I am Michael Willison and the gift the Holy Spirit works through me is as a Reformer in the Wesley-Methodist Tradition.  In lay persons words I am a writer doing something similar to “Paul Harvey’s ‘The Rest of the Story.’”

     The United Methodist Church Discipline, USA, states the basis of our faith is John Wesley’s Fifty-three Sermons, and his Notes upon the New Testament.  Everyone within the church is expected to have a copy of this Discipline, and it is to be in the libraries of each of the churches.  Today this does not happen and most of our churches completely ignore the Discipline.

     People have not changed over the centuries, just our method of communication and mode of travel.  Our churches are practicing the faith of the Wesley’s prior to Aldersgate.  It was failures for them just as it is for us.  This theology does not provide any answers to questions only more questions.  We are the training grounds for the Evangelical churches.

     The Disciple also states it is the responsibility of the Bishop to see that it is followed.  I had been on the Bishop’s Laity Council shortly after our Bishop was elected.  He stated he had appointed a committee of ministers to study why some churches were losing members, and the churches that were growing.  They had developed 10 areas, and two of them were that demographics did not make a difference, but the proper understanding of the operation of the Holy Spirit did.  This has been the last we have heard of the solutions.  History is repeating itself in the United Methodist Church.

     John and Charles Wesley considered Methodism to be a failure during the last four years of their ministry.  They had been placed on the knees for their future direction.  They realized their ministry was missing something they referred to as the “new birth,” but they did not know how to find it.

     The light bulb clicked on in Charles thought process.  He found his new perception of the Bible that it was written just for him on May 21, 1738, while reading Martin Luther’s Commentary on the 2^nd Chapter of Galatians.  I am going to reproduce The Living Bible verses 18-21.  On the web you find the Book of Galatians at http://rhejournal.net/gal.html.  The Collation, paraphrased to The Living Bible is from Luther’s Works, Vol. 27, Editors: Jaroslav Pelikan and Walter A. Hasen, Concordia Publishing House, 1964, St. Louis, MO., will follow the verses.

Galatians 2:18-21.  Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old system I have been destroying, of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws.  I came to realize that acceptance with God came by believing in Christ.  I have been crucified with Christ; and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I am not one of those who treats Christ’s death as meaningless.  For if we could be saved by keeping Jewish laws, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Collation:  “There are two ways in which a person seeks to be justified.  The first way does not result in justification.  This is outward righteousness, by works, on the basis of one’s own strengths.  It is the righteousness acquired by practice and habit.  This is the kind of righteousness Aristotle and the other philosophers describe.  The kind produced by laws of the state and of the church in ceremonies, and the kind produced by reason and prudence. 

     “For the people feel they can be righteous by doing righteous things, and temperate by doing temperate things.  This is the kind of righteousness the Law of Moses brings about, namely, when they serve God out of fear of punishment or because of the promise of a reward.  This is spiritless righteousness: it is covetous, pretentious, misleading, enduring, earthly, secular, rational, and social.

     “It does not profit anyone in the glory to come, but receives in this life its rewards of glory, riches, honor, power, friendship, well-being (at least peace and quiet), and the doing of fewer evils.  This is how Christ describes the Pharisees.  This righteousness deceives even the wise and great unless they have been instructed in the Scriptures.

     “The second method is the inward way: that done on the basis of faith and of grace.  In this righteousness people realize their unworthiness, fall to their knees before God, and confess that they are sinners.  For this righteousness is nothing else that calling upon the name of the Lord.  The name of the Lord is mercy, truth, righteousness, strength, and wisdom.  It is through faith that the heart and the name of the Lord cling together.

     “When the heart has been justified through the faith that is in his name, God gives them power to become his children, by immediately pouring into their hearts his Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit fills them with his love and makes them peaceful, glad, active in all good works, victorious over all evils, and contemptuous of death and hell.  All laws and all works of the laws soon cease; and all things are now free and permissible, and the Law is fulfilled through faith and love. 

     “Faith is the name of the Lord, is this understanding of the Law, the end of the Law, and absolutely all in all through Christ.  It is not good works that fulfill the Law, but the fulfillment of the Law produces good works.  One does not become righteous by doing righteous deeds.  No, one does righteous deeds after becoming righteous.

     “The Commandments are necessary only for sinners, but Christians will keep them out of love for God.  Because of their flesh, however, the righteous, too, are sinners.  With their faith and assistance of the Holy Spirit, they are able to crucify the sins of their flesh until in the life to come they are made perfect in both flesh and spirit.

     “These two are opposed to each other.  Inwardly persons of the Law sin: outwardly they pretend righteousness.  Inwardly persons of faith do what is good: outwardly they live victorious over sin by the power of the Holy Spirit who energizes their will.  This light of understanding in the mind, and the flame in the heart is the law of faith, the law of Christ, the law of the Holy Spirit, and the law of grace.  It justifies, fills everything, and crucifies the lusts of the flesh.

     “In Luke 14:33 Jesus says: ‘So no one can become y disciple unless he sits down and counts his blessings—and then renounces them all for me.’  This means that you will not be Christian unless you cast away your own righteousness entirely and rely on faith alone.”

     For John the light bulb clicked on in his thought process and he found his new perception of the Bible that it was written just for him on May 24, 1738, while reading Martin Luther’s Preface to the Book of Romans (German).  This can be found on the web by just typing Martin Luther’s Preface to the Book of Romans.  Martin Luther considered the Book of Romans the most important book in the Bible, “religion in it purest form.”  Martin Luther, Ph.D., was a college professor who said the same thing at least four different ways so all his students would understand.  In other words it is quite lengthy, but easy to understand.

     When you diagram the Preface you will see what he is saying:

1.      When we read and study the Bible we must view the verses as to how they apply to us as we are both Spiritual and Physical beings, and does it apply to the past, present, future or parts of all three tenses.

2.      Why Jesus had to die: fulfill the Old Testament Law, but not destroy it; release us from the claim of Satan; with his death we have forgiveness of sins; and with his resurrection we have the Holy Spirit available to us. 

3.      While we are Justified in Faith by Jesus Christ, we are also Justified in Faith by the Holy Spirit, who now resides within us to fight against the spirit of the flesh.  It is inward righteousness that is important to God.

     With this new understanding John and Charles Wesley found that “new birth” they had been searching for: We must step aside and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to accomplish the Holy Spirit work. This new perspective is based on faith, belief, trust, and is the Evangelical View of Scholastic Theology.

      Prior to this experience if the Holy Spirit had any work to do they were going to do it for him, or basically they were stopping with Jesus Christ, using logic or what is logical in developing their theological understanding, and this is the Secular View of Scholastic Theology.

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