Forgiveness and Wesleyan Spirituality

How can God's grace make us more forgiving people? That was a question of great interest to John Wesley. In fact, he wrote to other people about the topic of forgiveness and considered it essential to what it meant to live a faithful life. For Wesley, being able to forgive others was dependent on knowing ourselves as forgiven by Christ Jesus. “Forgiveness is the beginning of redemption, as the resurrection is the completion of it," Wesley said at one point. It's always about the cross and the empty tomb---only with both of them in view can we understand the fullness of salvation. We can, indeed, learn to be more forgiving people. To do so, we must come more and more to know ourselves as forgiven and set free by the boundless grace of the Lord Jesus ... and thus to live a whole new life.