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7/28/2019 What is Wesleyan Theology
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John Wesley was a Christian theologian who lived from 1703 to 1791. John was born in
England as the fifteenth child to Samuel and Susanna Wesley. In 1726 John becomes a Professor at
the Oxford University. In 1730 John Wesley form The Holy Club with John Boyce, Bob Kirkham and
William Morgan; Charles Wesley who was John Wesleys brother joins later on. The reason the Holy
Club was formed was for the members to learn and to imitate Jesus.
England at the time of John Wesley was ravaged with bad housing conditions, alcoholism,
child labor prostitution and the like. Justice was mostly achieved with wealth rather than truth. The
poor were sentenced to prison for trivial acts of crime while the rich could get away with heinous
crimes. William Morgan who was part of the Holy Club was a tender hearted young man who
ministered to the prisoners, most of whom were poor. Prisoners were considered as outcasts
during those times and no one cared about them. William Morgan drags a reluctant John Wesley to
minister to the prisoners. John Wesley sees that these people were very receptive to the word of
God and finds that ministering to these prisoners was at the heart of following Jesus. The Wesleyan
Theology or Wesleyanism was formed from the various sermons, letters, diaries, journals, hymns
and other spiritual writings of John Wesley during his 52 years of ministry starting from 1739.
On May 24th
1738 at 8:45, John Wesley gives a sermon on the blessed assurance that Jesus
Christ died for our sins. He taught on the assurance of salvation that we can have in Jesus Christ by
being born again. By confessing ones sins, believing in Jesus Christ and his redemptive sacrifice on
the cross and his resurrection, one may achieve the blessed assurance of salvation. We are made in
the Image of God, in three ways; Natural, Political and Moral. When man sinned, he fell from the
Moral image of God in the Garden of Eden. Man was no longer righteous or holy. The sin resulted in
a broken relationship with God. There are two dimensions of sin; original and personal sin. Original
7/28/2019 What is Wesleyan Theology
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sin is the sinful nature and personal sins are our acts of disobedience that springs from our broken
relationship with God.
Our personal sins are solved by justification, which is a return to a right relationship with
God. Our original sins are solved by sanctification which is a return to the moral image of God.
Sanctification is the Christian perfection of achieving holiness through Christ-likeness and we are
sanctified by grace. John Wesley taught about the means of grace. We are not to be idle, waiting to
experience grace, but we have to experience grace by employing the means of grace. The means of
grace includes works of piety and works of mercy. Works of piety include prayer, fasting, devotion,
the Lords Supper, public worship and Christian conference. Works of mercy includes individual
practices such as doing good works, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison, feeding the hungry and
giving generously to the needs of others. It also includes communal practices such as seeking
justice, ending oppression and discrimination and ending the needs of the poor. These are some of
the main points on the Wesleyan Theology.
Wesleyan theology can be summed up as a life of selfless living. Serving others is the duty
and ideal of every Christian. Jesus was the supreme example of this. He lived his life serving the
outcasts and the lowly regarded people of the society. Wesley was only teaching others to imitate
this kind of servitude. When Wesley was asked why he spent his entire life serving the poor, he
gave six reasons; to imitate Christ, to obey the Gospel, loving Christ through the poor, act of
worshipping God, because I am a citizen of heaven and because it is the natural outflow of the Spirit
filled life.