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Discover why John Wesley taught that feeling saved isn’t enough for heaven in this profound exploration of Methodist theology and practical holiness.
As Wesley, I revealed the dangerous delusion plaguing American Christianity, the belief that emotional conversion experiences constitute complete salvation while neglecting sanctification and Christian perfection.Through decades of revival ministry and theological development, I learned that justification is only the beginning of the Christian journey, not its culmination. This article exposes the fatal confusion between being declared righteous and being made righteous, between feeling forgiven and living holy.
You discover the biblical distinction between justification and sanctification, why perfect love is not optional but necessary for heaven, and how the means of grace transform emotional experiences into genuine holiness.Learn why social holiness and works of mercy are essential evidence of true salvation, not mere additions to personal faith. This teaching addresses the comfortable deception that has weakened American Christianity – believers who rest in conversion experiences while remaining strangers to the transformative power of sanctification.Though scriptural analysis and practical wisdom from Methodist revival, I show why heart religion must progress beyond initial feelings to perfected love. The path to heaven requires more than emotional assurance. It demands the actual transformation of character through divine grace. Discover how justification leads to sanctification, how personal holiness connects to social responsibility, and why Christian perfection is both possible and necessary in this life.
My dear friends in Christ, I must address a dangerous delusion that has crept into the American church, the belief that an emotional experience of salvation, however genuine, constitutes the entirety of what God requires for eternal life. How many souls have I encountered who rest confidently in their conversion experience, yet show no evidence of the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
This is not merely theological hair splitting, but a matter of eternal consequence. The devil himself knows that the easiest way to destroy souls is not to prevent their conversion, but to convince them that conversion is all God requires.
Today I must pierce through this comfortable deception and show you why justification, though absolutely necessary, is but the threshold of the Christian life. The God who justifies freely also commands, Be ye holy, for I am holy. If your heart truly burns with the love of Christ, you will hunger to understand why feeling saved is only the beginning of your journey to heaven.
Chapter 1. The Fatal Confusion Between Justification and Sanctification
The root of this spiritual tragedy lies in confusing justification with sanctification, treating them as the same when God has made them distinct works of His grace. When I speak of justification, I mean that instantaneous work whereby God, for the sake of His Son’s atoning blood, pardons our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight.
This is indeed a work of a moment, accomplished when we first believe. The consciousness of sins forgiven, the peace that passes understanding, the joy unspeakable, these blessed feelings that accompany the new birth are real and precious gifts from heaven.
But hear me clearly, justification is what God does for us, while sanctification is what God does in us. Justification changes our standing before the divine tribunal, sanctification changes our nature, our heart, our inward man.
To think that the first is sufficient without the second is like a condemned criminal imagining that a royal pardon makes him fit to be the king’s chamberlain. The pardon is absolutely necessary, but it does not instantly transform his character.
I have observed this confusion particularly among our American brethren who emphasize the moment of decision. They speak eloquently of being saved, as though it were a completed transaction rather than the commencement of a divine process.
They testify to:
– Feeling saved,
– Knowing they are saved,
– Being assured of salvation,
and all this is good and scriptural when properly understood.
But when they stop there, when they rest in their feelings rather than pressing on to the holiness that God requires, they fall into a snare more subtle than open sin. Scripture makes this distinction unmistakably clear.
When our Lord says, “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life”, he speaks of our justification and present acceptance with God. But when he commands, “be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”, he refers to that sanctification without which our justification itself becomes questionable.
The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote; “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
The danger is not that people feel too strongly about their salvation, but that they feel satisfied with partial salvation.
They receive forgiveness gladly but resist transformation stubbornly.
They want the benefits of Christ’s death without the demands of his life.
They desire heaven as a destination while remaining unfit for heaven as a state of being.
This is not the religion of Jesus Christ, but a counterfeit that bears his name while denying his power.
Chapter 2. What Scripture Actually Teaches About Complete Salvation
When we examine the Word of God honestly, we discover that salvation encompasses far more than judicial pardon.
