Three Sermons On The Original Nature Properties And Use Of The Law And Its Establishment Thro Faith By John Wesley A M

Are the Ten Commandments the standard for Christian living? There are many viewpoints on the place of the Mosaic Law today. Some affirm that while we are not saved through keeping the law, it remains our standard for living, a pattern to be followed. Others say we are free from the law. This brief examination of the law affirms all of God’s revelation as Christian Scripture, but acknowledges covenantal differences in God’s dealings with believers. The progress of salvation history, and our identification with Christ, has altered our relationship to the Mosaic Law. Using the Law “lawfully” requires us to recognize the way in which the New Testament, and chiefly the Apostle Paul, treats the law. Paul presents the believer as having died to the law, and serving now in the new way of the Spirit, a way that does not depend on the Mosaic law. The pattern for the New Testament believer remains Jesus himself. While keeping all of God’s law, he went beyond its requirement to demonstrate a love for sinners that the law did not know.

The idea that covenant theology is profoundly influential in John Wesley's theological thought sounds dissonant. What would an evangelical Arminian have to do with a theological framework that historically belongs to a Reformed understanding of salvation? How could this possibly square with his ongoing controversy with the Calvinism of his day? On the basis of compelling evidence from his sermons and correspondence, this investigation dares to push through the impulse to dismiss the idea that covenant theology belongs to the infrastructure of Wesley's thought. The resulting discovery of its role in shaping his narrative of the way of salvation is surprising and intriguing. Wesley is not only informed and fluent with respect to covenant theology, but thoroughly committed to it. This study demonstrates that, with theological precision and discernment, Wesley appropriates covenant theology in a way that is consistent both with its primary theological features and with his Arminianism. His distinctive view of "the gradual process of the work of God in the soul" supplies valuable grist for further reflection, especially by those charged with the care of souls in the twenty-first century

This is the first volume published in more than twenty years that is specifically focused on the theology of evangelism in the Wesleyan tradition. It contains essays written by key Methodist leaders from Asia, America, Europe, and Africa, thus offering a wide range of views of the nature and purpose of evangelism in the Weslayen heritage. It also provides focused and stimulating theological reflection. These essays were first presented as a symposium at the Mission Resource Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1992.