Our Wednesday night class, centered around Theodore Runyon’s book, “The New Creation: John Wesley’s Theology Today,” Has been a source of great conversation and reflection. This book offers a comprehensive and accessible exploration of Wesley’s Theology, making it a valuable resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of our theological underpinnings.

Our class discussions and readings have served as a powerful reminder of the profound and transformative nature of Wesleyan Theology. Wesley’s vision of salvation as the process of perfection in love resonates deeply, offering a compelling invitation for us to shed the shackles of sin and embrace the boundless love of God.

Wesley insists that we are either growing toward God or away from God as we go from day to day, and Wesley challenges us to continue on as we grow more and more in our relationship with God. John Wesley states the following in his sermon, “On Faith”

Go on to perfection. Yea, and when ye have attained a measure of perfect love, when God has … enabled you to love him with all your heart and all your soul, think not of resting there. That is impossible. You cannot stand still; you must either rise or fall—rise higher or fall lower. Therefore the voice of God to the children of Israel, to the children of God is “Go forward.” “Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forward unto those that are before, press on to the mark, for the prize of your high calling of God in Christ Jesus!”

Wesley hopes that by our cooperating with the Holy Spirit, we might both be saved and experience abundant life in Jesus Christ. Because as we grow in holiness of heart and life, we become more and more alive until we are fully restored in Christ. John Wesley’s brother, Charles Wesley, expresses this beautifully in the hymn “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”:

Finish then Thy new creation; Pure and spotless let us be.

Let us see Thy great salvation Perfectly restored in Thee;

Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place,

Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Friends, I pray that you hear God’s call for us to “Go forward,” to press on toward the goal of holiness of heart and life. That as you cooperate with the Holy Spirit, you might experience abundant life and that you might be perfectly restored in Christ. We have opportunities here at Pittman Park to learn and grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and in holiness of heart and life. I hope that as you continue to learn and grow in Christ you would help build faith-filled communities that transform our community for Jesus Christ.

God bless,
Jonathan Smith
For Jesus. For People. For Community.