Well, if you have been following along in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, you can now say that you have read the entire document. I hope you have been spiritually benefited by reading this document of historic importance. John Wesley’s writing remains influential today.
How shall we summarize this rich document? Or perhaps a better question is how shall we practically put Wesley’s teaching into practice? What does it really mean for our faith to produce works consistent with faith in Christ?
Recently, on one of my daily walks, I recalled words from Hudson Taylor’s biography. Hudson Taylor, a renowned missionary to China, faced difficulty periodically. When Hudson Taylor lived, China was extremely rugged, and the regions in which he ministered were very remote. Travel was especially difficult. He did not have the benefit of internet or telephone or other modern conveniences such as motor boats, vehicles, or aircraft.
Some prime examples of the difficulties he faced include not having a permanent home and the need to arrange new housing every time he took a break or had to leave the mission field.
Hudson Taylor would often say to his missionaries, “Rest. In the Lord.” He emphasized the period after rest. Hudson Taylor called his missionaries to “Rest.”
In what do we rest? We “rest in the Lord.” What does this mean? Hudson Taylor lived out a strong trust in the Lord and a strong faith that God would facilitate provision for the needs he faced because he obeyed the Lord’s call to go to China.
It occurred to me that the meaning behind Hudson Taylor’s words is very applicable to Christian perfection as John Wesley understood it.
Hudson Taylor learned not to worry about the lack of housing. Instead, he learned to rest. In this rest, he would trust in the Lord for the necessary provision. This he in turn taught to the missionaries under his leadership and led by example. I remember one example from the two volume biography in which Hudson Taylor needed to leave the mission work for an extended period of time. He attempted to arrange housing, but all of his attempts fell through.
As the time quickly approached when he needed the housing, people around him asked if he was worried or anxious, because they certainly were concerned for him.
And that is how rest helps us. We are often presented with needs or situations that stir anxiety, and these stirrings are often through temptation to sin or perceived pleasures aroused by lust. Hebrews 12:1 refers to the “sin which so easily entangles”. This is sin which often trips us up, and it will be different for every person. The situations we face are not necessarily a need for housing. Instead, we can apply this principle to the everyday lusts we have, coveting, greed, and the ordinary temptations we face at work, on the road, out shopping, and at home.
Our greatest need and one of the greatest challenges we face as believers in Christ is to trust or rest in the Lord. When tempted, the desire to please ourselves through the act of sin can be quite strong and intense. Turning away from that sin and trusting in the sufficiency of Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit is one of the hardest tasks we face.
Rest. In the Lord. For Hudson Taylor, this meant not running ahead of the Lord and not doubting the Lord. Taylor demonstrated this faith, a faith that was fully convinced and persuaded of God’s provision. He had a faith that granted him the ability to simply rest.
We face similar challenges primarily through temptation. Will we engage in a sinful act to have the momentary pleasure? Or is obedience to Christ a strong enough desire to help us avoid that sin? In 1 Corinthians 10:13, we read, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
Note especially that God has already provided “the way of escape”. There is a way out every time we are tempted. Will we rest? Will we rest that the way of escape God has provided is sufficient and best? I believe our chief doubt here is that obedience to God will not result in the same satisfaction of a perceived lack of pleasure, so we choose to engage in a particular sin.
Will we rest that obedience to God will fill the void we perceive to exist? You see, in the moment of temptation, we are led to believe that there is a void. However, the void itself and the supposed satisfaction of the void are both mirages. Neither exists, and if a void does exist, we must trust that the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit will be sufficient to meet that need.
Rest. In the Lord. I believe this is the whole thrust of John Wesley’s A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. We sin not out of obligation or duty. Romans 6:1-13 and Romans 8:1-18 handily refute that idea. We sin only because we doubt God. Faith – a faith fully convinced and persuaded of Christ – must produce works consistent with that faith, and sin is inconsistent with faith in God.
For a long time, I believed that the church was becoming weaker in the United States because of a lack of emphasis on Christian perfection. However, history tends to repeat itself, and one voice from history suggests something far worse. “Take away the salvation which God has given, and you take away sanctification and good works.” J.H. Merle d’Aubigne The author wrote prolifically on the errors of the Roman Catholic church leading up to the Reformation.
Interestingly, the idea of a misunderstanding of salvation leading to moral depravity was discussed at length in Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995). He wrote, “We have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism, which, with its ubiquitous tentacles, succeeds at times in putting Christian communities themselves to the test. Those who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into a sad vicious circle: when the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence… The eclipse of the sense of God and of man inevitably leads to a practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism. Here too we see the permanent validity of the words of the Apostle: ‘And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct’ (Rom 1:28). The values of being are replaced by those of having. The only goal which counts is the pursuit of one’s own material well-being.”
History repeats itself because the church today finds itself in a similar position as the Roman Catholic church shortly before the Reformation. Christian perfection, therefore, is not elusive because of a lack of emphasis but because we warp our understanding of salvation. We excuse all sorts of sin not because of a relaxed understanding of Christian perfection but because we have lost a proper understanding of salvation and of God.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, in those moments when I am tempted to sin, open my eyes that I may see that my greatest need is Christ. Help me to see through the false perception that momentary pleasure is worth the cost of sin. When I am tempted, help me to rest and trust that Your grace is sufficient. Help me to trust in Your strength where I believe voids exist in my life. Amen.
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