Tuesday, December 27, 2022

John Wesley: One cannot know for sure if one is saved or justified unless they receive divine revelation

  

Q. What is reasonable proof? How may we certainly know one that is saved from all sin?

 

A. We cannot infallibly know one that is thus saved (no, nor even one that is justified), unless it should please God to endow us with the miraculous discernment of spirits. But we apprehend these would be sufficient proofs to any reasonable man, and such as would leave little room to doubt, either the truth or depth of the work: (a) If we had clear evidence of his exemplary behavior, for some time before this supposed change. This would give us reason to believe he would not lie for God, but speak neither more nor less than he felt. (b) If he gave a distinct account of the time and manner wherein the change was wrought, with sound speech which could not be reproved. And (c) if it appeared that all his subsequent words and actions were holy and unblamable. (John Wesley, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection,” in John and Charles Wesley: Selected Prayers, Hymns, Journal Notes, Letters and Treatises, ed. Frank Wahling [The Classics of Western Spirituality; Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1981], 331, emphasis in bold added)