John Wesley taught that Christian perfection is the renewing of our hearts in wholehearted love for God and our neighbors. It is not a state of flawless, sinless perfection where you never make a mistake or feel temptation again. Instead, Wesley described Christian perfection as a lifelong spiritual journey toward total devotion, where God’s grace purifies your motives and empowers you to live free from willful, deliberate sin against His known law.
Understanding the Concept of Christian Perfection
When we hear the word perfection, we usually think of someone who never makes a mistake, gets a flawless score on a test, or has a spotless record. That is not what John Wesley meant when he talked about Christian perfection. He knew that as long as we live in these broken, human bodies, we will suffer from ignorance, physical limitations, and bad judgment. We are going to make mistakes, and we will always need the grace of God and the cleansing blood of Jesus.
Wesley used this phrase because it shows up right in the pages of the Bible. He pointed to the words of Jesus and the apostles to show that God has a high calling for our daily lives. For Wesley, perfection simply means maturity. It describes a Christian who has grown out of spiritual infancy and into a stable, deeply rooted faith. It is about the direction of your heart, not the absence of human frailty.
A Two-Step Process of Salvation
Wesley viewed salvation as a two-step process. The first step is justification, which happens the moment you place your faith in Jesus. In this step, God forgives your past sins, clears your guilty record, and restores your relationship with Him. You are saved from the penalty of sin, and you are adopted into God’s family entirely by His grace.
The second step in this process is sanctification, which is where Christian perfection comes into play. While justification changes your standing before God, sanctification changes your actual character. It is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit transforming your desires, thoughts, and actions. Wesley believed that salvation is not just a one-time ticket to heaven, but a beautiful, two-step process that cleanses you inside and out.
Romans 6:22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
This distinction is vital because it shows that God does not stop working on you after you get saved. Justification is the doorway, but sanctification is the path you walk for the rest of your life. Christian perfection is the ultimate expression of this second step, where God’s grace completely fills your heart with holy love.
The Heart of the Matter Is Love
At its core, Wesley’s teaching on Christian perfection is all about love. He frequently called it “perfect love” or “entire sanctification.” He based this idea on the Greatest Commandment given by Jesus. To live in Christian perfection means that your heart is entirely captured by the love of God, and that love overflows into how you treat the people around you every single day.
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
When God fills your heart with this kind of love, it leaves no room for sin to reign over you. Pride, envy, malice, and selfishness begin to melt away when the Holy Spirit takes full control of your desires. You stop living for your own ego and start living to honor God and bless others. This love changes your inner world, which naturally transforms your outer behavior.
This transformation is not something you can manufacture on your own strength. You cannot just grit your teeth and force yourself to love God perfectly. It is entirely a work of the Holy Spirit inside you. God’s grace rescues you from the guilt of sin when you first believe, and then that same grace goes to work to rescue you from the power of sin in your daily walk.
Is It Possible to Stop Sinning?
This is where many people get confused about Wesley’s theology, and it is where his critics often pushed back. To understand his view, you have to look at how Wesley defined sin. He made a clear distinction between involuntary human mistakes and “sin properly so called.” He defined a proper sin as a voluntary transgression of a known law of God.
In other words, a sin is when you know exactly what God wants you to do, but you look Him in the eye and choose to do the opposite anyway. Wesley believed that through the power of the Holy Spirit, a Christian can reach a point where they no longer commit these deliberate, willful sins. God gives you the strength to say no to temptation and yes to righteousness.
1 John 3:6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
At the same time, Wesley acknowledged that we all fall short of God’s perfect glory through mistakes, ignorance, and unintended offenses. You might lose your temper because you are exhausted, or you might judge someone unfairly because you do not know the whole story. Wesley said these mistakes still need the atoning blood of Jesus, which is why even the most mature Christian must pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask for forgiveness daily.
A Lifelong Journey of Grace
Wesley never viewed Christian perfection as a static finish line where you can finally sit back, relax, and stop growing. He did believe that there could be a distinct, instantaneous moment where the Holy Spirit purifies a believer’s heart—an event often called entire sanctification. However, he always emphasized that this moment must be preceded and followed by gradual spiritual growth.
Even if you experience a deep, powerful work of grace that purifies your motives, you still need to grow in that love every single day. You must continue to read Scripture, pray, fast, worship, and serve others. Wesley warned that it is entirely possible to lose this state of perfect love if you become proud, lazy, or careless in your spiritual habits.
Philippians 3:12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
This journey always keeps us dependent on Jesus. We never outgrow our need for the cross, and we never reach a point where we can survive without the vine. Jesus is the one who initiates our faith, and He is the one who carries it through to completion. Our job is to stay surrendered to His hands, allowing Him to mold us into His image.
Connecting Wesley’s View to Jesus
Everything John Wesley taught about Christian perfection points directly back to the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus. Christ did not die just to hand us a ticket to heaven while leaving us trapped in our old, destructive habits. He died to break the chains of sin in our lives right now. He came to give us an abundant, transformed life on this side of eternity.
When we look at the life of Jesus, we see what perfect love actually looks like in shoe leather. He loved God perfectly, and He loved people perfectly, even giving His life for His enemies on the cross. The good news of the gospel is that the very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is living inside you if you are a believer.
Because the Holy Spirit lives in you, the beautiful character of Jesus can be reproduced in your life. Christian perfection is simply the process of becoming more like Jesus every day. It is about letting His love take over your thoughts, your words, and your actions until you reflect His light to a dark and hurting world.
The Takeaway
John Wesley taught that Christian perfection is not about living a life free of human mistakes, but about living a life completely filled with the love of God. Because Wesley viewed salvation as a two-step process involving both justification and sanctification, perfection serves as the maturity of that second step. This grace empowers you to overcome willful sin and steadily grow more like Jesus every day. It is an inviting, lifelong journey of surrender to the transforming power of God’s love.
