“The Circumcision of the
Heart”
Joanne
Williams-Elliott
pastorjoanne at earthlink.net
March 21, 2006
On January 1, 1733, Wesley preached one of
his most theologically significant sermons at St. Mary’s,
One of the most interesting things about
this sermon is its early date. It was written well before Wesley’s voyage
to
What makes this sermon so significant? For
one thing, this sermon is part of a larger group of Wesley writings that
emphasize the importance of inward religion as well as the need for right
tempers or dispositions of the heart.3 In fact, Outler
and Heitzenrater, call it “one of Wesley’s most careful and
complete statements of his doctrine of holiness.”4 Further and
more importantly, it is in this sermon that Wesley’s most distinctive
doctrine is revealed as he describes circumcision of the heart as Christian
perfection:
I am first, to
inquire wherein that circumcision of the heart consists which will receive the
praise of God. In general we may observe it is that habitual disposition of the
soul which in the Sacred Writings is termed ‘holiness’, and which
directly implies the being cleansed from sin, ‘from all filthiness both
of flesh and spirit’, and by consequence, the being endued with those
virtues which were also in Christ Jesus’ that being so ‘renewed in
the spirit of our mind’ as to be ‘perfect as our Father in heaven
is perfect.’5
The circumcision of the heart is “a
right state of soul: ‘a mind and spirit renewed after the image that
created it,’ is one of those important truths that can be
‘spiritually discerned.’”6
Another contribution to the significance
of this sermon lies in its artful construction. Its structure threads a
detailed explanation of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love into
its exploration of Christian perfection. Wesley considers each theological
virtue in relation to its end or goal, that is, with respect to what it means
to have “the mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus”7
and to walk according to “the royal law.”8 He presents
God as the supreme object of our desires, affections, and intentions. His
placement of humility as first among virtues is somewhat different from his
account of virtues presented elsewhere.9 Humility figures prominently
in this sermon because Wesley sees it as not only related to the other virtues,
but also as contributing to the receiving of grace. He writes:
This is that
lowliness of mind, which they have learned of Christ who follow his example and
tread in his steps. And this knowledge of their disease, whereby they are more
and more cleansed from one part of it, pride and vanity, disposes them to
embrace, with a willing mind, the second thing implied in ‘circumcision
of the heart’ – that faith which alone is able to make them whole,
which is the one medicine given under heaven to heal their sickness.10
Yet, he adds that love is “the
essence, the spirit, the life of all virtue. It s not only the first and great
command, but it is all the commandments in one . . . [and] . . . in this is
perfection, and glory and happiness.”11
Although holiness is of the heart, that
is, of the inner life, it is also the outward obedience of humankind. A gift of
God, holiness requires struggle. Wesley exclaims:
Vain hope! that a child of Adam should ever expect to see the kingdom
of Christ and of God without striving, without ‘agonizing,’
first ‘to enter in at the strait gate!’ That one who, was
‘conceived and born in sin,’ and whose ‘inward parts are very
wickedness,’ should once entertain a thought of being ‘purified as
his Lord is pure,’ unless he ‘tread in His steps’, and
‘take up his cross daily’; unless he ‘cut off His right
hand’, and ‘pluck out the right eye, and cast it from him’
that he should ever dream of shaking off his old opinions, passions, tempers,
of being ‘sanctified throughout in spirit, soul, and body,’ without
a constant and continued course of general self-denial!12
This statement led some to say that this
section clearly is a statement of holiness by works and seems to be more
consistent with Wesley before, rather after his own experience at Aldersgate; however, most of what is contained in this
sermon is characteristic of his later teaching on Christian perfection
demonstrating a remarkable constancy13. Lawson says, “In
excess of zeal to magnify the glorious novelty of the evangelical revival many
Methodists have drawn too sharp a distinction between Wesley before
As previously noted, Wesley made a
correction to the 1733 version of this sermon when it was published in 1748. In
the original sermon, faith appeared as one of the virtues worked out in the
soul by the Holy Spirit, essentially an understanding
of man’s calling
“to
glorify God, who hath bought him at so great a price, in his body and in his
spirit, which now are God’s by redemption, as well as by creation . . .
and an unshaken assent to all that God hath revealed in Scripture and in
particular to those important truths, ‘Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinner’; he ‘bare our sins in his own body on the
tree’, he is the propitiation of our sins; and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.’”15
However, by 1738, Wesley had come to think
of faith as more than “unshaken assent.” He thought of faith as the
“revelation of Christ in or hearts.”16 So while
“The Circumcision of the Heart” did not need any revision as to the
idea of perfection as the goal of Christian life; there was a need to add to
Wesley’s earlier definition of faith that it is not merely a virtue of
the soul but an assurance and confidence.
Wesley’s views on holiness and his
advocacy of Christian perfection as the goal of the holy life caused
considerable misunderstanding and controversy both in his day and later. As Outler wrote, “Wesley was forever baffled by its
misconstructions. Somehow, he could never grasp the fact that people formed by
the traditions of Latin Christianity were bound to understand
‘perfection’ as pefectus (perfected).”17
Distortions of the doctrine of holiness led to its disrepute and abandonment.
Today in Methodist circles these views seem to be not so much controversial or
misunderstood as they are neglected or forgotten. There is, however, is still
one place where they surface: at United Methodist annual conferences, when
clergy candidates are publicly asked the traditional questions, “Are you going
on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? Are
you earnestly striving after it?”
The perfection Wesley envisioned is not
freedom from ignorance, error, and temptation.18 These
are unavoidable by the most devoted Christian. He meant that with God’s
help the Christian could possess purity of the heart, the Spirit’s
greatest gift, by which love becomes the controlling affection of our life, and
we have the mind of Christ, and walk as he walked. In Charles Wesley’s
familiar hymn “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” we still pray for
perfection:
Finish, then,
thy new creation;
pure an spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.19
Wesley’s doctrine of perfection is
something that we still need to hold on to. It is time for us to consider how
Wesley’s idea of “holiness of heart and life,” especially his
notion of Christian perfection, might become a reality in our lives, in our
preaching, and in our teaching. This is a doctrine that is not only truly
ecumenical, but one that “might help us toward the renewal of the church
that we keep talking about and praying for and are yet denied because of our
partisan confusions.”20
Bibliography
Lawson,
John. Notes on Wesley’s Forty-Four Sermons.
Outler,
Albert C. Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit.
Outler, Albert C. and Richard P. Heitzenrater.
eds. John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology.
Telford,
John. ed, The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.
London: Epworth Press, 1931.
The United Methodist Hymnal.