John Wesley’s published journals run to four volumes with an opening entry dated October 14, 1735, with his final entry recorded on Sunday, October 24, 1790.
Wesley’s conversion account in 1738 is widely known. Here’s how I describe it in Season Five, Episode One, of my Blessed Hope Podcast deep dive into Romans:
Like Luther, John Wesley was yet another deeply troubled man. For ten years Wesley struggled to live out the demands of the Ten Commandments but finally confessed that he had not obtained freedom from sin, nor the witness of the Spirit, because he sought to gain all of these things through his own futile efforts, rather than through faith in Christ.
Exhausted and out of answers, he attended a meeting of the Moravian Brethren at Aldersgate street in London. It was there that Wesley heard the Preface from Luther's Commentary on Romans being read aloud. Wesley recalled, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation.” [1]
I lamented that, “it is too bad that Wesley’s mind was not enlightened when his heart was warmed because he would later go on to reject much of the contents of Luther’s commentary as Wesley’s theology eventually sank back into the semi-Pelagianism of the Middle Ages.”
The degree to which Wesley would later reject Luther becomes apparent in Wesley’s journal entry for Monday June 15, 1741:
I set out for London, and read over in the way that celebrated book, Martin Luther's comment on the Epistle to the Galatians. I was utterly ashamed. How have I esteemed this book, only because I heard it so commended by others; or at best, because I had read some excellent sentences occasionally quoted from it. But what shall I say now, I judge for myself. Now I see with my own eyes? Why, not only that the author makes nothing out, clears up not one considerable difficulty, that he is quite shallow in his remarks on many passages, and muddy and confused almost on all; but that he is deeply tinctured with Mysticism throughout, and hence often dangerously wrong. Two instances, only one or two points--How does he (almost in the words of Tauler), decry reason, right or wrong, as an irreconcilable enemy to the Gospel of Christ? Whereas, what is reason (the faculty so called), but the power of apprehending, judging, and discoursing? Which power is no more to be condemned in the gross than seeing, hearing, or feeling. Again, how blasphemously does he speak of good works and of the Law of God, constantly coupling the Law with sin, death, hell, or the devil; and teaching that Christ delivers us from them all alike. Whereas it can no more be proved by Scripture that Christ delivers us from the Law of God than that he delivers us from holiness or heaven. Here I apprehend, is the real spring of the grand error of the Moravians. They follow Luther, for better, for worse. Hence their "no works," "no law," "no commandments." But who art thou that "speakest evil of the law, and judgest the law?"
Just four years after being “strangely warmed,” Wesley now confesses to being “utterly ashamed” for previously speaking and thinking highly of Luther. It is unfortunate that as early as 1741, Wesley so badly misunderstood (best case) or rejected Luther’s theology (worst case) regarding several critical doctrines. In fact, by the time the Methodist Minutes were published (at some point after 1744), Wesley’s theology was now thoroughly couched in Semi-Pelagian terms, with hints of a full-blown Pelagianism lying just beneath the surface of the discussion recorded in the minutes. On this point, see my prior post, Wesley’s take on election and human obedience.
To read the rest, follow the link below
Read More