I’m Maxie. She’s Jerry, my wife.

The setting is almost always the same. Someone introducing us to strangers will say, ‘These are our friends, Jerry and Maxie Dunnam.’ Far more times than not, the person to whom we are being introduced assumes Jerry is the husband and Maxie is the wife. I can’t begin to come close to telling you how many times I’ve had to say, smiling but in a corrective way, ‘I’m Maxie. She’s Jerry, my wife.’

We get more mail addressed “Mr. Jerry Dunnam” than any other intended receiver.

A little reflection confirms names are important. “What’s in a name?” is often critical.

We are in the midst of Advent, a four week season the Christian community has set aside, climaxing with Christmas Day. Christ Followers are called to reflect and pray, centering our attention on the coming of Christ. I can’t think of any question that will serve our reflections more richly than Jesus…what’s in a name? 

What a story! “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20—23 RSV)

No reservation about his name. It had been declared by the prophet, Isaiah, centuries before. The angel had also announced it to Mary at the time of her Annunciation: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31-32, 33 RSV) So, the question, what’s in a name?

The late Erma Bombeck, one of America’s best-loved columnists, wrote a funny but penetrating piece. And I quote her as clearly as I can:

Most of us have never seen anyone smile in the Post Office. The Post Office instead is like a clinic for lower back pain. Well, I was in line yesterday, when the door opened and in walked a lady with a big smile on her face weighted down with boxes for mailing. She held the door open for her three little girls who filed in, each carrying a package. It was quite obvious that they had never seen the inside of a Post Office.

“She bounded over to a man standing over a counter pasting stamps and asked, ‘Are you a carrier?’

“Of what?” he snapped.

“Another one in line growled, “To the back of the line, lady!”

Her eyes fairly danced with excitement as she announced to no one in particular, ‘It certainly is a nice day, and just think, girls, Christmas is only one week away.”

“Will granddad get his presents?” asked one child.

“Of course, he will,” said her mother “We’ve got it all timed just about right. On Christmas Eve he’ll be sitting around the fire, the door bell will ring and a postman will knock and say, with a big smile, “Merry Christmas from your family in Arizona.”

Every eye in the Post Office turned to stare at this cross between Mary Poppins and Tiny Tim.

“Look girls, doesn’t the Post Office look like Santa is on his way?”

We all looked around. With the exception of Santa pointing his finger at us from a poster and warning, “Mail early” the place had the spirit of a Recovery Room.

Finally she got to the head of the line. “When will dad get these packages?” she asked.

The postal clerk shrugged, “Depends. Maybe by New Year’s or we could get ‘em there in one day.”

“One day would be fine!” she exclaimed.

“It’ll cost you,” he said, scribbling down some figures. “$45.83.”

The woman hesitated, then picked out one box and said, “This one must get there by Christmas Day. It’s my father’s birthday.”

The clerk shook his head and said, “Boy, that guy’s a loser. Imagine having a birthday on Christmas. One present fits all. Thank God I don’t know of anyone born on Christmas Day.”

The man behind me whispered loudly, “Thank God, I do.”

I’ve told that long story by Erma Bombeck to ask: Well, do you? Do you know anyone—do you know the One—who was born on Christmas day?

December is the month of Advent, an expectant season when Christians around the world pay special attention to who this One was and why we want to know more.  We may be a little confused by the people around us, but let us be clear about the One who was proclaimed to come – and did.

Are you primarily a fiction or a non-fiction reader? I’ll confess I can’t remember the last time I picked up a fiction title. I know, it’s bad. But ever since my dad gave me a copy of Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” when I was 14, I’ve been hooked. I have bookshelves packed with non-fiction titles, from leadership to theology to… yep, GTD (is anyone still using that?).

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to systems, frameworks, steps, best-practices, you name it. And, for the longest time I moved around in ministry mostly oblivious to the fact that the modern ministry world  – at least as far back as the 80s –  generally gives preference to people who are wired a bit like me. This is a uniquely Western phenomenon. Yet, as I travel to different parts of the world it has become clear that a large portion of the church has adopted much of this style of ministry. 