Our Lord Jesus spoke of salvation as both a present reality and a future hope that requires perseverance. “He that endureth to the end shall be saved”, he declared, indicating that salvation has a process, not merely a point of beginning.
The apostolic writings consistently present salvation in three tenses:
1. We have been saved from the guilt (penalty) of sin through Justification,
2. We are being saved from the power of sin through Sanctification,
3. And we shall be saved from the presence of sin through Glorification.
To focus exclusively on the first while ignoring the second is to build our hope on a foundation of sand.
Consider the solemn words of our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel:
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
These are they who felt saved, who called Jesus their Lord, who even performed mighty works in his name.
Yet he declares he never knew them because they practiced lawlessness. How can this be, except that they rested in an experience of salvation while remaining strangers to the holiness that salvation produces?
The Apostle Paul, writing to believers who had undoubtedly experienced justification, nonetheless exhorts them to:
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
He does not say work for your salvation, as though it could be earned, but work out the salvation that God has begun in you.
This salvation includes sanctification, the actual cleansing of the heart from sin and the filling of it with perfect love.
James, that Apostle of practical holiness, declares boldly that:
“Faith without works is dead”.
He is not contradicting Paul’s teaching on justification by faith, but showing that living faith inevitably produces the fruit of holiness.
A faith that justifies but does not sanctify is no faith at all, but mere intellectual assent or emotional enthusiasm.
John, the Apostle of Love, writes with crystal clarity:
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”.
This is not describing justification but the new birth that leads to sanctification. The one who is truly born again does not continue in willful sin because God’s nature dwells within him.
These passages are not describing exceptional Christians but normal Christianity. The problem is that we have grown so accustomed to carnal Christians that we mistake abnormality for the norm. We have lowered the standard of Scripture to accommodate our low experience rather than raising our experience to meet Scripture’s standard.
Chapter 3: The Means of Grace That Lead Beyond Feeling Saved
Now I must address your first engagement with this truth. Examine honestly whether you are utilizing the means of grace that God has ordained for sanctification, or whether you are content to rest in the feelings of justification.
The Christian who stops at feeling saved while neglecting the means of growing in grace proves that he understands neither the nature of salvation nor the character of God.
1. Prayer is the first means of grace, but not the prayer of petition only, but the prayer of communion. The justified soul prays for blessings, the sanctified soul prays for God himself. He seeks not merely answers to prayer but fellowship with the answer.
In my own experience, it was not until I moved beyond asking God for things to asking for God that my heart began its journey toward perfect love.
True prayer transforms the one who prays, conforming his will to God’s rather than seeking to conform God’s will to his.
2. The study of Scripture, when approached with a heart prepared by grace, becomes more than intellectual exercise or devotional comfort.
It becomes the means by which the Holy Spirit writes the law of God upon our hearts.
The justified person reads Scripture to know what God requires, the sanctified person reads to have those requirements written upon his heart by divine power.
We must progress from knowing Scripture in our heads to having Scripture transform our hearts.
3. The Lord’s Supper is not merely a memorial of Christ’s death but a means of receiving his life.
Too many approach this holy ordinance as a sentimental remembrance rather than a spiritual feeding upon Christ.
When received with faith and love, this sacrament becomes a channel through which the sanctifying grace of God flows into the believing heart.
It is not enough to remember that Christ died, we must participate in his life.
4. Christian fellowship, properly understood, means more than social interaction with other believers.
It is the communion of hearts that are being transformed by grace. When Christians gather merely to feel good about their salvation, they miss the divine intention for community.
But when they come together to provoke one another to love and good works, to bear one another’s burdens, to speak the truth in love, fellowship becomes a means of
Fasting, that much neglected discipline, serves not to earn God’s favor but to subdue the flesh and increase our spiritual sensitivity. The person who has never learned sanctification.
5. to say no to legitimate appetites will find it nearly impossible to say no to sinful ones. Fasting teaches us that we are more than flesh, that our true satisfaction comes from God alone.
Works of mercy, caring for the poor, visiting the sick, ministering to the imprisoned, are not optional activities for mature Christians but necessary means of grace.
It is impossible to grow in love for God while remaining indifferent to those whom God loves.
