ABSTRACT
The findings of this study are now summarized in the conclusion. Aldersgate was a complex event for Wesley. Initially, he understood it as the moment when he received an assurance of salvation, with the expectation of a full deliverance from sin. But his interpretation evolved as his soteriology developed. The first shift happened when he realized that there are degrees of justifying faith and that full salvation is a second blessing.
The next transition took place when justifying faith was distinguished from Christian faith. While the former pertained to future salvation, the latter signified an assurance of present salvation. Then in the 1760s Wesley defined his conversion in terms of God’s pardoning love and the privileges of sonship. These led to his mature perspective, which understood his conversion as a transition from the ‘faith of a servant’ to the ‘faith of a son’. Last, the study concludes with some final thoughts on how the evolution of Wesley’s interpretation reflects the complexities of evangelical conversion narrative in the eighteenth century.