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with thinking systematically about church and ministry. We should be organized. We should develop healthy systems for raising leaders. We should think strategically about the future and where we’re going in our local churches and denominations. I mean, what would the Methodist Wesleyan movement be without John Wesley’s systematic approach to field preaching, establishing class meetings, bands, societies, etc? 

The problem arises when we fail to realize that when it comes to the most basic and essential part of ministry, namely making disciples, our systems, strategies, and frameworks, aren’t bad. They’re simply not enough. Here’s why: Discipleship requires relationships, and relationships are messy! They read more like the fiction section of the bookstore. Did Jesus strategize? Absolutely! Were the disciples counting numbers and paying attention to the stats? It sure looks like it! But underneath all of that was something that looked more like storytelling, dancing, or playing music. It looked more like art. 

The Relational Nature of Discipleship

Let’s take Jesus’ relationship with Peter, for instance. Notice the relational arch between them. In Luke 5 they meet, Peter is reluctant at first, but decides to follow Jesus after an impressive demonstration of power. Then in Mark 8 we see Peter believing he has enough relational capital to rebuke Jesus (it didn’t turn out well for him). The relationship escalates to Peter’s famous declaration “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you,” followed by all the other disciples. Peter of course fails to keep his promise by denying Jesus in Luke 22, which undoubtedly caused a great deal of shame and guilt. Then, after the resurrection, Jesus restores relationship with Peter in John 21. What an incredible relational sequence of events! 

It takes us looking at Acts 4:13 however, to get a full picture of the fruit of that relationship. In Acts 3, Peter and John heal a lame man, then Peter goes on to preach with authority to the onlookers. After this they are brought before the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law for questioning at the Sanhedrin. Luke then tells us in Acts 4:13: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” The conclusion of those Jewish leaders after observing Peter’s behavior, was that he had been with Jesus. In other words, the relational dance between Jesus and Peter over a number of years, culminated in Peter becoming a sort of person who had undeniably become more like Jesus.

We could spend time doing this same exercise with other disciples, as well as with Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy, etc. The common thread is that after all the strategies and systems are in place, discipleship is still the result of persons intentionally relating to other persons, pointing them to Jesus by modeling, showing, telling, and challenging.

Nothing has taught me more about this than being married and parenting three teenage girls. I do have some systems in place that help me organize those relationships. And I do have best-practices I try to follow to make sense of it all. However, at the end of the day, they are four very unique human beings, with their own thoughts, opinions, dreams, and frustrations. My systems and strategies will set the stage for our daily interactions, but they won’t do the “relating” for me. And, the “relating” is the main thing!

Reclaiming Personal Responsibility in Disciple-Making

I’ve observed in churches that it isn’t hard for Christians to understand the personal nature of things like prayer, giving, and reading scripture. Sure, most Christians understand that there are times when the church does those things corporately, but it is self-evident to them that those activities are also expected personally. For example, they understand that it’s important for us to pray as a community during corporate worship, but that it’s not a substitute for personal devotion and prayer. The same, however, isn’t the case when it comes to disciple making. Many Christians believe the church makes disciples, without realizing this means we are called personally to that task.

It is crucial that we understand the foundational nature of relationships when it comes to discipleship, otherwise we are left with churches where people believe our discipleship systems make disciples. Additionally, we risk creating a culture whereby inviting someone to a church service, or participating in a community outreach, or serving on a church team, are seen as the ultimate work of making disciples. Ultimately, we risk reducing discipleship to a series of coordinated steps and activities excellently designed to get people engaged and committed to the church, but terrible at helping people become more like Jesus in the context of intentional relationships with one another. 

This is part one in a five-part series dedicated to exploring what I have come to understand as the five foundations of disciple-making. I hope this is helpful to all of those who, like me, are laboring to help the Church become better at participating in the Great Commission. Join us in this conversation by downloading WME’s WE419 app, where you can engage with resources, post your thoughts, etc.

