This week I want to take you on a tour of the conversion experience of the Wesley brothers. Conversion, Salvation, Saved, Inviting Jesus into your heart…these words all mean the same thing but how they are understood as people who call themselves Methodists is worth noting. When we are saved, or we have our conversion experience, we have it not because we are trying to avoid what we assume hell will be like, but because in the life we live now, it is hell in the here and now without Jesus. When we are far from God, we experience our own personal hell that Jesus came to eradicate.
If you grew up a Methodist, no doubt you have heard about the three means of grace.
- Prevenient
- Justifying
- Sanctifying
If you grew up as something other than Methodist, these three graces are distinct in what separates us from other denominations and faith traditions. Prevenient Grace is the gift of God that goes before we even know or can name God. It is the grace lived out for us by our parents, grandparents, neighbors, Sunday School teachers and church leaders. This is why we baptize babies because while they can’t choose Jesus for themselves, YET, they see God’s grace lived out by those that surround them. The hope is that they are so drawn to the life and teachings of Jesus because of how their community lives it out that they come to “choose Jesus for themselves.”
Justifying Grace is the grace that convicts and justifies. This is the grace that lets us know how broken, hurt, sinful and beyond perfection we really are. This is the grace that reaches down and pulls us up because we have realized that no matter how educated, wealthy, well-connected or privileged we are, we cannot save ourselves. The punishment for sin has always and will always be death and because we are all, each of us, sinful beings, we can’t save ourselves. We need a Savior, someone that gives themselves up for us, to justify our sinful selves in the presence of a Holy and Just God. When we realize how far we have fallen, we reach up and God is always there reaching down.
Sanctifying Grace is the grace that I think is most distinct about the Wesleyan Way of Faith. Our goal in this life of following Jesus isn’t to be saved from hell, but to become Perfect in Love. We may never be perfect beings, but we can become perfect in our love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. This is the goal and the new rule of life for the disciples of Jesus called Methodists. In our faith community, the phrase, “You haven’t changed a bit” isn’t a compliment. Because if we have really met Jesus, when you see a friend that you haven’t seen in a few years, they should be commenting on how much you have changed. If we have really met Jesus we should be hearing comments like…
You have gotten your anger under control.
I can’t believe how patient you have become.
Wow, you sure are generous.
You are less critical, more disciplined, less petty and a whole lot more LOVING!
These and more are all qualities of someone growing in Sanctifying Grace.
And John and Charles Wesley wrote about this new rule of life extensively after they had their conversion experiences in May of 1738. Charles was the first one converted when he attended a Moravian Society meeting and was processing all that he learned and how they spoke with such joy and conviction about their faith; it amazed him. Charles then invited his brother John to join him and four days later, while walking down Aldersgate Street, John Wesley had his own conversion story.
When you watch the video below you will hear about my own salvation story, the time when I chose God for myself and invited Jesus to chisel away at all of the broken parts of me. As I tell my story and as you see Aldersgate Street in London, where John and Charles had their hearts strangely warmed, I hope you will think about your own faith journey. I leave you with this way of wrapping your mind around conversion. When someone asks you when you were saved, the proper Wesleyan response is this. “I was saved over 2,000 years ago, by Jesus Christ, while he willingly died on a cross, on a hill called Calvary. I accepted that sacrifice when I was ____ years old and now I will never be the same.”
Our salvation story was never about us anyways, it was always about God’s Holy Spirit living and working through sanctifying grace to make other disciples and to transform this world.
Take a look and enjoy the tour!