The heart that is being sanctified naturally reaches out to those in need. These means of grace work together to accomplish what no emotional experience, however intense, can achieve, the gradual but certain transformation of the heart from sin to holiness.
Chapter 4, Christian Perfection, The Goal Beyond Feeling Saved
Here I must address the ultimate purpose for which God saves us, Christian Perfection, or Perfect Love. This is not an optional blessing for a few extraordinary believers but the goal toward which every Christian should strive.
To be content with feeling saved while remaining imperfect in love is to misunderstand the very purpose of salvation.
When I speak of Christian Perfection, I do not mean absolute perfection, which belongs to God alone. Nor do I mean perfection of knowledge or freedom from mistakes and infirmities. I mean the perfection of love, having our hearts so cleansed from sin and so filled with love that every thought, word, and action springs from love to God and neighbor.
This is what the scripture means when it says, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This perfection is attainable in this life, not through human effort but through divine grace. It is the normal result of justification when that gift is properly received and cultivated through the means of grace.
The problem is that too many Christians have been taught that perfection is impossible, so they do not seek it, and not seeking it, they do not obtain it. Perfect love casts out fear, including the fear of striving for perfection.
When we truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, we fulfill the whole law of God. This is not a burden but a blessed liberty, the freedom from the tyranny of selfishness and sin.
I have witnessed this glorious transformation in countless souls across Britain and America.
They moved beyond the comfort of feeling saved to the joy of being made holy.
They discovered that God’s grace is sufficient not only to pardon sin but to purify the heart from sin.
They learned that justification is not God’s final goal but his first step toward making us fit for heaven.
The person who rests in justification alone remains vulnerable to sin and spiritual pride. He may feel secure in his salvation while his heart remains divided between love for God and love for the world. But the soul that presses on to perfect love finds a security that no emotional fluctuation can disturb, the security of a heart that loves God supremely and desires nothing but his will.
This perfect love does not make us infallible, but it does make us innocent. We may still make mistakes in judgment, but we do not make choices in sin.
We may still have much to learn, but we have ceased to rebel. Our love may still grow stronger, but it is no longer mixed with selfishness.
The evidence of this perfect love is not mystical feelings but practical holiness. The perfectly loving soul finds it natural to:
– Forgive injuries,
– Put others’ needs before his own,
– Speak truthfully even when it costs him,
– Maintain integrity in business,
– Be faithful in marriage,
– Treat servants with kindness,
– Care for the poor.
6. These are not burdens imposed from without but the natural expressions of love within. Those who have received this grace do not boast of their attainment but marvel at God’s goodness.
They do not judge others who have not yet received it but pray for them earnestly.
They do not rest in their blessing but continue growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5: Social Holiness. Love Must Be Lived in Community.
This brings me to your second engagement with truth. Examine honestly the state of your relationships with fellow Christians and whether your experience of salvation has produced the social holiness that Scripture requires.
There is no such thing as solitary Christianity, and the person who thinks he can be saved alone while remaining unloving toward others deceives himself. Perfect love to God must express itself in perfect love to neighbor, and this love must be demonstrated in the community of faith.
The early Christians were known not merely for their individual piety but for their mutual love. “See how these Christians love one another,” was the testimony of the watching world.
When this social dimension of holiness is absent, we may question whether true holiness exists at all.
I have observed that many who profess salvation show little evidence of it in their treatment of other believers.
They are quick to judge, slow to forgive, eager to gossip, and reluctant to bear one another’s burdens.
They speak much of loving Jesus but show little love for those whom Jesus loves.
This contradiction reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be saved.
The Methodist societies that God raised up through our ministry were designed to cultivate this social holiness. In our class meetings, believers learned to watch over one another in love, to confess their faults to one another, to pray for one another, and to provoke one another to love and good works.
These were not mere social gatherings but schools of holiness where individual salvation was worked out in community.
The rules of our societies emphasized both personal and social religion. Members were expected not only to avoid evil and do good in private, but to attend upon all the ordinances of God and to participate actively in the community of faith. We understood that private religion without social expression is sterile, while social activity without private devotion is merely humanitarian effort.