This is the seventh installment in Maxie’s series on Core Convictions. You can find the first seven articles here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Someone will say “You have faith; I have deeds. ” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, ” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (James 2:18-24)

As you look closely at this word of James, you realize that James is not asking whether works without faith can save us, but rather, whether faith without works can save us. His answer to that is a resounding no.

Before we take issue with James, let’s look at the similarity between his words in this theme text and Jesus’s parable of the last judgment in Matthew 25:31-46. This is the only time Jesus told us what judgment is going to be like. He says that when the Son of Man comes in his glory and gathers before him all the nations of the world, he’s going to separate the people the way a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He’s going to place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. He will say to those on his right hand (the sheep), “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me (vv. 34-36).”

That was a surprise to both the righteous and the unrighteous, because neither of them knew they were guilty of Jesus’s accusation. They asked, “When did we see you hungry?” His response to their question is unforgettable: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (vv. 37, 40).

Nothing about belief, nothing about right doctrine, nothing about proper churchmanship. As is often the case for me, a Charles Schulz Peanuts cartoon speaks to me here. Linus and his sister, Lucy, are having a conversation. Linus says to Lucy, “You think you are smart just because you are older than I am!” Lucy gets up and walks off, but Linus follows, saying, “You just happened to be born first! You were just lucky!” Then he screams, “I didn’t ask to be born second.” And in the final frame, he adds in despair, “I didn’t even get a chance to fill out an application.”

When it comes to the last judgment, there are no applications to fill out. The conditions have been predetermined by Jesus himself. Consider James’s word in light of that. Again, his question is not whether works without faith can save us, but rather whether faith without works can save us. To gain clarity, consider these bold affirmations.

• One, there is no salvation without discipleship. We can’t claim Jesus as Savior without a willingness to surrender to him as Lord.
• Two, an emphasis on faith that does not include fidelity to Christ’s call to walk in newness of life is a distortion of the gospel. This is what James is saying: Faith that does not give attention to ethical issues-to telling the truth, seeking to live morally clean lives, shunning evil, fighting personal immorality and for social injustice, feeding the hungry, caring for the needy, seeking the lost, suffering for those the world has said no to–is dead.
• Three, a faith that emphasizes ethics and good works as a saving way of life is a false faith. Ethics and good works do not save us, but rather are the expression of the transforming work of the Spirit within us.

Faith and works.  Not faith without works nor works without faith.  Our deeds reveal our faith, and our faith comes from following our Lord. Salvation by God’s grace runs through sanctification by faithfully Jesus and arrives at deeds we are empowered to do by the Holy Spirit.

This is the seventh installment in Maxie’s series on Core Convictions. You can find the first six articles here, here, here, here, here, and here.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed, ” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

One point of theology and faith where there is often tension is the relationship of faith and works. Hans Küng, the brilliant Roman Catholic German theologian, spoke a corrective word about this issue. “Whoever preaches one half the gospel is no less a heretic than the person who preaches the other half of the gospel.”

An ongoing temptation of most preachers is to preach one half of the gospel. Most of the time, it is not a matter of whether we believe one half more than the other; it’s what we feel is the need of the people to whom we preach. There is a narrow line we walk, preaching a gospel of faith alone, or one in which works are essential for being Christian.

James is an unequivocal champion of works. He minces no words. Our theme Scripture (James 2:14-17) is the primary emphasis of James’s entire Epistle. We must be doers of the word and not hearers only. This is what has caused so many problems for this epistle through the years. Martin Luther called it a “right strawy epistle,” for he was calling his church back to the core of the gospel: justification by grace through faith. “Faith alone” was Luther’s battle cry, and he felt that James was undercutting that core of the gospel by contending that salvation also had to do with works.

The battle has raged ever since. The need is to keep the perspective that Jesus comes to us as both Savior and Lord. We don’t have to keep those separate, believing that Jesus first comes to us as Savior, offering us eternal salvation; and later comes to us as Lord, with a call to surrender ourselves to him, to clean up our lives, and to follow him as disciples.

