A Heart Strangely Warmed

One of the biggest issues facing Salem is the creation and implementation of an intentional discipleship process. Our mission, the reason we exist, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. So how do we do that?

I believe the habits we practice in our lives are very important. So did John Wesley. When he was at Oxford, he insisted that the members of the Holy Club be disciplined in their study, prayer, and good works. Wesley called these practices the means of grace (worship, reading scripture, receiving Holy Communion, prayer, Christian conversation, and doing good). That is, they are the primary ways in which we receive God’s grace. He realized something important, though. These time-honored traditions weren’t enough.

That became even more clear when he traveled to America on a missionary journey. Wesley went to Georgia in 1735-1737 to minister to the colonists and Native Americans. Bishop William Willimon tells the story in his book Why I Am a United Methodist. It was a painful journey for himself as well as for the colonists he went to serve. Disheartened he headed back to England.

On the way back, in 1738, the unhappy Mr. Wesley met the Moravians, a German pietistic sect which stressed the need for an inner, personal assurance of salvation. Their firm, assured faith reminded Wesley of how uncertain was his own faith. The question of the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18), “What must I do to be saved?” was the question that tormented Wesley.

He was still working on the assumption that an assurance of salvation, knowing he was a true Christian, was mostly a matter of affirming correct beliefs and performing appropriate action. While still off the coast of England on his way home from Georgia, Wesley wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert others, but who shall convert me?”

Wesley’s personal assurance of salvation was to come a few months later in London in May 1738 (just three days after his brother Charles reported a “strange palpitation of the heart” on Pentecost which enlivened his faith). John now felt that he met the criteria for being a “true Christian” which had been set by his Moravian friends. Here is his account of his life-changing, heartwarming experience at Aldersgate Street:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart though faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation. And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death” (Journal, May 24, 1738).

After his Aldersgate experience, Wesley realized, like the Moravians, that until one has experienced personal, heartfelt assurance of salvation, one is only an “almost Christian.” This became one of his well known sermons: The Almost Christian (1741). It expanded upon one of his favorite biblical images: having the outward form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Wesley said one can look like a real Christian on the outside. But in order to be a real Christian one had to have an inner, heartfelt experience of the saving grace of God.

In that sermon, Wesley described the almost Christian as a sincere person who avoids evil, does good, and uses the means of grace. Interestingly this trilogy came to be fixed as the General Rules for Methodists (do no harm, do good, stay in love with God).

Wesley knew that practicing the means of grace are very important. But he became convinced that true religion is a matter of the heart, characterized by Spirit-inspired joy, holiness, and peace. Therefore, he described an altogether or real Christian as a person who loves God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and loves neighbor. A real Christian has true faith and that inner, heartfelt experience that one’s sins are forgiven.

As we create and implement a discipleship process, we want to make altogether or real Christians. We do not want almost Christians. Of course, we are not able to change hearts; only the Lord can do that. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3, we are to plant and water but only God gives the growth.

Have you had an Aldersgate experience?