No one God's love could not touch
Charles Wesley preached his message of free grace even to "condemned malefactors."
Today we welcome a guest post on the life and career of Charles Wesley, from a speech recently delivered by Kenneth J. Collins at the unveiling of a statue of Wesley on the campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, an evangelical institution in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition. Did you know of Wesley's commitment to prison ministry? Read on:
Growing up in that spiritual incubator known as the Epworth rectory, where Susanna was determined to break his will and Samuel to keep him in poverty, Charles Wesley emerged in later life as one who in the judgment of John Gambold was "a man made for friendship."
Attending Christ Church, Charles referred to this Oxford college as "certainly the worst place in the world to begin a reformation in; a man stands a very fair chance of being laughed out of his religion at his first setting out, in a place where 'tis scandalous to have any [religion] at all." Nevertheless Charles was among a small group of earnest Christians who would arise in this setting, and these faithful few were eager not only to keep the precepts of the university, for conscience sake, but also to pursue the end or goal of religion which is holiness—a holiness so beautiful and free.
Throwing off some of the misguided notions of his erstwhile spiritual mentor, William Law, and becoming richly acquainted with the genius of Luther's Galatians Commentary, Charles was marvelously converted on Pentecost Sunday, 1738, having, as he put it, "a strange palpitation of heart," and crying out for later ages to fathom, "I believe, I believe." A glimpse of this transformative reception of grace is revealed in the lines later penned by Charles:
Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeem'd from death and sin,
A brand pluck'd from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
And sing my great Deliverer's praise?
Emboldened to proclaim the two great truths of the everlasting gospel, namely, universal redemption, meaning that Christ died for all sinners, and Christian perfection, affirming that God's grace can save to the uttermost, Charles Wesley composed numerous poems and hymns that celebrated these precious realities of grace. Of the extent of God's love for all people, for example, Charles wrote the following lines and thereby cast aside one of the chief theological errors of his day:
Thy undistinguishing regard
Was cast on Adam's fallen race;
For all Thou hast in Christ prepared
Sufficient, sovereign, saving grace.
Jesus hath said, we all shall hope,
Preventing grace for all is free:
"And I, if I be lifted up
I will draw all men unto Me…."
Understanding well that the incarnation reached its lowest depths at Golgotha, such that there was not a man or woman whom God's love could not touch, Charles Wesley reached out to the poor of eighteenth-century England and began a ministry in 1738 to the condemned at Newgate prison. On occasion Charles, along with John Bray, agreed to be jailed overnight in the same rotting cells with those sentenced to death--a gracious and sweet mercy that one has described as a "remarkable testimony to their faith." And when the death carts made their tortuous way in a procession of mocking and shame from the prison to Tyburn hill, in London, the place of execution, Charles was at times right there accompanying the condemned, present as an emblem of Christ's love that reaches out to all, not only to the worst malefactors of the day but also to those who had but little time to learn of God's tender grace and wonderful mercy.
Where other ministers had balked, writing off the condemned simply as the reprobate who had by now little opportunity for the laborious rounds of repentance that apparently barred the way—in the eyes of some--to saving grace now, Charles Wesley, in contrast, championed nothing less than the free grace of God, the work that only the Most High could do and that was therefore a sheer gift and as a consequence could be received now. Indeed, Wesley gathered his thoughts together on this awe-inspiring theme, a testament to God's rich love and mercy so amply displayed in Jesus Christ, and composed a hymn simply entitled "Free Grace." This is a very familiar hymn, especially to this audience but, interestingly enough, you know it by a different name. Permit me, then, to introduce an old friend. Allow me in closing to recite a stanza from this great hymn of Charles Wesley that extols the free grace of God, that lavish love, that boundless mercy, that embraces with the wide arms of forgiveness especially the most despised and rejected on Tyburn Hill. Somehow I don't think we'll ever sing this hymn again in quite the same way. Listen to the good news of the gospel, good news indeed for all, as proclaimed by Charles Wesley:
He left His Father's throne above
(So free, so infinite His grace!)
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race:
'Tis mercy all immense and free!
For, O my God! It found out me!
Dr. Collins is the author or editor of numerous volumes on the Wesleys including The Sermons of John Wesley: A Collection for the Christian Journey. Christian History has published two issues on the Wesleys and plans an issue on Francis Asbury and American Methodism in May 2015. Stay tuned!