Holiness: The Message at the Heart of the Gospel

“By holiness I mean, not fasting, or bodily austerity, or any other external means of improvement, but that inward temper to which all these are subservient, a renewal of soul in the image of God.” -John Wesley

The quote above comes from a letter written by John Wesley to his father, Samuel, in 1734. John was 31 at the time and the Methodist movement still a fairly new enterprise. But at the heart of it, from the beginning, was the call to holiness of heart and life.

As Wesley said, holiness is nothing less than “a renewal of the soul in the image of God,” or put differently, a restoration of God’s original intention for humanity. It’s not a list of “do’s and don’ts” as if it were simply an external reality, but a distinctly internal one, a cleansing of the heart made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit that makes us Christlike.

Christ’s life is the very pattern of holiness and the means by which it is attained.

It was the doctrine of holiness that first led me to John Wesley. I was a high schooler at the time, and I heard sermon after sermon about entire sanctification. It didn’t make sense to me, so I asked my pastor for books that I could read. I quickly noticed that they all cited Wesley, so I decided to go to the source. I’ve been stuck with Wesley ever since.

But not everyone has the time to dive headlong into Wesley, so books on Wesleyan doctrine are needed. They’re also needed to make the insights of the eighteenth century available in our own time.

This was the impetus behind the John Wesley Institute’s 2024 Summit on holiness. We gathered 70 scholars and church leaders over three days in historic Alexandria, Virginia. It was an amazing three days that was mostly dedicated to work, but also included time for worship and fellowship. Out of that gathering, the text of To Spread Scriptural Holiness was crafted.

This latest JWI resource is a clear, accessible, and faithful description of the doctrine of holiness, the very heartbeat of the Wesleyan message.

And amazingly enough, every Summit participant signed the finished product, bringing together representatives from 15 different denominations.

At just around 100 pages, and divided into 5 chapters with corresponding discussion questions for small groups or individual use, the book takes a look at the doctrine of holiness as it relates to God, his work in us, its biblical foundations, its role in salvation, the means of grace, its social impact, and more.

I can’t recommend this volume enough. The promise of freedom in Christ is available to us all.

To purchase your copy, click here to go to the Seedbed website.

Ryan N. Danker is director of the John Wesley Institute_, Washington, DC_. This is adapted from a weekly JWI newsletter that can be subscribed to here_._

P.S. Each month, JWI/Good News needs to raise $10,000 to continue this ministry. We are behind at the moment, so your help is needed more than ever. Please consider a gift today here or contact me directly if you would like to discuss other giving options. Thank you!

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