Dan Chapa

John Wesley’s article “The Question, "What Is an Arminian?" Answered by a Lover of Free Grace” is an Arminian classic. True to form, Wesley’s humor is delightful, his theology is educational and his preaching stings the conscience and chides us to improve. Wesley explains what Arminianism is not, gives a brief history of Arminius, explains a bit about Arminian theology and then calls both his Calvinist and Arminian readers to cease and desist with the name calling.

Still going through Wesley's thoughts on Justification.... Still no sign of imputation of Christ's righteousness. "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: That is, the word of faith, which we preach." Rom. 10:5-8. 1. The Apostle does not here oppose the covenant given by Moses, to the covenant given by Christ. If we ever imagined this, it was for want of observing, that the latter as well as the former part of these words were spoken by Moses himself to the people of Israel, and that concerning the covenant which then was. (Deut. 30:11, 12, 14.) But it is the covenant of g...

In the last two sermons, I hypothesized that Wesley didn't hold to the imputation of Christ righteousness (i.e. the idea that God looks at the believer and doesn't see their sin, but instead sees Christ's perfect obedience to the law.) I wanted to look at a few passages commonly cited to teach imputed righteousness to see what Wesley had to say. Here's his [relevant] notes on 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Romans 4:1-9-12, 1 Corinthians 15:22 and Philippians 3:9 . Wesley does not use these passages to defend the imputed righteousness of Christ. Instead, he claims that imputed righteousness is equivalent to non-imputation of sin and also to forgiveness. This does seem to support my guess that he didn't hold to imputed righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing thei...

Godismyjudge note: This is the second sermon I have gone through on justification. I will admit, I am still a bit unclear on Wesley's view. I plan on going through more of his sermons on the topic, but at this point I will hazard a guess. It seems Wesley agreed with penal substitution but disagreed with imputed righteousness. This is a rare combination as most people either agree or disagree with both together. I look forward to understanding more on this as we go forward. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4:5. 1. How a sinner may be justified before God, the Lord and Judge of all, is a question of no common importance to every child of man. It contains the foundation of all our hope, inasmuch as while we are at enmity with God, there can be no true peace, no solid joy, either in time or in eternity. What peace can there be, while our own heart condemns us; and much more, He tha...

GODISMYJUDGE notes: Good advice on handling religious disputes. His view on imputation seems similar to Arminius. I am not sure I agree with them, but I will withold judgement as I am not 100% clear on what he is saying. Preached at the Chapel in West-Street, Seven Dials, on Sunday, November 24, 1765 "This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness." Jer. 23:6. 1. How dreadful and how innumerable are the contests which have arisen about religion! And not only among the children of this world, among those who knew not what true religion was, but even among the children of God; those who had experienced "the kingdom of God within them;" who had tasted of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." How many of these, in all ages, instead of joining together against the common enemy, have turned their weapons against each other, and so not only wasted their precious time, but hurt one another's spirits, weakened each o...

2 Sam 7:14 So Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had purposed to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring disaster on Absalom. Absalom and all, &c. - Be it observed, to the comfort of all that fear God, he turns all mans hearts as the rivers of water. He stands in the congregation of the mighty, has an over - ruling hand in all counsels, and a negative voice in all resolves, and laughs at mens projects against his children. ( link ) Here's a youtube clip of a Calvinist who was rather perplexed by Wesley's comments: Wesley for the most part was using the language of scripture and affirming the providence of God. Not that shocking if you understand Arminianism. My only advice is that it's good to understand something before you reject it.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24. 1. In the preceding verses we have an account of a young man who came running to our Lord, and kneeling down, not in hypocrisy, but in deep earnestness of soul, and said unto him, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" "All the commandments," saith he, "I have kept from my youth: What lack I yet?" Probably he had kept them in the literal sense; yet he still loved the world. And He who knew what was in man knew that, in this particular case, (for this is by no means a general rule,) he could not be healed of that desperate disease, but by a desperate remedy. Therefore he answered, "Go and sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor; and come and follow me. But when he heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. So all the fair blossoms withered away! For...