The Wesleyan Journey: A Workbook on Salvation

INTRODUCTION

To be a Christian is to change. It is to become new. It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifestyle, although that will change. It has to do with being a new person. A new person does not emerge fully formed. Conversion—passing from death to life—may be a miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is a process of a lifetime. The process of saint-making is to work out in fact what is already true in principle. In position, in our relationship to God in Jesus Christ, we are new persons. Now our condition, the actual life we live, must be brought into harmony with our new position.¹

Paul contended that we are to become new creatures in Christ Jesus. In fact, that’s the way he defined a Christian: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17). Nothing less is the aim of the Christian life: to be new creatures in Christ Jesus.

In our preaching and teaching, we too often put most of our emphasis on our coming into the Christian life; in confessing, repenting, and trusting Christ as Savior, and receiving his forgiveness. The theological or biblical term for God’s work in this dynamic is justification. When we think and talk about salvation, this is often where we center.

This is limited thinking. John Wesley, who with his brother, Charles, was one of the founders of the Methodist movement, used the term salvation in a broader and deeper way, referring to the entire saving activity of God in human lives. By salvation I mean, not barely . . . deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its . . . original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth.²

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul calls us to grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:15). It is a call to full salvation: maturity in Christ, spiritual adulthood, perfection in love.

In the Wesleyan tradition, we acknowledge this and talk about going on to salvation. Beginning with justification, full salvation includes sanctification, which is the theological word for God’s cleansing and purifying work within us. In his sermon The Scripture Way of Salvation, Wesley used the term full salvation, saying, It is thus that we wait for entire sanctification; for a full salvation from all our sins—from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief; or, as the Apostle expresses it, ‘go unto perfection.’ ³

The climactic work of full salvation is glorification, the answer to Jesus’s prayer for his followers: Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world (John 17:24).

This workbook will lead you on the journey of going on to full salvation.

THE PLAN

I have found in my long years of teaching and ministry with small groups that six to eight weeks is the most manageable and effective amount of time for a group study. Also, I have learned that persons best appropriate content and truth in small doses. That is the reason this journey is designed for eight weekly meetings (plus an optional introductory meeting), during which participants give the material explicit daily attention.

This is an individual journey, but my hope is that you will share it with some fellow pilgrims who will meet together once each week during the eight weeks of the study. You are asked to devote thirty to forty minutes each day to the workbook content to learn about and appropriate ideas for your salvation journey. Most people will probably do this at the beginning of the day; however, you may do it whenever the time is available to you. The key is to do it regularly.

The purpose of this spiritual journey must not be forgotten: to incorporate the content into your daily life. The workbook is arranged in eight major divisions, each designed to guide you for one week. These divisions contain seven sections, one for each day of the week.

Each day’s study will have three major components: reading about salvation, reflecting and recording ideas and thoughts about the material and your own journey, and, finally, some practical suggestions for incorporating ideas from the reading into your daily life.

READING ABOUT SALVATION

In each day’s section, you will read something about salvation, beginning with a portion of Scripture—not too much, but enough to provide something of the nature and meaning of salvation and going on to full salvation. Think and reflect as you are guided in order to internalize the ideas and experiences prompted by the readings.

REFLECTING AND RECORDING

Then you will take time to reflect and record your thoughts. The degree of meaning you receive from this workbook is largely dependent upon your faithfulness to its practice. You may be unable on a particular day to do precisely what is requested. If so, simply record that fact and make a note about why you can’t follow through. This may give you some insight about yourself and help you to grow.

Also, on some days there may be more suggestions than you can respond to in the time you have. Do what is most meaningful for you and don’t feel guilty. The emphasis is upon growth, not perfection. And don’t feel guilty if you do not follow exactly the pattern of the days. Follow the content and direction seriously, but not slavishly. Always remember that this is a personal pilgrimage. What you write in your personal workbook is your private property. You may not wish to share it with anyone. For this reason, no two people should attempt to share the same workbook. The importance of what you write is not what it may mean to someone else, but what it means to you. Writing, even if it is only brief notes or single-word reminders, helps us clarify our feelings and thinking.

The significance of the reflecting and recording will grow as you move along. Even beyond the eight-week period, you will find meaning in looking back at what you wrote on a particular day as it might apply to a particular situation.

SHARING WITH OTHERS

In the history of Christian piety, the spiritual director or guide has played a significant role. To varying degrees most of us have had spiritual directors—persons to whom we have turned for support and direction in our spiritual pilgrimage. There is a sense in which this workbook can be a spiritual guide, for you can use it as a private venture without participating in a group.

This journey will be enhanced, however, if you share it with eight to twelve others. (Larger groups can limit individual participation.) In this way, the priesthood of all believers will come alive. You will profit from the growing insights of others and they will profit from yours.

John Wesley believed that Christian conferencing was a means of grace for Christians. By Christian conferencing he simply meant Christians sharing intentionally their Christian experience and understanding, through deliberate and serious conversation. He designed the class meeting as a vehicle for this discipline. In such a fellowship of Christian conversation and shared life, one loving heart sets another on fire, as Augustine reportedly said. Your weekly gathering can be that kind of means of grace. You will find a guide for group sharing in each week’s session materials.

