a "yes" after the other questions.

The questions seem innocent enough, but, like the reader, most of us would answer yes to a number of them. Do you know what that means? It means that we are among those Paul was describing: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

So who needs it? Who needs salvation? We all do!

WHAT SALVATION DO WE NEED?

Now, the second question: What is it we need? We need salvation. What is the nature of this salvation?

Let's take our cue directly from scripture. Paul describes the result of sin in our life: "You were dead through ... trespasses and sins." You were not in control of your life—you followed "the course of this world" like a puppet controlled by Satan. This means that you lived in "the passion of your flesh, following the desires of body and mind."

But then something happened. God "made us alive together with Christ." It's a dramatic distinction. Sin equals death—you were dead; salvation equals life—God made us live. This is an echo of Paul's whole life. He knew himself to be a great sinner, but he knew Christ to be a great Savior. He never understated or underplayed sin in our lives; nor did he understate or underplay the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. So it was with John Wesley.

The salvation we need and the salvation Christ affords is the salvation from sin. Be clear about this. It is a present salvation. Paul did not say to the Ephesians, "You will be saved." He said, "You have been saved." The work is accomplished now. Let us see how this happens at the point of three great needs:

First, it is a salvation from the guilt of all past sins. Paul put it graphically in Colossians 2:1-14. We have been forgiven all our sins; "the record that stood against us with its legal demands" has been set aside, cancelled, nailed to the cross. What a descriptive metaphor ... nailed to the cross.

Sometimes the setting in which we read scripture adds special meaning to it. I was using William Barclay's Daily Study Bible of Galatians for my daily devotional reading when I first visited China in 1967. I came to the third chapter the day I entered the country. "O senseless Galatians, who has put the evil eye on you—you before whose very eyes Jesus was placarded upon his cross?" (v. l, Barclay). I like the New Living Translation rendering of this verse: "Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has cast an evil spell on you? For you used to see the meaning of Jesus Christ's death as clearly as though I had shown you a signboard with a picture of Christ dying on the cross."

It was clear to me when I arrived that China was a land of posters. This was in a more primitive communication day, and posters and placards were everywhere. Crowds would gather around the walls where newsprint and posters were displayed. A primary means of communication, posters were used to share the message of liberation and revolution in that vast land.

The Greek word that Barclay translates "placarded" in Galatians 3:1 is prographein. It is one of the words Paul used for preaching, and it meant "post a notice," as on a bulletin board in a public square. This is why it came through to me with such power in China. Barclay reminded us that in New Testament times the word was used to describe what a father did when he proclaimed publicly that he would no longer be responsible for his son's debts.

In the same fashion, but conveying the opposite message, Jesus Christ, placarded upon his cross, has been portrayed among the Galatians. The message posted on the bulletin boards of our hearts is not that the Father will no longer be responsible for our debts, but that through the crucified Christ he has paid our debts.

Paul and other New Testament writers used a lot of other images to describe the way of our salvation: release from bondage, satisfaction for our sins, reconciliation, the old Adam dying and the new Adam coming to life. Whatever the image, the truth is clear. The central message of the New Testament is that in the cross, Christ has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. He has "[erased] the record that stood against us," thus freeing us.

Can anything be more dramatic or powerful ...to know that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, our sins, my sins, your sins, and the guilt therefrom was nailed to the cross? I see this demonstrated over and over again. Here is a picture of it.

A fifty-year-old woman—let's call her Mary—was devastated with guilt over estrangement from and hatred of her father. Mary's mother had died of cancer. During the last months of her mother's life, Mary's father had courted, and married almost immediately after the death of his wife, another woman. Mary's hatred for her father and his new wife was venomous. She refused to see or have anything to do with them. She finally came to see that hatred was destroying her. Then she became plagued with guilt over fifteen years of estrangement from her father. Her guilt paralyzed her. She wanted reconciliation, but she could not take the initiative in the relationship. The father had given up long ago.

At the close of a worship service where the theme of forgiveness—salvation from all past sin and guilt—had been proclaimed, Mary and I shared and prayed together for about an hour. Mary believed, accepted the forgiveness of grace, and claimed salvation for herself. That very night she wrote to her father, and began the process of reconciliation and the reclaiming and rebuilding of a daughter-father love and relationship.

Second, we are saved not only from the guilt of all past sins; we are also saved from fear. Fear is the twin of guilt and burns almost as ravaging as guilt itself in many of our lives—fear of God's judgment, of eternal punishment, of God's wrath.

But the salvation Christ affords takes away our fear. We now know not the wrath of God, but God's extravagant love. We "have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; ... but ... the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:15-16 KJV).

John Wesley would remind us that we are also saved from the fear, though not from the possibility, of falling away from the grace of God and coming short of God's great and precious promises. That is a unique understanding of Methodism. We will return to it later. We are saved from the fear, though not the possibility, of falling away from the grace of God. We are "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:13 RSV). So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. And hereby we are persuaded, though perhaps not at all times, nor with the same fullness of persuasion, that neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are saved from fear.

Third, the last word about the nature of our salvation is that we are saved from the power of sin. We will discuss this in the chapter on sanctification, but it must be noted now. Paul was very clear about the fact that unredeemed persons live under the power of sin. He was also triumphantly clear about the fact that Christ frees us from the power of sin. "He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13).

In his sermon on "Salvation by Faith," Wesley made the case emphatically:

Those who by faith are born of God do not continue in sin. (l) They are no longer in bondage to besetting sins that stem from the reign of sin in the heart. Sin no longer rules the lives of Christian believers. (2) Believers are no longer captives to willful sin. So long as they continue in faith, sin is as abhorrent to them as a deadly poison. (3) Christians lose their lust for sin because they now desire the holy and perfect will of God. By God's grace, tendencies toward unholy desires can be resisted as soon as they arise. (4) Those human infirmities that are neither deliberate nor intentional may cause us to fall short. But if they are neither deliberate nor intentional, they are not properly considered as sins. Therefore, `No one who is born of God will continue to sin.' Although Christian believers cannot claim that they have never sinned, they no longer need to be subject to sin's power. (John Wesley on Christian Beliefs: The Standard Sermons in Modern English, vol. 1, Kenneth Cain Kinghorn, Abingdon Press, 2002; p. 41)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Going on to Salvation, Revised Editionby Maxie Dunnam Copyright © 2008 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0687653134
• ISBN 13: 9780687653133
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170