All posts Justification by faith alone: The fuel of bold preaching and witness
11/8/2012 11:12:55 AM
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge with Scott Lamb
In 1738, Charles Wesley lay sick of pleurisy and received a regular round of “bleeding” from his doctors in order to combat the illness. Thankfully, his doctors did not kill him.
Even as he languished, he read from Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians and then wrote this in his journal:
Wed., May 17th. I experienced the power of Christ rescuing me in temptation. Today I first saw Luther on the Galatians, which Mr. Holland had accidentally lit upon. We began, and found him nobly full of faith. My friend, in hearing him, was so affected, as to breathe out sighs and groans unutterable. I marveled that we were so soon and so entirely removed from him that called us into the grace of Christ, unto another Gospel. Who would believe our Church had been founded on this important article of justification by faith alone I am astonished I should ever think this a new doctrine … From this time I endeavored to ground as many of our friends as came in this fundamental truth, salvation by faith alone, not an idle, dead faith, but a faith which works by love, and is necessarily productive of all good works and all holiness.
Charles was converted four days later:
‘21 May was Pentecost Sunday … [and] the day of Charles Wesley’s conversion.’ Charles said he felt the Spirit of God striving with his spirit ‘till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced…I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.’ (Arnold Dallimore, Charles Wesley, Crossway, p.58-59)
And, three days after that, Charles’ brother John was converted in the more widely known “Aldersgate experience:”
‘In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ (John Wesley Journal, May 24th 1738, Vol. 1. p.103)
Both of the Wesley brothers had already at this point been extremely active in religious pursuits and acts of piety. But, in both cases, it was the doctrine of justification by faith alone – gleaned from the 200-hundred year old Martin Luther commentary on Galatians – which led them to forsake works-righteousness and cling to Christ alone for salvation. And, in the wake of being converted to Christ, the Wesley brothers became the human agent of massive missionary movements and church revitalization.
The late Presbyterian pastor and author C. John Miller wrote about the importance of grounding our preaching ministry on the bedrock of justification by faith alone:
Thus the gospel presents Christ as the great object of our faith, and it is His righteousness that is received through faith in His atoning sacrifice (Rom. 3:25). There is no legalism here, no trivializing of grace in the Cross. It is the proclamation of unconditional love manifested in Christ’s self-giving that breaks our pride, faces us with God’s demand for a holy life, and brings us into the joy and freedom of knowing that the condemnation of the law is forever silenced. What a need is then met – to have a conscience freed from divine condemnation! This freedom ignites people with missionary fire, beginning with preachers.
… Our task as pastors is to aim the message at people with courage and command them to believe lest they die in their sins. Our calling is not to put our faith in our excellent sermons but in the excellencies of Christ. Let us, therefore, make our messages sharp-edged instrument to do God’s holy work – to inform, to convince, and to motivate, with a view to transforming men and women into the image of Christ through faith in Him alone. Preach Christ with a burning faith, hot enough to get people to listen and catch fire themselves.” C. John Miller Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, 133.