If this is a group venture, all participants should begin using the workbook on the same day, so that when the group comes together, everyone will have been dealing with the same material and will be at the same place in the text. It will be helpful if you have an initial get-acquainted group meeting to begin the adventure. Following is a guide for these meetings.

Group sessions for this workbook are designed to last no more than ninety minutes. Members should covenant to attend all sessions unless an emergency prevents attendance. There will be eight weekly sessions following an initial get-acquainted gathering.

One person can provide the leadership for each week, or participants may take turns leading sessions. The leader’s tasks are:

1.Read the directions and determine ahead of time how to handle the session. It may not be possible to use all the suggestions for sharing and praying together. Feel free to select those you think will be most meaningful and those for which you have adequate time.

2.Model a style of openness, honesty, and warmth. Do not ask others to share what you are not willing to share. Usually the leader should be the first to share, especially as it relates to personal experiences.

3.Moderate the discussion.

4.Encourage reticent members to participate, and try to prevent a few persons from doing all the talking.

5.Guide the discussion to center on personal experience rather than academic debate.

6.Honor the time schedule. If it appears necessary to exceed ninety minutes, the leader should get consensus for continuing another twenty or thirty minutes.

7.Make sure that the meeting time and place are known by all, especially if meetings are held in different homes.

8.Check to be certain that the necessary materials for meetings are available and that the meeting room is arranged ahead of time. If possible, weekly meetings should be held in the homes of the participants. (Hosts or hostesses should make sure there are as few interruptions as possible, for example, from children, telephone calls, pets, and so on.) If meetings are held in a church, they should take place in an informal setting. Participants may dress casually, to be comfortable and relaxed. If refreshments are served, they should come after the formal meeting. In this way, those who wish to stay longer for informal discussion may do so, while those who need to keep to a specific time schedule will be free to leave without missing the full value of the meeting time.

NOTES

1.Maxie D. Dunnam, Irresistible Invitation: Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008), 112–13.

2.John Wesley, A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, in The Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion and Certain Related Open Letters, vol. 11 of The Works of John Wesley, ed. Gerald R. Cragg (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), 106.

3.John Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation (sermon 43), in The Works of John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872).

WEEK ONE

IT’S ALL ABOUT SALVATION

DAY ONE

TO SEEK AND SAVE THE LOST

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.

Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

(Luke 19:5-10)

If you ever attended Sunday school as a child, you heard the story of Zacchaeus. You probably sang this song:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,

a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in the sycamore tree,

for the Lord he wanted to see.

Some have called him a treetop saint, one not quite ready to say yes or get involved in the available opportunities to know Jesus. Whatever else we might say about him, and a lot has been said (and sung), we can confidently say he was curious; not yet convinced, but curious.

He had heard so much talk about Jesus, and, hearing that Jesus had come to Jericho, Zacchaeus wanted to see him. He knew the crowd would be great and all would be pressing in to see and maybe to touch or speak to Jesus. How could he navigate the crowd? Being a wee little man, he had only one option: he would climb the sycamore tree. There, above the crowd, he would have a commanding view. Also, being a chief tax collector, he would not be seen and embarrassed by his curiosity. The crowd would not know he was anywhere around.

But Jesus knew. He not only saw Zacchaeus but also spoke to him, even calling him by name: Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.

Because he didn’t hesitate a moment, we can easily believe that Zacchaeus had been pondering his life situation, feeling deeply the absence of meaning, obviously knowing he was up a tree in all sorts of ways. He jumped at the opportunity to come down. His response was as specific as the immediacy of his action: Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.

Jesus was also immediate and specific in his response. Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Salvation! It’s all about salvation.

Zacchaeus was not aware that what had begun to unfold for him and the people in Jericho that day was something the prophet Isaiah had spoken of more than five hundred years before. Certainly, for Zacchaeus, this was the moment of God’s fulfilling of a promise that was proclaimed over and over again: salvation.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn. . . .

I delight greatly in the LORD;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

(Isaiah 61:1-2, 10)

It’s all about salvation!

REFLECTING AND RECORDING

Spend a few minutes reflecting on how you learned or what you know about Zacchaeus.

If you heard about him in Sunday school when you were a child, recall some of those memories.

Did you learn the song, Zacchaeus was a wee little man? If you are where you can sing it without feeling too embarrassed, do so.

Recall and reflect on any teaching that connected Zacchaeus with salvation.

DURING THE DAY

Have a conversation with at least one person today about Zacchaeus. Have they heard of him? What do they remember about him? Have they connected Zacchaeus with salvation?

DAY TWO

GARMENTS OF SALVATION

I delight greatly in the LORD;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

(Isaiah 61:10)

It’s all about salvation.

Yesterday we focused on Zacchaeus and Jesus’s affirmation, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:9-10). We made the claim that what began to unfold in Jericho that day was something the prophet Isaiah had spoken of more than five hundred years before.

Jerusalem was leveled to the ground in 587 BC by the armies of Babylon. Much of the population was marched off to the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys. There they lived in exile for the next fifty to seventy years. Coming out of exile, their joyous optimism was short-lived. Their existence became bleak as they were abruptly challenged by tremendous economic difficulties. Facing meager food supplies and harsh weather conditions, the people found the task of rebuilding their once-proud homeland next to impossible. They came home to a forsaken and abandoned city in ruins.

God’s promises, in which the people had faithfully