In a world that craves a “full package” in one delivery, John Wesley goes to great lengths to explain to his generation what the whole package of salvation offers. As one reflects on what happens “Before, Beneath and Beyond” Salvation, the Christian gets treated to a cocktail of sorts, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in “convicting, converting, consecrating and comforting” the soul to an eternal hope.
Every Christian believer claiming to contain the “full package” of Salvation must demonstrate the characteristics of a Christian believer, what John Wesley called “Full Salvation.” The apostle Peter was concerned with the slothfulness of the early Christian believers and asked them a question worth our response today. Since the world and all its elements will be destroyed with the coming of Christ to establish his kingdom, “…what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…?
In response to elder Peter’s concern, I believe our generation must embrace the “full salvation” by:
- Loving God: with all our intellectual, physical, social, and emotional faculties. Active love engages our passions, mind, and strength through intentional spiritual disciplines that draw us to God and “draw God to us.”
- Loving Neighbor: The current Israeli and Palestinian war are poking holes in the gospel of love, yet amid the turmoil but great to see that the “Red Cross” and “Red Crescent” are working together to alienate human suffering, the Christian community must “Redden our crosses” and engage the hurting wounded world to see the love of Jesus.
- Full of the Spirit: One who gets filled with wine shows the “joy and glow” of the winery, and so must we who claim to be filled with the “new wine.” We must desire, seek, and live in the fullness of the Spirit expressed through infectious Joy. Wesley was concerned that “It is incumbent on all that are justified to be zealous of good works… And these are so necessary that if a man willingly neglects them, he cannot reasonably expect that he shall ever be sanctified.” [1] The world recognizes that the Christian believer is full of the Spirit only when we overflow. The church must continue to uphold the Christian faith as upheld in the Acts of the Apostles and the sound tradition of the Christian community.
- Full of the Holy Scriptures: In African Christianity, many still wait for “Men of God, Prophets, and Apostles” to read and interpret scripture. Many have fallen prey to cultic false teachers who reap from them, leaving the flock wounded and naked. I have taken steps to train the church to read, study, and obey the Holy Scriptures, as the word of God is essential for the rule of life.[2] There is a need to uphold the supremacy of scripture over human ideology and phraseology, which entails respect for the soundness of scriptural interpretation as practiced in the Christian faith.
- Longing Hope: Beyond Salvation is the living in hope of complete restoration of the Kingdom of God, with the second coming of Christ.
Soteriology encompasses the “plan, power, and posterity” of the Holy Scriptures on matters of “Salvation,” that is, “Full Salvation.” Despite the Holy Spirit working incognito from the inside, the fruit is evident on the outside.
[1] (“The Scripture Way of Salvation” in Sermons II [vol. 3; ed. A.C. Outler; Abingdon, 1985], 164).
[2] Character of a methodist, pg 34.