Once again, it’s time for our weekly delve into the sermons of John Wesley. Like last week’s selection, “The Almost Christian,” this week’s sermon is a very notable and defining one in the writings of Wesley. Sermon 40: “Christian Perfection,” addresses first what Christian perfection does not entail, and then suggests what is implied by this hotly debated biblical concept.

So often I hear people say, “Nobody’s perfect. I’m human. I still make mistakes.” What they really mean, though, is that they are in sin, and do not believe in the power of Jesus Christ to free them from sin. I believe wholeheartedly, both from scripture and experience, in freedom from the bondage of sin. I also agree that, yes, we are all in fact human. But Wesley, and also the Bible, leaves sin noticeably off the list of things that are inescapably human. If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you must come to terms with verses like Matthew 5:48: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You must face the fact that sin has no place in the call of Jesus, and that his call is not an impossible standard, but an expected response.

No doubt this topic is extremely polarizing in the Church today, as it was in Wesley’s time. But a close look at what perfection does and does not mean should clear up a few misconceptions, and you may even agree with Wesley more than you would ever care to admit in public, or at least in church.

Wesley begins by admitting the stigma attached to the mention of Christian perfection. Apparently in his day, strikingly similar to our own, people were urging him to hold off preaching explicitly on the topic. To this Wesley replies, “But are [expressions of perfection] not found in the oracles of God? If so, by what authority can any messenger of God lay them aside, even though all men should be offended?” To this I sound a hearty “Amen” into the echoing hollow of seeker sensitivity. Honestly, what authority do we have to not preach perfection when it is so obviously treated by both the apostles and Jesus himself? So now that we are unashamedly preaching perfection, what the heck does it mean to be perfect?

Perfection Is Not…

Christians are not perfect in knowledge, or as Wesley puts it, “innumerable are the things that they know not.” This is obvious from a quick recollection of the fact that God is God, and we are not.

Neither are Christians free from ignorance or mistakes. Now, Wesley qualifies this by adding that mistakes here do not include things essential to salvation. A perfect Christian never puts darkness for light, or light for darkness, “But in things unessential to salvation they do err, and that frequently.” They are not infallible, in other words, and “It is a proof that we are not more to expect any living man to be infallible, than to be omniscient.”

Christians are not free from infirmities. And not only bodily infirmities, but also the outward imperfections which, again, are not of a moral nature essential to salvation. This includes confusion, slowness of understanding, incoherency of thought, ungracefulness of pronunciation (whew!), and so on.

Christians are not free from temptations. Jesus himself was tempted in every way that we are yet without sin. It may set you free to recognize the difference between sin and temptation, but that’s another sermon, perhaps for next week.

Finally, Christians are always growing in perfection and will never stop growing until they die. Everyone is at a different stage in their walk with Christ and needs mature to the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Perfection Is…

A Christian, even in his primal stage of infancy, has ceased from sin. This immediately throws out the “sin=human” pseudo-equation. Even those who are babes in Christ, according to I John 3:6-10, have been given this privilege, that they should no longer continue or live in sin.

Wesley answers at length many contemporary objections which, again, are similar to some I encounter today. For example, many would point out that David sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah. Wesley responds by pointing out (Matthew 11:11) that even the least in the Kingdom of God, having been born of the Spirit, is greater than the greatest man ever born of a woman, not David, but John the Baptist. Much more, then, do those belonging to the Kingdom cease from sin in the plain sense of the term. As Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh to take away our sins, died having become the curse, rose in the power of God, and ascended shedding his Spirit on all flesh, he successfully provided the means and the end of Christian perfection. We are now made more than conquerers over sin by the Spirit of the one who has ascended, leading captivity captive, and giving the gift of His Spirit to men (Ephesians 4:8). The power of the Spirit has now come to us as it had not until Jesus ascended and was glorified. Christians are not to be measures by the same standards as those in the Old Testament, having received a far superior ministry. Wesley invites anyone to prove that not sinning is to be understood in any other sense than the plain, obvious one, they should do it from the words of the New Testament. He then takes on those commonly used passages from the NT which seem to indicate a Christian, even an Apostle such as Paul, not having ceased from sin. Time is failing me now to summarize these arguments, but they include Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” and others of note.

After sufficiently covering the fact that Christians live free from sin, he clarifies the ramifications of this fact. Christians are freed from evil thoughts, and cease from inward as well as outward sin. They also are freed from evil tempers, as the Master was free from these, and we are perfect if we are like the Master (I John 3:3; 4:17).

As he comes to a close, and this is what really drives this sermon home for me, Wesley emphasizes not the burden of having to be perfect in order to be saved. Rather, he emphasizes the promises of God to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Perfection is the expected response because God Himself brings it about. If we believe God is able to do all he has said, we believe he is able to perfect us. He saves us from our sins when we repent to live the life of Jesus by the Spirit. Sin has never been a part of the package, and never should be.

I hope I was clear in communicating this. Let me know if you have questions or concerns.