Again, it is helpful to think of justifying and sanctifying grace. Jesus is not Savior now and Lord later. He comes to us as one, Savior and Lord at the same time. In full salvation, we surrender to Christ as Savior and Lord and are regenerated by his grace. As we explored earlier in this study, the metaphor of a house is instructive. Justifying grace is the door, and sanctifying grace is all the rooms in which we live as we grow as disciples in holiness.

“Faith alone,” or works, in extreme expression, is not only limited, but is a distortion of the gospel. Some extremists insist you can be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus. They are so committed to preserving the gospel of “faith alone” that they separate the offices of Christ. They say that Christ comes to the sinner only as Savior and makes no claims of Lordship. It is only after you become Christian that the lordship of Christ has any claim upon your life. That understanding encourages a person to claim Jesus as Savior by simple intellectual affirmation, by saying yes in his mind to four spiritual laws,” or to believe a particular “plan’ of salvation, and defer until later, or never, the claims of Christ in the transformation of life. This leads people to believe that their behavior has no relationship to their spiritual status. Thus, there is nothing different between these Christians in terms of the way they live their lives in the world and those who are not Christian.

Jesus, Savior and Lord, is the door to both eternal life and a life which makes a difference for the Kingdom here and now. Do your neighbors see the fruit of both in your life?

Maybe you are like me and enjoy trying Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects. I enjoy the challenge of tackling carpentry, mechanical, or other such projects. The proliferation of DIY information online, particularly on YouTube, makes it even easier to gain confidence to try new tasks. However, not everything, including Christian Discipleship, is a DIY Project. 

The Limits of DIY Faith

There is a saying I grew up with that goes something like this, “I know just enough about [that particular subject] to be dangerous.” That means I have enough knowledge of that particular thing to get started in it, but not enough to do it well, completely, or safely. We see this, to a degree, in the account of the Rich Young Ruler (see Luke 18, for example). A young man, someone of some prominence in the community, comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

What he was saying was: “What’s the minimum I need to do to get to Heaven?” The two have a dialogue about the teaching of Scriptures. The young man says that he knows the Scriptures. Jesus doesn’t argue with this. Where it falls apart is where Jesus tells the man to follow his teachings—all of them. And at this, the young man goes away sad.

Ouch. But, let’s be honest—haven’t many of us asked the same question?

The Rich Young Ruler was looking for a DIY project of faith. Give me what I need to know, and I’ll take care of it myself. I have some knowledge of the life of faith, but don’t ask me to do the stuff I don’t want to do. The Bible’s teaching is that it is not enough to just say, “Oh, yeah. That’s a good idea. Everyone else should do that.” Jesus expects each of us to be transformed by the Truth, and to live it out.

Mere recognition is not the same as trust. Sincere belief does not always equal surrender.

The Role of Community in Discipleship

John Wesley cautioned against this sort of misunderstanding. In his 1748 “An Account of the People Called Methodists”, Wesley cautioned those who keep the Bible on the shelf—even if we affirm every teaching in it—if we do not allow it to transform us. Having all the right answers, like the Rich Young Ruler, Wesley said, was a “Slender part of religion.” He went on to say that we need to have the right attitude and actions towards, and about God, as well.

That means that we need to DO what the Bible says. We call that discipleship. At its best, discipleship is not a DIY project. Elsewhere on this platform, we have discussed Wesley’s emphasis on Class Meetings and Band Meetings as a mechanism for Christians to come together to work out their salvation as they grow in holiness of heart and life. Those articles talk about much of the “how,” but I would like to emphasize some of the “why” here. 

When I teach about Class Meetings, I sometimes hear people tell me that it will never work for them. They, and the people in their communities, are too private. They would never share their Christian journey with others. Part of that, I think, has to do with a misunderstanding about the idea of a “personal relationship with Jesus.” The terminology of a “personal relationship” was a response to some parts of the church where people let the institutional Church do the thinking for them. Yes, we need a personal—everyone of us involved—relationship with Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that it is private. With gratitude to the late Eugene Peterson, let me see if I can illustrate.

