Walking in Holiness: An Inward Experience

By Anthony J. Headley

“So that whereas the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was external only, it may be said, in some sense, that the righteousness of a Christian is internal only.” – John Wesley

These words, from one of Wesley’s sermons, riveted my attention. The words sounded untrue. They seemed to suggest that righteous behavior mattered little, if any, to the Christian life. Taken out of context, the words seemed to invite careless behavior. In fact, they appeared to exhibit an almost blatant disregard for the ordinances of God and an inherent antinomianism.

Of course, Wesley intended a different perspective on his words, and this appeared in the statement’s context. The words appeared in the fifth discourse on the Sermon on the Mount dated between Oct. 22-26, 1740. Here, he noted, “Thus, to do no harm, to do good, to attend the ordinances of God, (the righteousness of a Pharisee,) are all external, whereas, on the contrary, poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst after righteousness, the love of our neighbor, and purity of heart, (the righteousness of a Christian,) are all internal. And even peace-making (or doing good,) and suffering for righteousness’ sake, stand entitled to the blessings annexed to them, only as they imply these inward dispositions, as they spring from, exercise, and confirm them.”

Wesley’s words communicated a couple of emphases: First, he drew a deliberate contrast between pharisaic religion based on adherence to externals and true Christian faith grounded in internal attitudes of the heart. Second, although he drew this distinction, he did not devalue the external aspects of faith. Instead, he emphasized that external righteousness must be built upon internal dispositions, such as meekness, love of neighbor and purity of heart. As highlighted in the Beatitudes, he knew that suffering for righteousness’ sake and peace-making derive their blessedness from the dispositions that underlie them.

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“To get Christian faith and holiness right, one needs to understand this trajectory and order.”

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In sum, the statement demonstrates the significant emphasis he placed on inward dispositions as the essence of Christianity. It also displays the central place he carved out for transformed dispositions in Christians. Moreover, the statement revealed a kind of genius, combining the internal and external dimensions of Christianity in dynamic synthesis. Nevertheless, he emphatically kept the priority on dispositions of the heart. To get Christian faith and holiness right, one needs to understand this trajectory and order.

From the Inside Out

Wesley’s statements also betrayed a hyperbole that emphasized a significant point; in the Christian life, everything begins from the inside out. All right conduct finds its source in right dispositions of the heart. In turn, the transformed heart births transformed behavior. Moreover, even the most righteous actions, like attending to God’s ordinances and engaging in acts of mercy and piety, appear valueless in God’s sight if they do not proceed from a transformed heart. External behavior may matter, but the source of one’s words and actions matters supremely and validates these same behaviors.

In fact, in the sentence immediately following the referenced paragraph, Wesley indicated as much, noting: “All his actions and sufferings being as nothing in themselves, being estimated before God only by the tempers from which they spring.” In sum, right tempers of the heart dictate the rightness of actions and their acceptance before God.

A Different Understanding of Holiness

Wesley likely drew this stark contrast between external and internal religion as a way to critique his contemporary Anglican religious culture. According to Randy Maddox, in Wesley’s day, there existed a tendency to conceptualize holiness in the external language of doing good and avoiding evil while “neglecting the affectional dimension of human life.” Over against this thinking, Wesley placed the crucial emphasis on inward aspects of faith, “… described in such terms as ‘the life of God in the [human] soul, a participation of the divine nature, the mind that was in Christ, or the renewal of our heart after the image of [God who] created us.’”

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“He spoke of the transformation that occurs when one became a new creature.”

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By statements like this, he hoped to provide a legitimate, scripturally based critique and corrective to the prevailing Anglican view and the external religion the clergy pandered. At the same time, he sought to establish a different and scripturally based understanding of the nature of Christian holiness.

In other places, Wesley made similar statements to the one quoted earlier. In his journal entry for Oct. 9, 1738, he spoke of the transformation that occurs when one became a new creature. There he noted: “First: His Judgments are new: His judgment of himself, of happiness, of holiness… Yet again: His judgment concerning holiness is new. He no longer judges it to be an outward thing: To consist either in doing no harm, in doing good, or in using the ordinances of God. He sees it is the life of God in the soul; the image of fresh stamped on the heart; an entire renewal of the mind in every temper and thought, after the likeness of Him that created it.”

In this statement, one discovers some of the language used to communicate the inward dispositions of the Christian life. He saw God re-creating his image in the heart, the center of one’s being. Furthermore, he related this transformation to the renewal of one’s mind in “temper and thought,” that is, in one’s inward disposition. He also displayed thoughts in “The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption,” dated April 25, 1739. He saw that the natural man neither loved nor feared God. Such a man did not live in fear of God’s vengeance because he did not understand it. And why didn’t he? According to Wesley, it was because: “He imagines the main point is to do thus, to be outwardly blameless; and sees not that it extends to every temper, desire, thought, motion of the heart.” +