WESLEY

on the Christian Life

THE HEART RENEWED IN LOVE

FRED SANDERS

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

THEOLOGIANSON THE CHRISTIANLIFE

EDITED BY STEPHEN J. NICHOLS AND JUSTIN TAYLOR

Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life:

From the Cross, for the World,

Stephen J. Nichols

Schaeffer on the Christian Life:

Countercultural Spirituality,

William Edgar

Warfield on the Christian Life:

Living in Light of the Gospel,

Fred G. Zaspel

Wesley on the Christian Life: The Heart Renewed in Love

Copyright © 2013 by Fred Sanders

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

Cover image: Richard Solomon Artists, Mark Summers

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked esv are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-1564-4

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1566-8

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1565-1

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2487-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sanders, Fred (Fred R.)

Wesley on the Christian life: the heart renewed in love / Fred Sanders.

pages cm.—(Theologians on the Christian life)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-4335-1564-4 (tp)

1. Wesley, John, 1703–1791. I. Title.

BX8495.W5S265 2013

230′.7092—dc23

2013016026

For Freddy:

peaceful, playful,

powerful, the fourth

CONTENTS

Series Preface

Introduction

1 John Wesley as a Spiritual Guide

2 Born Again (and the Pastor Who Wasn’t)

3 Heart Religion

4 The Theologian of 1 John

5 The Lord Our Righteousness

6 Grace First, Then Law

7 The Means of Grace

8 Saved to the Uttermost

9 Catholic Spirit

10 The Trinitarian Theology of John Wesley

Appendix: Volumes Cited from The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley

General Index

Scripture Index

SERIES PREFACE

Some might call us spoiled. We live in an era of significant and substantial resources for Christians on living the Christian life. We have ready access to books, DVD series, online material, seminars—all in the interest of encouraging us in our daily walk with Christ. The laity, the people in the pew, have access to more information than scholars dreamed of having in previous centuries.

Yet for all our abundance of resources, we also lack something. We tend to lack the perspectives from the past, perspectives from a different time and place than our own. To put the matter differently, we have so many riches in our current horizon that we tend not to look to the horizons of the past.

That is unfortunate, especially when it comes to learning about and practicing discipleship. It’s like ...