People love polls. We see them on the news all the time. Let’s imagine that we heard a report from a trusted pollster who made a definitive statement about a new Netflix series. People would nod and say “Yes, I will watch that series because of what that pollster said.” But what if we learned that the pollster had only consulted one person, and that the person had only seen 10 minutes of the first episode of the series. We would rightly be suspicious of the recommendation.

But this is exactly the kind of evidence that too many Christians would accept as the FINAL truth about many, much more important matters like faith, forgiveness, God’s will in the world, eternal salvation, or the latest issue where culture and faith intersect. And the only person they have consulted is themselves. And the only experience they used to make this evaluation is the most recent 10 minutes.

Listening to a Living Word

These are complicated issues. How do we do what the Bible says, in our world today? To answer that, we need to look at the Bible and its role today. The Bible begins with “God Spoke…” The Bible is an account of how God spoke to and through people throughout history. We see that God speaks to the prophets, to shepherds, to the disciples, and others. The Bible is the record of that. However, the last writings we have are almost 2,000 years old. Is God still speaking? Since God spoke in the beginning, and throughout the record of his work, why would we think he quit there? You see, the Bible is not just a book that was once spoken, it is a book that is now speaking. It is best heard in community.

God gives us one another—other brothers and sisters in the community of faith—and the history of experiences by our biblical ancestors. The lessons of Abraham, Moses, David, Esther, Peter, Paul, and the others are still available to us. However, one who refuses to learn those lessons, in the community of other Christian disciples, is like refusing to remember to move your thumb from the top of the nail when you swing that hammer. Refusing to move it again means you will get hurt again. That is when DIY projects get dangerous.

Discipleship involves listening to the Bible that still speaks, and to do so in the community of others who are doing the same. This moves faith beyond a simple acknowledgement that we should do the right thing by living as followers of Christ. Doing less than that can be dangerous for you, and for others.

This is the fifth installment in Maxie’s series on Core Convictions.  You can find the first four articles here, here, here and here.

In daily conversation of Christians from different denominational expressions, it’s difficult to talk long about salvation before someone raises a question or makes a claim about “falling from grace.” The term is used when discussing eternal security (what some Christians today refer to when they say, “Once saved, always saved”). Let’s consider the issue. 

Peter’s word is good to keep in mind:

Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4:1-3)

John Wesley’s View: Sin and God’s Favor

Though our salvation is certain, sin remains in our life. We practice Christian devotion and discipline to make sure that though sin remains, it no longer reigns. John Wesley was clear about it and spoke succinctly: “A person may be in God’s favour though he feels sin; but not if he yields to it. Having sin does not forfeit the favour of God; giving way to sin does. Though the flesh in you ‘lust against the Spirit’ you may still be a child of God; but if you ‘walk after the flesh,’ you are a child of the devil.”

It is not a question of whether God is able to keep us from falling; of course, he is able! Whether we can or can’t fall is not as important as whether we do or don’t. Following Peter’s advice is essential. We are to arm [ourselves] with the same attitude as Christ. We have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do (1 Peter 4:1,3). We must be vigilant in responding to God’s grace, allowing the Holy Spirit to sensitize our consciences and make us aware of the new sins that spring up in our lives.

The case is clear. We may “fall from grace” and forfeit our justification, but we don’t have to. We won’t, provided we stay in relationship with Christ. Abiding in Christ, we are kept from allowing temptation to move us into intentional sin.

One preacher argued it this way: “It is our responsibility to be saved, but it is not our responsibility to stay saved.”  Wrong, I say.  The responsible action we take in being saved–repenting and exercising faith–is the same action operative in staying saved.

Relying on God’s Grace and Spiritual Discipline

God is able to keep us from stumbling and to “present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (Jude 24). We must continually exercise absolute dependency on him, even after we have been converted. We can do no good of ourselves anywhere along the way, so we must rely completely on the Spirit of God, which performs the good in us and through us. We must give ourselves to moral and spiritual discipline.

As Christians, we repent daily, and cast ourselves on God’s grace. We grow in that grace and move from the threshold of faith, our justification by God, toward the fullness of grace-our sanctification. And all along that journey, we can be kept from falling from grace, kept from forfeiting our justification by the glorious assurance of our salvation. Regenerative and sanctifying grace keep us so long as we keep them.

