Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Christian perfection" in English language version.
It is the other christological strand, that of the indwelling Christ, that is the heart of the distinctive sanctification theology of A. B. Simpson. A Presbyterian who ultimately founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Simpson operates within a Keswick framework while also drawing upon Wesleyan ideals. Like Wesley, Simpson described sin as in the motive or intent of the heart most especially lack of love for God and neighbour. While he agrees with Keswick that we can't ever be freed from this sinful nature in this life, he insisted, as Van De Walle puts it, "the power of the resurrected Christ would more than enable the believer to consider the sin nature a vanquished foe and to behave as though it were.
We are not justified by works. But good works follow necessarily as an indicator that we have accepted a relationship with Him through the application of our free will. If opening the door on which Jesus knocks is to be considered a work, then we are justified by works to that extent. But if we look at it as an obligation which we force on God--that is, if we believe that our good works are the agent of our salvation--then we miss the mark. The key is that God offers us the opportunity to become a genuine traveler in His company. Over time, if we do not resist it, the Light makes changes in us that bring us more and more into accordance with God's plans for us--we become more and more like what He wanted us to be. Over time, we sin less and less, as we become more and more in tune with His will. How clean a state of sinlessness is enough is not up to us--that decision belongs to Jesus. And providentially for us, Jesus is a merciful and compassionate judge. Quakers believe that we are called to be perfect, as our Father in Heaven is perfect. We are called to live a life as free of sin as we can. We believe that if God wants to bring a Christian to a state of sinless perfection, then He has that right and that power. We do not limit the power of the Holy Spirit in that matter.
John Wesley observed in his Methodist Societies that wherever entire sanctification was not regularly preached and strongly urged upon Christians, believers grew cold and dead. In 1776, when he was 73 years of age, he wrote this to a friend: "Where Christian perfection [entire sanctification] is not strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom any remarkable blessing from God; and consequently little addition to the society, and little life in the members of it. Speak and spare not. Let not regard for any man induce you to betray the truth of God. Till you press the believers to expect full salvation [entire sanctification] now, you must not look for any revival." (Works, Vol. 6, p. 761).
In sanctification subsequent to the new birth, through faith in the blood of Christ, through the Word, and by the Holy Ghost.
John Wesley taught about 'Christian perfection.' He believed that a mature Christian could reach a state where the love of God reigns supreme in our heart.
The last step in the order of salvation is "glorification," that is, the receiving of God's elect into heavenly glory. In our glorification God finishes the work of salvation that He began with regeneration. He not only delivers His people from all their suffering and from death, but delivers them too from all their sins.
The Methodists were also first to coin the phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit as applied to a second and sanctifying grace (experience) of God. (Cf. John Fletcher of Madeley, Methodism's earliest formal theologian.) The Methodists meant by their "baptism" something different from the Pentecostals, but the view that this is an experience of grace separate from and after salvation was the same.
We are not justified by works. But good works follow necessarily as an indicator that we have accepted a relationship with Him through the application of our free will. If opening the door on which Jesus knocks is to be considered a work, then we are justified by works to that extent. But if we look at it as an obligation which we force on God--that is, if we believe that our good works are the agent of our salvation--then we miss the mark. The key is that God offers us the opportunity to become a genuine traveler in His company. Over time, if we do not resist it, the Light makes changes in us that bring us more and more into accordance with God's plans for us--we become more and more like what He wanted us to be. Over time, we sin less and less, as we become more and more in tune with His will. How clean a state of sinlessness is enough is not up to us--that decision belongs to Jesus. And providentially for us, Jesus is a merciful and compassionate judge. Quakers believe that we are called to be perfect, as our Father in Heaven is perfect. We are called to live a life as free of sin as we can. We believe that if God wants to bring a Christian to a state of sinless perfection, then He has that right and that power. We do not limit the power of the Holy Spirit in that matter.
The Methodists were also first to coin the phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit as applied to a second and sanctifying grace (experience) of God. (Cf. John Fletcher of Madeley, Methodism's earliest formal theologian.) The Methodists meant by their "baptism" something different from the Pentecostals, but the view that this is an experience of grace separate from and after salvation was the same.
