A Call to A Spiritual and Holy Life

 

By Bishop Ole E. Borgen (1925-2009)

July August 1986

 

The time in which we live appears more and more complex, constantly changing and utterly confusing. There emerges as a consequence a deep longing for a basic, unchanging foundation for all of life, something to build on, something that will last through all changes.

But even Christianity seems to flounder, being subject to the changing aspects of the day, giving birth to a massive conglomeration of views, interpretations, assertions, demands – even conflicts –fragmentation, and uncertainty.

I believe that a major cause of this confusion and uncertainty is that too much of the Christian life today may be characterized as “secondary-level Christianity.” A person may express this level of Christianity in various ways. One may focus on reflection upon God, faith, and the life of faith. True doctrine becomes essential.

Or a person may focus upon the faith once established, that is, upon its form and structure. Church organization becomes essential, and, as a consequence, church politics become the dominant way of operating, even to the point of succumbing to the means of politics: power, manipulation and compromise. Business management style of operating more and more dominates the picture. The lifestyle of revival and piety may lose its dynamic and become petrified.

Or ethics and social action dominate, and “we must,” “we should,” “we ought to,” develop into legalism or works-righteousness. Common to all of these understandings is that they are good and in some way belong to the Christian life. However, these understandings all have supplanted what is essential: the dynamic power of God’s life in human life. “Secondary-level Christianity” has usurped the place of what should always be primary and essential. What is good becomes the worst enemy of the best and stands, therefore, in danger or becoming demonic and ultimately destructive or deadening.

John Wesley claimed that “love is religion itself” and that God raised up the people called Methodists to “reform the nation, particularly the Church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”

What does this mean and what does it mean for us today in our confusion, lack of clarity and spiritual power? It is, of course, impossible even to attempt a complete answer to all questions involved here. But we may peruse the landscape of faith and see if we can gain a deeper understanding of the essence of Christianity, the Christian life, the Church and, consequently, of our own personal life of faith and holiness.

On this background, I will remind myself and all United Methodists of some things we may have forgotten. Historically, Methodism has held a high and strong doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was seen and experienced as the dynamic force in all stages of a person’s journey on the way of salvation. For without this work of the Holy Spirit, there is no life.

A clear tendency among people in our modern age (especially in the West) is a growing sense of meaninglessness. hopelessness. lostness. and alienation. The work of the Holy Spirit in convicting of sin, earlier expressed in fear of hell and sermons on fire and brimstone. appears not to be experienced in such ways in our time. The doomsday prophets of today are not the hellfire preachers, but the secular novelists, dramatists, and artists.

But the Holy Spirit still changes hopeless despair into holy despair, which leads to a search for him who is life, Jesus Christ. Therefore, the living church must offer not only religion, fellowship or teachings. But also Christ. The members of Christ’s Body are called to be “fishers of men:” Providing opportunities for conversion, for commitment to Christ is the primary task for the church in all its ministry.

As the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and creates the need for Christ,(1)  so the Holy Spirit is also the agent in changing a person’s total life: Everyone who confesses his or her sins will be justified, will have the sins forgiven and find favor with God.(2) God counts such a person righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ. One is judged and found guilty but finds mercy in Christ.

Legal relationship. God has reconciled the world with himself in him. But  each person must let himself or herself be reconciled to God. 3 Thus,   justification establishes anew the formal, legal relationship with God. But there is another. personal and more wonderful relationship involved.

“Justification implies only a relative, the new birth a real, change. God in justifying us does something for us; in begetting us again. He does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children; by the latter our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints,” John Wesley writes. “The one restores us to the favor, the other to the image, of God. The one is the taking away the guilt, the other the taking away the power of sin: so that. although they are joined together in point of time, yet are they of wholly distinct natures.”(4)

The traditional biblical concept of “being born again” (John 3:3) is perhaps one of the most misused and misunderstood phrases in the Bible. But its real meaning is to convey an essential truth about God’s saving work: All persons who commit themselves to Christ are forgiven, find favor with him. But at the same time the Holy Spirit takes His dwelling in their hearts and through the Spirit also Christ (Romans 8:9).

Thus, it becomes very clear that the Christian life is not primarily believing  an idea or a system of thought, nor ethical systems or behavior, nor form or beauty, nor just belonging to a Christian church or fellowship, nor remembering a historical person who lived almost 2,000 years ago. although these aspects, and even more, are connected with it. No, the Christian life is essentially and primarily a person: the crucified and risen Jesus Christ dwelling, and being the Lord, in the lives of men and women.(5) Since God not only loves, but is love, when God thus dwells in our lives, then that love which is God himself is “poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” The new life is love. or as John Wesley used to put it: Love is religion itself.

