John Wesley on the nature of saving faith
Essentially trust that grasps Christ
"Faith is a divine evidence and conviction... that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me." — The Scripture Way of Salvation, §II.2. "The assurance goes before the confidence. For a man cannot have a childlike confidence in God till he knows he is a child of God."
THE POSITION
A trust that grasps Christ, inseparable from an assurance of pardon rather than a bare intellectual assent. Explicitly collapses a distinction some drew between a "faith of adherence" and a "faith of assurance": confidence in God presupposes already knowing oneself to be his child, so assurance is logically prior to confident trust, not a separate, higher-tier experience. Paired with an inward, felt witness of the Spirit alongside (not instead of) rational self-examination against scriptural marks.
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
9 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Anglican priest and founder of the Methodist movement. His Standard Sermons and Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament are Methodism's own doctrinal standards. The map's first researched Arminian figure, set against an otherwise Reformed-heavy list — his signature move is prevenient grace: total depravity by nature, but no one actually left in that bare state, because grace merited for everyone reaches everyone first.
Cite this page
"John Wesley on the nature of saving faith", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/wesley/saving-faith (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/wesley/saving-faith).