Plain Truth for Plain People: The Folk Theology of John Wesley (Salvation by Faith, Sermon 1)
A Commentary on His Standard Sermons on Several Occasions
Ephesians 2:8
By grace ye are saved through faith.
A sermon preached at Saint Mary’s, Oxford, before the University on June 11, 1738.
Wesley begins his sermon with an emphasis on what he calls “free grace,” that human beings have no claim to even the smallest mercies of God. From being formed out of dust and receiving breath to salvation, God’s free grace is made manifest in all things. There is nothing human beings can do to make up for the least of their sins. Women and men can only find favor with God through the gift of God’s grace. We have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
After this introduction, Wesley’s sermon focuses upon answering three questions. “What faith is it through which we are saved? What is the salvation which is through faith? How may we answer some objections?”
First, what faith is it through which we are saved? Wesley mines the answer to this question by considering what saving faith is not. It is not the faith of the unbeliever whom he refers to as a “heathen. God expects the unbeliever to seek him and to practice some kind of general virtue or justice, and God will hold the unbeliever accountable for failing to act faithfully according to the light they have been given, but this is not saving faith.(1)
Moreover, it is not the faith of the devil. The devil believes who Jesus Christ is as the demons in the Gospels confess (Mark 1:23-24; James 2:19); but the devil is the enemy of God and God will one day defeat his enemies (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).