Importance Of Christian Perfection

The book Mere Christianity was derived from a series of radio talks by C.S. Lewis during World War two. The book is divided into four other small books each one providing one of the overall tenants of Christianity within its chapters.

No Christian is perfect and will not be until final glorification is Christ. If the unbelieving world is constantly watching how Christ-like Christians are then they are also watching how unchrist-like they can be. Paul says to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (Phil 1:27) but he also says “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Rom. 7:15). No matter how hard we try, we will occasionally shame the Gospel of Jesus with our sinful conduct in the sight of non-believers. Greg Laurie comically puts it “It’s been said that there are two reasons people do not go to church: They don’t know a Christian, or they do.” Even with this weakness, our weakness, life-style evangelism works. Not only does it work but we are called by Jesus to perform it so we should never be discouraged that it will bear no

This sermon provokes the one who has had their own hearts weaken to seek holiness from the transformation of love. Wesley desires every Christian to attain the status of perfect love, where the love of God and neighbor would reign in their hearts. As evidence he quotes St. Paul, “Earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show unto you a more excellent way.” (The More Excellent Way,

(Some essentials of Wesleyan theology…original sin, divinity of Christ, atonement, justification by faith, work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration (new birth) and trinity)

Jonathan Edwards in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d,” proposes one very significant question. What can man do to achieve perfection? Edwards states that:

Wesley believed that sanctification was a process that could be received as an instantaneous experience after conversion, or later on in life. No matter when sanctification was achieved, the moment someone received sanctification was the “climax” of their Christian life. He believed that the “second blessing purified the believer from his inward sin and enabled him to secure perfect love of God and of his fellowmen.” Followers of Wesley had trouble balancing the “crisis and process views” of Wesley, and the crisis view began to take “precedence over the process view.” Soon, sanctification was no longer viewed as the goal of a Christian life, but the beginning of a Christian life.

John Wesley argued Christian perfection throughout his ministry. His quest was holy living. Wesley was focused with the life of holiness than with the philosophy concerning holiness and he was engrossed in the experience than in its principles.

To be perfect is to be free from fault or defect, flawless, saintly—an exemplification of supreme excellence. Since I can remember, my parents and family and friends have told me I am one of the best children, students, companions, etc. that they could ask for—and in this glory I have and do bask. And from other’s expectations I built a standard that I battle to adhere to. I am a Zimmer, an American, a high honor student, and beauty, a Christian—I ought to act and behave a

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

This paper on Salvation is defining both objectively and subjectively from the two required reading text. The first text is written by Alistair McGrath’s “Theology: The Basics and the second is written by Dr. Yung Chul Han’s “Transforming Power: Dimension of the Gospel. I will describe how the both texts are in association as well as seeking observations, and other conclusions to gain a better understanding of salvation from both perspectives. According to (Mc.Grath, p.78), the word salvation is referred to as something that has already happened in the past, to something that will happen in the future. Spiritual transformation requires of us what is called dependent responsibility. All the moral commands and exhortations of scripture assume our responsibility. Salvation is deliverance from danger or suffering. The word salvation carries the idea of victory, health, or preservation (www.biblia.com). Salvation can be viewed as a spiritual transformation which the dependency of the Holy Spirit assist in the change of a believers past, self to a vessel of God in the present lives which exemplifies life, deliverance, peace, and a victory won through personal conviction. The victory is one that only Jesus Christ has authority save us which gives believers complete approval to have possession to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Nothing can be added to that perfection. Only man has potential. God gets His existence only from Himself and owes such to no other being because He is the original cause of all things, including Himself.

John Wesley’s discourse, “The Means of Grace,” expresses the expedient of grace as, “outward signs, language, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end— to be the ordinary channels whereby he might impart to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” Acknowledging his need and proceeding in his evangelization, Wesley could obtain the grace he needed to have both the potency and placidity that was eluding from his religion. God utilized his perpetuated participation in the ministry of Scripture to proclaim faith in Christ into Wesley’s philosophy.

Believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ.

The next characteristic in which he had created us in is holiness. Holy means “to separate or to cut off.” or (Towns 68-69) God is holy which means that he is separated from sin and cannot be sinful. Like himself, God has made us to have the ability to separate ourselves from sin and separation onto God. In the church as Christians we can use this attribute to help lead those to Christ. Holiness encompasses all of what is needed for some to receive salvation in the first place. As humans we will never be born holy, however with those we meet in the secular world, we can teach them that the ultimate goal is to reach salvation with God but also to become holy in God’s vision. The secular world is not concerned about being holy but instead more material things, however being made in God’s image, we as Christians see the importance of holiness and can be able to preach its importance for generations to come.

Hence, during the in class discussions, I have recognized that the spiritual tradition that my church subscribes to is a combination of holiness and evangelical. Subsequently, the holiness tradition is living a virtuous life whilst the evangelical