John Wesley on good works, from A Plain Account of Christian Perfection

From John Wesley's classic A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, public domain.

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, by Zinzendorf, translated by John Wesley

This source gives the text of the following hymn, "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness," written in German by Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, and translated into English by John Wesley, both in 1739:

1 Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.


2 Bold shall I stand in that great day,
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.


3 Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
which, at the mercy seat of God,
forever doth for sinners plead,
for me, e'en for my soul, was shed.


4 Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me,
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.


5 When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
e'en then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.


6 O let the dead now hear Thy voice;
now bid Thy ransomed ones rejoice;
their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness.


Here's a modified version, making the word use more current:

1 Jesus, Your blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.


2 Bold shall I stand in that great day,
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.


3 Lord, I believe Your precious blood,
which, at the mercy seat of God,
forever does for sinners plead,
for me, e'en for my soul, was shed.


4 Jesus, praise to You I sing,
Your mercy boundless, O my King,
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.


5 When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
e'en then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus has lived, has died, for me.


6 O let the dead now hear Thy voice;
now bid Your ransomed ones rejoice;
their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, Your blood and righteousness.

Thanks to Christ! Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 587

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (or Religion) Listverse sets forth 10 common misconceptions about Hinduism. (See also the Wikipedia on Hinduism -- the two sources do not agree on every point.)

Listverse also sets forth 10 common misconceptions about Jews.

Computing: National Public Radio reports on storage of information in arrangements of individual atoms. Potentially, our hard discs, thumb drives, etc., could be superseded.

Education: Wikipedia articles (here and here) on the development of a written Cherokee language, in about 1820, by a Native American named Sequoyah. His system of symbols made it easier to teach reading and writing than the symbols most of us use today.

Finance: John Wesley's sermon on "The Use of Money."

Food: National Public Radio reports on the discovery that cockroach milk is very nutritious.

Politics: (Not really. but I don't have a category for this.) Two young women are hitchhiking across Europe with a sofa (!) in an attempt to help refugees.

Wired reports that your political posts on Facebook or Twitter don't change anyone's mind.

Science: Listverse reports on 10 mysteries involving spiders.

And Listverse also reports on 10 amazing things that 10 species of animals can do.

National Public Radio reports on some very old sharks (like more than two centuries, at least.)

NPR alsoreports on why sunflowers follow the sun. ("Follow" means that the flowers turn toward the sun throughout the day).

And NPR reports that earthworms really do enrich soil.





Image source (public domain)

22 questions from the "Holy Club" of the Wesleys, John and Charles

John Wesley, with his brother, Charles, founded the Holy Club at Oxford University, which was the forerunner of the Methodist Church. (See here for more on the Holy Club.)

One feature of the group was the use of accountability questions. I have been unable to determine whether what follows is an actual list, or closely based on a list -- if it were, it would be public domain -- from the early days of the Holy Club, but here is a list of such questions:

These are 22 questions, probably quite similar to, or identical with, the questions that members of John Wesley’s “Holy Club” asked themselves every day in their private devotions, over 200 years ago.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Do I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard anyone? If so, what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me?

Thank you for reading. I heard of this list a couple of weeks ago, and have been using it since.

Sunspots 520

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:


Christianity: (and politics) Christianity Today has an essay on the Indiana so-called religious freedom law, The essay points out some serious exaggerations by at least two sides in the argument over the law, and gives some good advice to Christians on the future of same-sex relationships in the US.

The 22 questions that John Wesley wanted Christians to ask themselves every day. (Public domain, and available from several other sites.)
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends a web site that compares anti-virus software.
Ethics: A New York Times columnist writes about a "Moral Bucket List." He says that there are two kinds of virtues, "the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues," and we reward the first kind, but they really don't matter as much as the "eulogy virtues."
Politics: An essay on "taking the county back." The author says that Jesus didn't, and Israel, at that time, had really been taken from the Jews, in many senses.
Science: Wired tells us that honeybees aren't going to go away, but about 4,000 other species of bees are in danger.
Wired also reports on a creature known as the disco clam -- it produces flashes of light. The report has a couple of brief videos.
Sports: FiveThirtyEight presents an argument that Women's NCAA basketball is better than men's basketball.

Image source (public domain)

John Wesley's Biblical support for teaching holiness

John Wesley should be known for several things, such as his concern for the poor. During his last days, he supported William Wilberforce's eventually successful fight to make the slave trade illegal. One thing that he is known for is his belief in holiness, his proposal that Christians should be entirely sanctified. His idea of holiness, sanctification, or Christian perfection, didn't mean that Christians, including himself, would never make mistakes. It did mean that it was possible for a Christian, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to refrain from deliberately disobeying God, and to love God appropriately.