This is part III of Maxie’s series on Core Convictions, you can find his prior articles here and here

In his introductory comment to Wesley’s sermon “Christian Perfection,” Albert Outler wrote, “If, for Wesley, salvation was the total restoration of the deformed image of God in us, and if its fullness was the recovery of our negative power not to sin and our positive power to love God supremely, this denotes that furthest reach of grace and its triumphs in this life that Wesley chose to call ‘Christian Perfection.”

Wesley’s Call to Love

Wesley was avidly attentive to Scripture. I’m sure he wrestled with Jesus’ word,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)/p>

In my last article we reflected on the third portion of what is considered the “four alls” of Methodist Wesleyan thought: all can know they are saved. The third, along with the fourth are the most distinctive of the “alls” in Wesley’s understanding of salvation, all can be saved to the uttermost. For Wesley, this meant Christian perfection.

Christian Perfection and Sanctification

Christian perfection is another term for sanctification, which is a core conviction of the Methodist Wesleyan way.  We accept justification and regeneration as ‘what God does for us’– our entry to our Christian way. Sanctification is what God does in us, to mature and fulfill the human potential according to his design for persons in Christ.

Wesley particularly emphasized this idea that “all can be saved to the uttermost”; he called it “going on to perfection,” drawing on Hebrews 6:1. By this he didn’t mean a sinless kind of moral perfection, nor a perfection in knowledge, but a perfection in love. The single identifying mark of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is love. Do we love God, and do we love one another? That’s the test of our sanctification.

Wesley’s Critique of Pharisaical Righteousness

Wesley was always deeply disturbed when he saw Christians who were more like the Pharisees– people who trusted in their own righteousness, and consequently, showed little evidence of the growing presence of God’s love in their lives. He spoke of this often.

I don’t know where I heard the story, and it could be apocryphal, but it illustrates Wesley’s passion about the issue: 

Once while he was preaching, he noticed a lady in the congregation who was known for her critical attitudes toward others. All through the service she stared at his tie, with a frown on her face. At the end of the service, she came up to him and said very sharply, “Mr. Wesley, the strings on your bow tie are much too long. It offends me.” Wesley immediately asked for a pair of scissors, and when someone handed them to him, he gave them to the woman and said, “Then by all means, trim it to your satisfaction.” She did so, clipping off an inch or so from each side. “Are you sure they’re all right now?” he asked, and she replied, “Yes, that’s much better:”

“Then.” Wesley said, “let me have the scissors for a moment, for I’m sure you won’t mind a bit of correction either. I do not wish to be cruel, madam, but your tongue offends me; it is too long. Please stick it out so that I may trim some of it off.” 

Needless to say, this critic got the point.

The Role of Believers in Sanctification

The work of the Holy Spirit is transformative. We can better understand the full impact of that transformation by reflecting on the distinction between God’s action for the sinner–pardon and justification–and God’s action in the pardoned sinner’s heart–restoration of the broken image of God and of the human power to avoid and resist intentional sin. Again, Albert Outler expresses it clearly: “We have no part in our justification before God, save the passive act of accepting and trusting the merits of Christ. But we have a crucial part to play in the further business of ‘growing up into Christ, into the stature of the perfect man.’” 

In the dynamic process of sanctification, “Christian perfection,” we work out in fact what is already true in principle. In justification, our position in relation to God is that we are new persons; now, in sanctification, our condition, the actual life we live, is brought into harmony with our position.

In the questions Jesus was often asked, two stand out. A young man of great wealth asked him, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16). In another setting an expert of the law questioned, “Teacher, which one was the greatest commandment in the Law?”

The first question, often phrased “What must I do to be saved?” has to do with how we get into the life Christ offers us. Justification is the heart of the answer. The second has to do with sanctification, living the life we have been saved to live. 

