Should sin dominate your life? Wesley says no

The Spirit’s work of regeneration of the heart marks the beginning point of sanctification. It means that we have been given that power over sin which is the birthright of every child of God as we seek to be conformed to His image. In regeneration the formation of the Christ life in us has begun; the call to holiness and divine love becomes the compelling motive of the new life under the power and inspiration of the Spirit, who has brought about our adoption as children of God. Every person who is born of God, from the moment of regeneration, has the promise of victory over sin and the devil and has the power of the Holy Spirit to realize that victory in everyday living.

Wesley recognized that Christian believers, and especially those who were most serious in their desire to please God and forsake sin, experienced a continuing element of rebellion, a systemic illness, which weakened the will to holiness and love and divided their intention to love God and neighbor without reserve. “Indeed this grand point, that there are two contrary principles in believers—nature and grace, the flesh and the Spirit—runs through all the Epistles of St. Paul, yea through all the holy Scriptures,” he taught.

Although other theological traditions of his day believed that this struggle against an innate, inward rebellion was a normal and even a necessary element of the Christian’s quest for the holy life, Wesley believed that the whole gospel, in promise and command, indicated otherwise. He believed that there was freedom from the dominion of sin for every Christian, even under these unhappy inner struggles, and that God’s grace was always moving the believer to a life of greater peace, happiness, and love. 

There was a remedy for the sickness of systemic sinfulness, namely, entire sanctification—a personal, definitive work of God’s sanctifying grace by which the war within oneself might cease and the heart be fully released from rebellion into wholehearted love for God and others. This relationship of perfect love could be accomplished, not by excellence of any moral achievements, but by the same faith in the merits of Christ’s sacrifice for sin that initially had brought justification and the new life in Christ. It was a “total death to sin and an entire renewal in the image of God.”




Dieter, M. F. (1987). The Wesleyan Perspective. In S. N. Gundry (Ed.), Five Views on Sanctification (pp. 16–17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.