A recent post lists Biblical references to what the poster calls Wesley's thirty texts in support of this doctrine. I have used that list, and fleshed it out, from the public domain World English Bible. Here is the list, fleshed out by quotations from that Bible:

Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. 26 I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
6:10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Quoting Deuteronomy 6:5)

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. 35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. 36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
17:7  Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. 20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; 23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

Romans 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.
12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. 2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Galatians  2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

Ephesians 3:14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 3:16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 3:18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 3:19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
5:27 that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Philippians 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 2:12 instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; 2:14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,
7:25 Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
10:14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
12:14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,

James 1:4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth. 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 3:3 Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 3:9 Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. 3:10 In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Thanks for reading!

Prayer and God's Work, part 5, by E. M. Bounds

One statement of Wesley needs to be repeated with emphasis. The littleness of grace, rather than the smallness of gifts,—this is largely the case with the preachers. It may be stated as an axiom: That the work of God fails as a general rule, more for the lack of grace, than for the want of gifts. It is more than this. It is more than this, for a full supply of grace brings an increase of gifts. It may be repeated that small results, a low experience, a low religious life, and pointless, powerless preaching always flow from a lack of grace. And a lack of grace flows from a lack of praying. Great grace comes from great praying.

“What is our calling’s glorious hope
But inward holiness?
For this to Jesus I look up,
I calmly wait for this.
“I wait till He shall touch me clean,
Shall life and power impart;
Give me the faith that casts out sin,
And purifies the heart.”

In carrying on His great work in the world, God works through human agents. He works through His Church collectively and through His people individually. In order that they may be effective agents, they must be “vessels unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” God works most effectively through holy men. His work makes progress in the hands of praying men. Peter tells us that husbands who might not be reached by the Word of God, might be won by the conversation of their wives. It is those who are “blameless and harmless, the sons of God,” who can hold forth the word of life “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.”

The world judges religion not by what the Bible says, but by how Christians live. Christians are the Bible which sinners read. These are the epistles to be read of all men. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The emphasis, then, is to be placed upon holiness of life. But unfortunately in the present-day Church, emphasis has been placed elsewhere. In selecting Church workers and choosing ecclesiastical officers, the quality of holiness is not considered.

The praying fitness seems not to be taken into account, when it was just otherwise in all of God’s movements and in all of His plans. He looked for holy men, those noted for their praying habits. Prayer leaders are scarce. Prayer conduct is not counted as the highest qualification for offices in the Church.
- From The Essentials of Prayer, by E. M. Bounds.

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer.

John Wesley on elections

From The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A. M., Volume IV, 3rd edition, London: John Mason, 1829, entry from Thursday, October 6, 1774:

"I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them: 1, To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2, To speak no evil of the person they voted against: and, 3, to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those who voted on the other side."

(From the Google Books archive.)

John Wesley on the redemption of animals

John Wesley apparently believed that animals would be redeemed, when the effects of the Fall are overthrown by God: May it not answer another end; namely, furnish us with a full answer to a plausible objection against the justice of God, in suffering numberless creatures that never had sinned to be so severely punished? They could not sin, for they were not moral agents. Yet how severely do they suffer! -- yea, many of them, beasts of burden in particular, almost the whole time of their abode on earth; So that they can have no retribution here below. But the objection vanishes away, if we consider that something better remains after death for these poor creatures also; that these, likewise, shall one day be delivered from this bondage of corruption, and shall then receive an ample amends for all their present sufferings. John Wesley, Sermon 60, "The General Deliverance."

He also believed that animals are not moral agents, but that they do suffer.

Thanks for reading.

Resurrection: Re-assembling the body. John Wesley's thoughts

From John Wesley's sermon 137, "On the Resurrection of the Dead." (1872, Public Domain):

God can distinguish and keep unmixed from all other bodies the particular dust into which our several bodies are dissolved, and can gather it together and join it again, how far soever dispersed asunder. God is infinite both in knowledge and power. He knoweth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names; he can tell the number of the sands on the sea-shore: And is it at all incredible, that He should distinctly know the several particles of dust into which the bodies of men are mouldered, and plainly discern to whom they belong, and the various changes they have undergone? Why should it be thought strange, that He, who at the first formed us, whose eyes saw our substance yet being imperfect, from whom we were not hid when we were made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, should know every part of our bodies, and every particle of dust whereof we were composed? The artist knows every part of the watch which he frames; and if it should fall in pieces, and the various parts of it lie in the greatest disorder and confusion, yet he can soon gather them together, and as easily distinguish one from another, as if every one had its particular mark. He knows the use of each, and can readily give it its proper place, and put them all exactly in the same figure and order they were before. And can we think that the Almighty Builder of the world, whose workmanship we are, does not know whereof we are made, or is not acquainted with the several parts of which this earthly tabernacle is composed? All these lay in one vast heap at the creation, till he separated them one from another, and framed them into those distinct bodies whereof this beautiful world consists. And why may not the same Power collect the ruins of our corrupted bodies, and restore them to their former condition?

Wesley didn't know much, or anything, about atoms, those almost indestructible particles that molecules are made of, that can, in some cases, be part of the air one moment, and part of a plant the next, then eaten by a human. Atoms that I am continually giving off as I breathe, sweat, and excrete. He didn't know that some of the Carbon atoms in my body may have also found, for a while, in Moses, or in Jezebel, or in the bodies of countless other people from all parts of the earth, and from all of human history, or prehistory.

