John Wesley's Prevenient Grace: The Porch Of Heaven

John Wesley spent the greater portion of his life developing an ordo salutis, or order of salvation. While some aspects of his theory of salvation were similar to that of other major denominations of his day (i.e., Lutheran, Catholic), Wesley’s order of salvation was unique. Where most soteriology almost ignored the third person of the Trinity, much of Wesley’s salvation theory and practice emphasized the Holy Spirit. Another unique aspect was the progression a person would take through each stage of salvation. Once a stage was completed, so to speak, a person would not repeat or regress back to that stage. However, Wesley did allow room for individual experience within the staged order. For instance, he believed salvation was a series of both instant and gradual …show more content…
This event takes place prior to the individual’s awareness, presumably during infancy or earlier. Now the presentation of such an extraordinary gift begs the question as to why humans would be in need of such a gift. For Wesley the answer was simple: humanity lost the image of God which Adam and Eve were given at the time of creation. To answer the previous question, prevenient grace is a gift to restore humanity to the original image of God. “Man was what God is, Love.” How then is humanity meant to receive such a gift? This is where the complexities of Wesley soteriology are first revealed.
Grace is not easily or universally accepted as a gift from God. The fall of Adam and Eve left humanity susceptible to sin. Sin often gets in the way of salvation on several stages of Wesley’s ordo salutis. In terms of grace, Wesley referred to this action as “preventing grace” because of humanity’s propensity for preventing grace from its divine purpose of salvation, also referred to as glorification. Wesley was careful to explain that sin did not equate to a loss of prevenient