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| John and Charles Wesley (kind of) |
We are in the middle of a sermon series on the Wesley Covenant Prayer. I want to remind everyone why this is important. Wesley's Covenant Prayer is just a commitment to our salvation by acknowledging Jesus's Lordship in every area of our lives.
When we think of our salvation, the Scripture that is central is Romans 10:9-10. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. We need to understand that Scripture speaks that our salvation comes by confession and by belief. Not that confession saves us. Confession is the outworking of what we have in our hearts according to Jesus (Matthew 12:34).
What do others say:
Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, Wesley says this. "Confession here implies the whole of the outward, as believing does, the root of all inward religion."
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges says, "confess to the mouth, submit and own him as supreme for thee, or for us." And points out the fact that this was an important part of adult baptism, us confirming that Jesus is Lord.
Barnes notes on the Bible acknowledge it, saying, "acknowledging him that Lord, that is, as having the right to rule over our soul."
Jameson - Fawcett - Brown Bible Commentary says, "Confession is the proper manifestation or the evidence of faith." In other words, if you believe it in your heart, it's going to come out of your mouth, which, as I referenced before, is what Jesus said: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
So, if we truly believe that Jesus is Lord, that God has raised him from the dead, which is the ultimate evidence that Jesus is Lord, then we shall be saved according to Romans 10:9-10, so the confession and belief that Jesus is Lord is the centerpiece of what it means to come into the Christian life. The thing about it is that's just the beginning. Part of our Christian life is learning how to live out that belief in every area and allowing Jesus to truly be the Lord of everything in our lives.
I'm going to throw out to you that the Wesley Covenant Prayer is us looking at the Lordship of Jesus and applying it to our lives. It's kind of like a list of responsibilities or job requirements. How do you know that you have a boss? Well, one, he pays you, hopefully. He has the authority to say things and to make decisions on how you do your work. You can get the idea that there are guidelines. But also, if you work for someone, sometimes you have expectations. If you're going to work for me, here's what I expect.
The Wesley covenant prayer is us listing, as it were, our willingness to submit every area of our life to whatever expectations God has for us, whether that's prosperity or poverty, whether that's health or sickness, whether that's to be busy or to be set aside. It ends with a conclusion saying that we want this covenant to be established. In other words, we want the true what it means to be Jesus, to be Lord in our lives, to be firmly established in our hearts.
The thing about the Wesley covenant prayer is this: not just a prayer for us as individuals, it's a prayer for us as a people. This prayer is meant to be a corporate prayer as much as it is a personal prayer. It's a reminder that we are not in this alone. We are in unity with our rightful ruler, the supreme authority, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Consider that as we continue our study of the Wesley covenant prayer.
Father in heaven,
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
John Wesley
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