But the usual indivisibility of atoms, and their almost infinite ability to substitute for other like atoms, don't negate Wesley's argument. But perhaps it could use some modernization.

One thing Wesley didn't seem to consider is that our bodies are changing. I now have cells, and atoms, that I didn't have 30 years ago, and many of the cells and atoms I had then are gone. I've been a moving target for re-assembly all my life. So have you. God must have some way of determining what sort of body I will have when resurrected. Will I be a mature person? A teenager? Something intermediate, or transcending all human stages? I don't know. But, whatever it is, as Wesley said, an omnipotent and omniscient God should have no trouble in figuring out how to resurrect me.

Then there's the matter of the migration of atoms from one person to another. One way of updating Wesley's assertion about "particular dust" is to point out that, as far as we know, all Carbon 12 atoms are alike. Exactly and precisely alike. They are made of the same particles, be those neutrons, quarks, or something else. So, if my resurrection body contains Carbon 12, God doesn't necessarily have to bother with keeping track of which particular Carbon 12 atoms were in my body at some particular time. He just has to use the same number of Carbon atoms in the same way, since they are all identical.

Another way of updating Wesley's assertion is to say that, for all we know, God does differentiate between particular atoms of Carbon 12 (and, of course, other atoms, as well) even though we can't. If that's the case, and one of my Nitrogen 14 atoms was also part of, say, Dorcas, an omnipotent and omniscient God should have no trouble in making a new one, and in giving both of us an identical Nitrogen 14 atom.

Aren't you glad that how we are resurrected is up to God? Please, God, may I experience that.

Thanks for reading.

What is the "image of God?" John Wesley

I am musing, or quoting what others have mused, about what the Bible means when it says that man was created in the image of God. In my first post on the subject, I gave one theologian's interpretation, and quoted all the scripture that seems even close to relevant. In the second, I quoted what John Calvin said in his commentary about what I take to be the most important passage on the subject, namely Genesis 1:27, and its context. In this post, I do the same for John Wesley. It is my understanding that this material is public domain, so I am quoting at length. I thank those who have placed this material on the Internet for public use.

from John Wesley's Notes on the Bible
Genesis 1
Verses 26, 27, 28. We have here the second part of the sixth day's work, the creation of man, which we are in a special manner concerned to take notice of. Observe,

1. That man was made last of all the creatures, which was both an honour and a favour to him: an honour, for the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect, to that which was more so and a favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace designed for him, till it was completely fitted and furnished for his reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate, and to take the comfort of.

2. That man's creation was a mere signal act of divine wisdom and power, than that of the other creatures. The narrative of it is introduced with solemnity, and a manifest distinction from the rest. Hitherto it had been said, Let there be light, and Let there be a firmament: but now the word of command is turned into a word of consultation, Let us make man - For whose sake the rest of the creatures were made. Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make, but is pleased so to express himself, as if he called a council to consider of the making of him; Let us make man - The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it, and concur in it; because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

3. That man was made in God's image, and after his likeness; two words to express the same thing. God's image upon man, consists,

(1.) In his nature, not that of his body, for God has not a body, but that of his soul. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent, immortal spirit, an active spirit, herein resembling God, the Father of spirits, and the soul of the world.

(2.) In his place and authority. Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As he has the government of the inferior creatures, he is as it were God's representative on earth. Yet his government of himself by the freedom of his will, has in it more of God's image, than his government of the creatures.

(3.) And chiefly in his purity and rectitude. God's image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Eph. iv, 24; Colossians iii, 10. He was upright, Eccl. vii, 29. He had an habitual conformity of all his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine things clearly, and there were no errors in his knowledge: his will complied readily and universally with the will of God; without reluctancy: his affections were all regular, and he had no inordinate appetites or passions: his thoughts were easily fixed to the best subjects, and there was no vanity or ungovernableness in them. And all the inferior powers were subject to the dictates of the superior. Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents, in having the image of God upon them. But how art thou fallen, O son of the morning? How is this image of God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!

(4.) That man was made male and female, and blessed with fruitfulness. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve: Adam first out of earth, and Eve out of his side. God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants, from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. God having made them capable of transmitting the nature they had received, said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth - Here he gave them,

[1.] A large inheritance; replenish the earth, in which God has set man to be the servant of his providence, in the government of the inferior creatures, and as it were the intelligence of this orb; to be likewise the collector of his praises in this lower world, and lastly, to be a probationer for a better state.

[2.] A numerous lasting family to enjoy this inheritance; pronouncing a blessing upon them, in the virtue of which, their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the earth, and continue to the utmost period of time.

(5.) That God gave to man a dominion over the inferior creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air - Though man provides for neither, he has power over both, much more over every living thing that moveth upon the earth - God designed hereby to put an honour upon man, that he might find himself the more strongly obliged to bring honour to his Maker. See note at "ver. 26"

Thanks for reading!