True Christian community requires humility, which is often lacking in those who rest confidently in their own salvation experience. The humble soul acknowledges his need for other believers, recognizes their gifts, and submits to their loving counsel.
He does not insist on his own way but seeks the good of the whole body. This humility is a mark of genuine salvation that goes beyond mere feeling.
In our American context, where individualism is so highly prized, this social dimension of holiness is particularly challenging. Americans tend to view salvation as a private transaction between themselves and God, with little consideration for the community of faith. But Scripture knows nothing of such privatized religion. The new birth brings us not only into relationship with God but into the family of God, with all the responsibilities that family life entails.
The test of our love for God is our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. John writes plainly, “If a man say, I love God, and hath his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” This is not merely about avoiding hatred but about actively demonstrating love through deed and truth.
Social holiness also extends beyond the Christian community to the wider world. The heart that is perfected in love cannot remain indifferent to the suffering and needs of any human being.
Perfect love compels us to works of mercy, to acts of justice, to efforts at social reform. The salvation that affects only our eternal destiny while leaving us unmoved by present human misery is not the salvation that Christ provides.
Chapter 6. Works of Mercy, Where Love Meets Human Need
The religion of Jesus Christ cannot be confined to the sanctuary or the prayer closet. It must express itself in compassionate action toward those who suffer. This is not an optional addition to salvation but an essential evidence of salvation’s reality.
The person who feels saved while remaining unmoved by human misery has not understood either the nature of God’s love or the purpose of God’s grace.
Our Lord himself made this connection explicit in his description of the final judgment. Those who inherit the kingdom are not identified by their emotional experiences or their theological knowledge but by their works of mercy, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. These works do not earn salvation, but they demonstrate the love that salvation produces.
Throughout my ministry, I have observed that those who grow in holiness naturally grow in compassion. The heart that is being sanctified becomes increasingly sensitive to the needs of others. Conversely, those who remain content with their conversion experience while showing no concern for human suffering reveal the shallowness of their supposed salvation.
The works of mercy serve a double purpose. They meet human need and they develop divine love within us. When we feed the hungry, we not only address physical need but exercise our capacity for selfless love. When we visit the sick, we not only bring comfort but learn to see Christ in others. When we care for the poor, we not only provide relief but discover our own spiritual poverty and dependence upon grace.
I have established schools for the poor because ignorance is a form of bondage that Christ came to break. I have opened medical dispensaries because physical healing is part of God’s concern for the whole person. I have visited prisons because those whom society rejects are precious to him who died for all. These activities are not peripheral to my ministry but central to the gospel I proclaim.
In America, where material prosperity abounds, the temptation is to mistake comfortable feelings about salvation for salvation itself. But comfort that does not produce compassion is suspect. The American church must rediscover that the gospel includes good news for the poor, liberation for the oppressed, and justice for the marginalized. This is not social gospel as opposed to individual gospel, but the full gospel that saves souls and transforms society.
The person who has experienced genuine salvation will find it increasingly difficult to live comfortably while others suffer needlessly. He will discover that his love for God compels him to love those whom God loves, particularly those who are most vulnerable and forgotten by society. This compassion is not worked up through human effort but flows naturally from a heart that has been transformed by grace.
Works of mercy also serve as means of grace for the one who performs them. Through serving others, we encounter Christ in new ways. Through sacrificing for others, we learn to die to self. Through caring for others, we discover our own need for God’s care. The spiritual disciplines are not complete without this outward expression of inward grace.
Moreover, works of mercy authenticate our profession of faith before a watching world. When Christians demonstrate genuine love through sacrificial service, they provide evidence for the reality of the gospel that no amount of preaching alone can supply.
The early church grew not only through apostolic preaching but through apostolic living that demonstrated the power of God to transform human nature. The goal is not merely to feel saved but to be saved, saved from selfishness into love, saved from indifference into compassion, saved from isolation into community with all God’s children.
