Grace And Responsibility By John Wilson Summary

John Wesley’s understanding of the via salutis, or way of salvation, must be viewed as a single, coherent theory, argues theologian John B. Cobb Jr. In his book Grace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today, he affirmed the need to divide the components of Wesley’s own understanding of such to develop an appreciation of this process (pg. 79). The need to articulate a way to salvation grew from the recognition of tainted humanity. God created human beings in a perfect state. In his sermon, The Image of God, Wesley affirmed his belief in the traditional doctrine of original sin in that human beings were created good with “unerring understanding, an uncorrupt will, and perfect freedom” (Outler and Heitzenrater, pg. 13). Adam’s disobedience created a void, Wesley argued in his sermon Original Sin, in which death became inevitable. This death occurs first as a spiritual death, then, as a physical, bodily death.
Here, Wesley strives to balance his emphasis on God’s goodness and human responsibility. Our salvation depends on God’s goodness. From that goodness, he extends pardon, or forgiveness for our sins in God’s effort “to remit the punishment due to our sins, to reinstate us in his favour, and to restore our dead souls to spiritual life, as the earnest of life eternal” (Cobbs, 84). This is called preventing, or prevenient grace, God is actively involved in our salvation, a gift that no human merit could obtain, as God tries to awaken us from our sinful condition fostering a desire to grow in right relationship with God. We are justified by faith, affirms Wesley. With prevenient grace, humans are given the opportunity to participate in the way of salvation with God, or refuse God’s