Spiritual babies. However, just as a little baby already has everything needed to become an adult, so it is also with the newborn “spiritual baby.”(6) To grow, it needs care, love, nourishment, protection, and guidance. If it does not grow, it will most likely wither away and die. So it is also with the new life in God. In John Wesley’s own words:

“When we are born again, then our sanctification, our inward and outward holiness begins; and thenceforward we are gradually to “grow up into Him who is our Head.” … a child is born of God in a short time, if not in a moment. But it is by slow degrees that he afterwards grows up to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The same relation, therefore, which there is between our natural birth and our growth, there is also between our new birth and our sanctification.(7)

As we are justified by grace, through faith, in the same way we are made holy (sanctified) through faith. 8 The Holy Spirit is the sanctifying Spirit, forming the believers into Christ’s image, to become like Him.9 That is, a change from only being counted righteous for Christ’s sake to actually being made holy.

Thus the love of God (which is God) in our lives grows and gains more and more power over us. Actually, this love is experienced in three ways: First, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” Second, our selfish being is gradually changed into becoming more and more a loving being; and, finally, into doing the works or love. One of Wesley’s favorite expressions was “faith working through love,” producing both inward and outward holiness. To be loved is a necessary presupposition for being able to love.

There is, therefore, a gradual sanctification, a growing in grace and in the love of God. Nevertheless, at a time that pleases God, another instantaneous change may take place. Negatively, it means being delivered from the power or sin; positively, to be filled with the love of God.

Christian perfection. Wesley calls this instantaneous  experience “Christian perfection,” “entire sanctification,” “full salvation.” Later, it was often called “the second blessing,” and more recently, “baptism in the Spirit.”

Whatever term is used, it means being filled with the Holy Spirit, that is “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness or God.”(10) This means that love reigns and becomes the decisive motivating force in our lives; “love is the highest gift of God, humble, gentle, patient love; that all visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little things compared to love.”(11) The Wesleyan (and Biblical) sense or the word perfection does not imply an exemption from ignorance, mistakes, infirmities, shortcomings or temptations. Perfection must not be confused with perfectionism. It is “perfect love.”(12) Those who are thus “perfected in love” may still grow in grace. It is possible they may even fall out of grace, but it is never necessary.

From the beginning of the Wesleyan revival, the doctrine of sanctification (together with Christian perfection) played a central role in preaching, teaching, and life. John Wesley clearly asserted that God raised up the people called Methodists with a call to “spread scriptural holiness over the land.”

As the revival spread throughout the world, this remained central. But then something happened. Without going into any detailed and comprehensive analysis, a few things  may be pointed out.

Holiness and sanctification, understood as including both inward and outward holiness, followed Methodism. But comfortable Christianity appeared little by little to take the place of total commitment and the search for a holy and sacrificial life. Several reactions followed.

For the majority of Methodists, the whole question became more and more obscure and irrelevant. Others, strongly feeling the loss of this teaching and experience, even left the Methodist Church and organized their own churches. However, in their zeal not to lose anything. they often ended up making holiness and sanctification into a system or structure, thus losing the living dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

Others sensed that the whole problem really had its root in the loss of personal commitment to Jesus Christ and the Spirit-filled life. As a result, the whole attention was focused on the area of inward holiness alone. Others again, under the pressure of the demands of the day, turned their attention in the opposite direction, focusing on the needs of the neighbor and other social problems. In both cases, one part of holiness usurped the place of the whole, resulting in the strange and unbiblical dichotomy between “the spiritual” and “the social” which so long has prevailed in the church.

Faith and works. For John Wesley the issue was clear. Faith produces necessarily all good works and all holiness: “So that if good works do not follow our faith, even all inward and outward holiness, it is plain our faith is nothing worth; we are yet in our sins.”(13)

For Christians, it is not only important what they do, but also why and how it is done. Good works, social concerns and service toward the neighbor which  do not spring out of, and have their basic motivation in, a Spirit-filled life of faith are no longer fruits of faith and holiness, but have become a substitute for them. The compelling motivating force is then no longer faith working through love.

On the other hand, those who take the scriptural exhortation seriously, “be filled with the Spirit,” and earnestly strive to live a holy life have sensed the seriousness in losing the very root of living faith. They are very much aware of the immensity of God’s grace and love, are very much conscious of the scriptural proclamation, that without holiness no one shall see God. (14)

They follow the exhortation: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

A social religion. But the apostle Paul continues: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Or, in the Book of Hebrews: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”(15) Holiness was for Wesley always the Biblical “faith working through love,” that is, through active love. Faith without works is dead. He asserts: “Christianity is essentially a social religion; and to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it.”

