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Page 2 of 5 What I want to address in this context is not so much the issue of whether or not the Holiness movement is dead, half-alive, or still alive, although cases could be offered for all three pronouncements depending on where one chooses to look, rather I want to focus on the question: Is the doctrinal emphasis of the classical Holiness movement correct? In other words, does the Bible teach John Wesley’s concept of holiness of heart and life and, in particular, does Scripture suggest anywhere that our experience of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross works itself out in two distinct works of grace in our lives as believers?
I begin by affirming what Richard S. Taylor says in his essay in Counterpoint, specifically, that although the Holiness movement needs new life, it is not totally dead. There are still many thriving holiness camp meetings, Schmul Publishing not only has kept many holiness classics alive, but every year prints many new holiness-oriented works, and there are numerous colleges and seminaries where Wesleyan holiness is alive and well, including Asbury College, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wesley Biblical Seminary, and Nazarene Theological Seminary. Further, organizations like Dennis Kinlaw’s Francis Asbury Society (FAS) are expanding and promoting the holiness teaching of Scripture not only here in America, but overseas as well (see "Why the Holiness Movement Died," by Richard S. Taylor, in Counterpoint, 36ff).
Focusing now on the doctrine of holiness, I also agree with Taylor that the idea of "full salvation" is seldom popular today in any church because, as Taylor states, "it is inherently counter to sinful human nature" (Counterpoint, 41). In short, we live in an age of easy believism, an age in which grace is not only cheap, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed it, but one in which believers can be both saved and continue in sin at the same time. But this popular teaching that grace is "cheap" has nothing to do with Scripture.
In Romans 6:1-2 Paul makes it clear that believers are not to continue in sin: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"
In 1 Corinthians 10:13 he puts it a little differently: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
In other words, there is always a way of escape. We need not sin. In 1 John 2:1 we read: My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Later, in 1 John 3:6-9, John says: No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as He is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
But did Jesus teach this same idea, that sin has no place in the life of the believer? In John 5:14, after healing the cripple man by the pool of Bethesda, Jesus told him: "See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you."
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