The Greatest Commandment: Love God with All Your Heart

It is difficult to believe the person who inquired about the “greatest commandment” was sincere. The answer would have been “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)  It is the first Scripture that every Jewish child commits to memory. Worship for Jews begins with this affirmation. It is the phrase that the devout Jew wore on a leather bracelet when he went to prayers. When Jesus quoted this phrase as the greatest commandment, the Jews were nodding their heads in agreement. They knew these words meant that we must give our total love to God.

The burden of Scripture is that the God we are called to love with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength loves us to the point of sacrificing his Son for us. There is a God, and he is a loving God.

Jesus’s answer expresses the nutshell of his teaching. Wesley had only words, but he used them as best he could. He talked about loving God with an undivided heart and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Though Jesus named love of God and love of neighbor as two commandments, there is no division of the two. Love of God is necessarily named first because we can’t truly love God without loving our neighbor. The ongoing dynamic of our faith expression is keeping the two together.

Inward and Outward Holiness

Wesley spoke of “inward holiness,” that is, love of God and the assurance of God’s love of us. And he spoke of “outward holiness,” that is, love of neighbor and deeds of kindness. But never was it personal alone. In his extravagant way of saying things, Wesley made clear the unity of faith and action: “Christianity is essentially a social religion; and that to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it.”

Though we must stay keenly aware of the connection between holiness and social justice, we do not equate the two. What Wesley meant by social holiness was that we can’t grow in holiness apart from community. That’s the reason the class meeting and accountability was so important; other people are essential for our growing in holiness.

However, we must also be just as clear, holiness and becoming Christlike entail concern about social injustice and the systems and structures that threaten human life and community. Dag Hammarskjöld echoed this when he said, “The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.”11

The Challenge of Holiness in Today’s World

We need a recovery of holiness, for holiness, by its very nature, is an enemy of the relativism that is the operative dynamic of our culture. Francis Schaeffer has spoken a challenging word on his point: “If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, then something is profoundly wrong… Just as what we may call holiness without love is not God’s kind of holiness, so also what we call love without holiness…is not God’s kind of love.”

In my last article I reflected on Paul’s emotional struggle as he wrote his letter to the Ephesians.

He was filled with emotion as he thought of these new Christians, and in his mind, probably rehearsing his own Damascus Road experience. How could he say what he was feeling and thinking? What did he need to say? All he had was words and words are never enough. He sounded his deep prayerful desires for them: So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.

The Call to Walk in Love

That struggle continues as he continues his letter to these new Christians. Paul calls them and us to our Christian walk in an unforgettable way: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Going on to salvation means living a life of love that was expressed in its ultimate meaning in Christ’s giving of himself for us. Paul called that “a fragrant offering.”

Living in Christ Means Living in Love

We need to keep reminding ourselves of the overarching gospel principle for our Christian Walk: we are persons in Christ. If we are in Christ, we exist in love. God is love and manifested his love to us in that he sent Jesus into the world, “that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). And what is the sign that we live through him? “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11 ESV). And then there’s that remarkable message, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

Love that Hangs Tough

To walk in love as Christians, to be that fragrant offering to others that Christ would have us be, is to practice a love that hangs tough.

Two scripture passages related to love standing strong are, first, John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That’s tough, demanding, serious business. God’s love is deep enough that God is willing to die for us. It is described in Paul’s marvelous hymn of love: “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1Cor: 13:7). That’s tough love, demanding an almost slavish perseverance.

Love hangs tough because it wills the well-being and the wholeness of the person loved.

When Love Must Do the Painful Thing

Because love hangs tough, sometimes it has to do the painful thing. It may have to speak the painful truth in order to save a person from living a lie and betraying himself or herself.

We also need to remember this: when love doesn’t hang tough, all sorts of destructive things happen:

• Marriage vows are trivialized and made the brunt of humor.
• Respect for individual worth and strength of character that Jesus honored are quickly traded for the limelight or the next pleasure.
• Many persons who have great promise are never called to maturity and fulfillment because they are betrayed by a love that has no demanding edge to it.

The Fragrance of Understanding

But not only does Christian love hang tough, it expresses itself in understanding. Is there a more fragrant offering of ourselves than to make the effort to understand others?