And John Wesley states: “Thus should he [the Christian] show his zeal for works of piety; but much more for works of mercy; seeing ‘God will have mercy and not sacrifice’; that is, rather than sacrifice. Whenever, therefore, one interferes with the other, works of mercy are to be preferred. Even reading, hearing, prayer, are to be omitted, or to be postponed, “at charity’s mighty call”; when we are called to relieve the distress of our neighbor, whether in body or soul.” (16)

The United Methodist Church has had, and still has, a strong witness in the arena or justice, civil rights, and social needs, usually with a strong sociopolitical motivation. And still, there is a growing sense that everything is not right.

First, there is among a majority of United Methodists a growing sense of alienation with regard to all social concerns. They seem to find little or no motivation in their life of faith for such activities. Second, the constant decline in membership indicates a growing spiritual anemia within large segments of the church. And both appear to have the same cause: the too widely spread lack of a living faith and a sanctified holy life.

Spiritual power and a holy life or love are absolutely necessary for the individual person as well as for the church. A renewed emphasis on a deepened spiritual life, where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are functioning and the fruits of the Spirit are made visible, is essential for the strengthening and growth or the church. Renewal is basically a spiritual matter.

Likewise, a renewed emphasis upon a deepened spiritual life is a necessary prerequisite for genuine social engagement and service. The way, is of course, as always, using regularly the means of grace: prayer, the Word of God, the Christian fellowship, and the Lord’s Supper.

We are all invited to rededicate ourselves  to Jesus Christ and search for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and a holy life. We are invited to be active participants in realizing the Wesleyan goal: to spread scriptural holiness over the land and reform the continent.

It may disturb our comfortableness and demand personal sacrifice of life, time, and money. But being filled with the gift of God’s love, that is, with God, in a living relationship with him is the only way of fulfilling God’s purpose for the church and her members.

Saint Paul puts the whole thing in focus when he writes: “If I speak in the tongues of men [great oratory preaching], and of angels [speaking in tongues], but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains [various charismatic gifts], but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned [sacrifice everything in social action and service], but have not love, I gain nothing.” (17)

And with John Wesley we will say: “If you seek it [sanctification] by faith, you may expect it as you are: and if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance to observe, that there is an inseparable connexion between these three points – expect it by faith; expect it as you are; and expect it now. To deny one of them, is to deny them all; to allow one, is to allow them all. Do you believe we are sanctified by faith? Be true then to your principle; and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse; as a poor sinner that has still nothing to pay,  nothing to plead, but “Christ died.” And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. Stay for nothing; why should you? Christ is ready; and He is all you want. He is waiting for you; He is at the door. (18)

Ole E. Borgen (1925-2009) was bishop of the Northern European Central Conference and – at the time of this publication – was immediate past president of the Council of Bishops.

 

I NOTES

1. John 16:8-11
2. Wesley’s Standard Sermons, ed., E. H. Sugden, vol. II, pp. 445-446.
3. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.
4. Sermons, vol. I. pp. 299-300.

5, John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, Romans 8:9.

6 . I Corinthians 3:1; Hebrews 5:13-14.

7, Sermons, vol. II, p. 240. Also The Works of John Wesley, c:d,, Thomas Jackson, Zondervan, reprint. vol. VIII. p. 279.

8. Sermons, vol. I. p. 81.
9. Sermons, vol. II, p. 240.
10. Ephesians 3: 19. The term “second blessing,” although indicating the possibility of further blessings after becoming a believer, nevertheless, may also be understood as limiting the infilling of the Holy Spirit to two times. The: Book of Acts mentions this as occurring several times. (Acts 2:4; 4:31; 9:17; 13:52; also Ephesians 5:18).
11. Works, vol. XI. p. 430.
12. I John 4:18. Works. vol. XI. p. 442. Sermons, vol, II, p. 156.
13. Sermons, vol. II, p, 66. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, ed., N. Curnock, vol. II. p, 265.
14. Ephesians 5:18; Hebrews 12:14.

I5. Galatians 5:25; 6:2; Hebrews 13: 16,

16. Sermons, vol. I, pp. 381·382; Works, vol. VII, p. 61. Also Sermons, vol. II. pp. 455-456. 17. I Corinthians 13:1-3.
17. Sermons, vol. II, p. 460.