Chapter 7: Spreading Scriptural Holiness – America’s Great Need
Now I must address the ultimate vision that should consume every truly converted soul, the spread of scriptural holiness throughout the land. This is not merely personal aspiration but national necessity.
America stands at a crossroads where the gospel she has long professed must either transform her completely or be abandoned for worldly philosophies that promise liberty while delivering bondage.
The great danger facing American Christianity is satisfaction with partial Christianity. Churches are filled with people who feel saved but show little evidence of sanctification. They speak confidently of their conversion but live as though sin were inevitable and holiness impossible. This compromise with mediocrity threatens not only individual souls but the very foundation of Christian civilization in America.
God raised up the Methodist movement in Britain and America to demonstrate that scriptural holiness is both possible and necessary. We have witnessed in our own time that ordinary believers can experience extraordinary transformation through divine grace. Farmers and merchants, servants and masters,the educated and the illiterate, all have found it possible to love God with perfect love and to live in victory over willful sin. But this revival of scriptural holiness cannot remain confined to Methodist societies. It must spread throughout all denominations, all churches, all communities where the name of Christ is honored.
The need is too great and the time too short for denominational pride or sectarian exclusivity. Every true Christian, regardless of his ecclesiastical affiliation, must become an agent of this spiritual awakening.
The method by which this holiness spreads is not complicated but requires dedication:
1. Each believer must experience personally what it means to be entirely sanctified, cleansed from sin and perfected in love. This is not optional for some but necessary for all who would enter heaven.
2. Those who have received this grace must testify to others of what God has done, not boastfully but humbly, inviting others to seek the same blessing.
3. Christian communities must be formed where believers can watch over one another in love, encouraging progress toward perfect love and preventing backsliding into spiritual complacency. These may be formal societies like our Methodist classes or informal gatherings, but they must exist wherever Christians are serious about holiness.
4. Works of mercy must be organized that demonstrate the practical nature of perfect love. Schools must be established, hospitals founded, prisons reformed, and the poor cared for, not merely as good deeds but as expressions of the love that Christ has shed abroad in our hearts.
The vision is nothing less than an America where scriptural holiness is normal rather than exceptional, where Christians are known not merely for their profession but for their possession of divine love, where the gospel demonstrates its power not only to save souls but to transform society. This transformation begins with individuals but cannot end there. Sanctified individuals must become sanctified families. Sanctified families must become sanctified communities. And sanctified communities must influence the broader culture toward righteousness and justice.
The salt must retain its savor and penetrate the whole mass.
I have witnessed what can happen when this vision captures the hearts of God’s people. In our revivals, entire communities have been transformed. Drunkards have become sober. Thieves have become honest. The profane have become reverent. And the hard-hearted have become compassionate. This is not utopian dreaming but experienced reality.
America has been blessed with religious liberty and gospel light beyond most nations in history. With such privilege comes responsibility. The nation that has received much will be required to give much. America must either become a light to the nations through the demonstration of scriptural holiness or face judgment for squandering her opportunity.
Every converted soul has a role in this great work. The spread of scriptural holiness across America depends not on a few exceptional leaders but on countless ordinary believers who refuse to be satisfied with feeling saved while remaining imperfect in love.
Conclusion: My beloved friends, I have shown you why feeling saved, though blessed and necessary, is not sufficient for heaven. The God who justifies freely also sanctifies completely, and he will not be satisfied with half-saved souls who rest in forgiveness while remaining strangers to holiness.
The call is clear, press on to perfection in love, not as an impossible dream but as an obtainable reality through grace. Let no one deceive you into thinking that God expects less than total transformation.
He who commands, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” provides the grace to obey his command. Seek not merely the witness of the Spirit that you are saved, but the witness that you are holy. Pursue not only justification but sanctification. Rest not in feeling forgiven but in being perfected in love.
The means of grace await your diligent use. The community of faith stands ready to assist your progress. The works of mercy offer opportunity for growth. And the Spirit of God waits to complete in you the good work he has begun. May God grant that you will not be content with anything less than perfect love, and may you become instruments for spreading scriptural holiness throughout this land that so desperately needs to see Christianity in its fullness and power.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