Martin Buber, the renowned Jewish philosopher, talked about the I and Thou relationship to express the meaning of being human and the meaning of human relationships. He says that secretly and bashfully, we watch for a yes which allows us to be, and which can come to us only from one person to another: To understand another is to say yes to the other, confirming that person in their very being.

I don’t know why it is so, but our being and living as full human beings depends upon our being accepted by others. That acceptance requires understanding and trust.

Isn’t it true that one of the surest experiences of God’s presence is the love of another person? We become a fragrant offering to another when we love them enough to accept them nonjudgmentally and seek to understand them.

Join me in your imagination. We are a part of a Christian congregation in Ephesus. At one of our gatherings, a fellow member reads a letter written by the great apostle, Paul. He is seeking to shepherd the new emerging Christian movement and he is praying for us. Hear him, now.

I kneel in prayer to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, that out of the treasures of his glory he may grant you strength and power through his Spirit in your inner being, that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love. With deep roots and firm foundations, may you be strong to grasp, with all God’s people, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself. (Ephesians 3:14-19) 

The Essence of Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians

The prayer is packed with meaning that should leave us somewhat breathless. Paul was filled with emotion as he thought of these new Christians, in his mind probably rehearsing  his own Damascus Road experience. How could he say what he was feeling and thinking? What did he need to say?  All he had was words and words are never enough.

He sounded his deep prayerful desires for them: So may you attain the fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.  Take a moment to ponder some of his words leading up to that blurt of deep passion:

• “strength and power …in your inner being”
• “grasp… the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ”
• “through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love”

Then what feels climatic: So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.

Personal Reflections on Spiritual Formation

I recall a particularly trying time early in my ministry which led me to passionately pursue being alive in Christ. I discovered that the indwelling Christ, along with justification by grace through faith, were Paul’s two major themes, and that the indwelling Christ is as prominent in his writing as justification. No theme has occupied my thinking and ministry more. Fullness of being, the fullness of God himself, is ours through Christ who dwells in us. It was in this reality of the indwelling Christ that prayer as a specific act and prayerful living took on vibrant and powerful meaning for me. It is in this reality of the indwelling Christ that my understanding of spiritual formation and growing on in full salvation is rooted.

Early on, as I immersed myself in the dynamic of the indwelling Christ, abiding in him, I developed a working definition of spiritual formation: that dynamic process of receiving through faith and appropriating through commitment, discipline, and action the living Christ into our own life to the end that our life will conform to and manifest the reality of Christ’s presence in the world.

The definition encompasses the full measure of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. It also calls for discipline and witness. Three disciplines are essential for recognizing, cultivating awareness of, and giving expression to the indwelling Christ. One, not only is the presence of God in Jesus Christ to be experienced on occasion, but the indwelling Christ is also to become the shaping power of our lives.  Two, what Christ has been and done in our lives we must be and do for others. Three, we allow the working power of God in the past to be brought into the present. 

In my study, reflection, and experience, this has been made clear to me: the indwelling Christ in an affirming presence, a forgiving and healing presence, a guiding and creating presence, and a converting presence.1 

The indwelling Christ as a converting presence is the dynamic we claim for going on and growing on to full salvation.

Reclaiming the Concept of Conversion

When I was writing the book Alive in Christ, I struggled with the word that best communicated the shaping dynamic of the indwelling Christ. I confessed that though converting and conversion are common words in religious language, I hesitated using those words because of how narrow fundamentalists had distorted their meaning. I confessed, “Not being willing to be squeezed into that mold we have given up one of our powerful and descriptive words: conversion.” 

We have gone even further in many quarters of the church. Not only have we given up the word, we have diminished a cardinal principle of the gospel which the words describe. We simply do not think much about conversion.

But think! In our Wesley understanding, we are “going on’ to salvation.” We are not finished, but you could say we are “under construction,” maturing into the measure of the fullness of Christ, believing the extravagant possibility of attaining to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.

The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to keep alive the conversion process, Paul’s prayer being answered in us: So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.