If only Wesley had heard of the asymptote; his teachings about entire sanctification might have given him far less trouble. If you're not sure what an asymptote is follow the link and look at the shape of the curve. The interesting thing is the curve approaches a value but never quite reaches it. These are not parallel lines but lines that never quite meet.
Theodore Runyon in The New Creation writes:
'Albert Outler suggests that the doctrine (entire sanctification) has been misunderstood not only by Wesley's opponents but also by his friends and followers because they had read it from the Western Latin translation as perfectio (perfected perfection), an achieved state of perfection, rather than as teleiotes (perfecting perfection), "a never ending aspiration for all of love's fullness." It is the latter tradition which, according to Outler, informed and undergirded Wesley's position.' (Page 91, his emphases).
The mistake is to confuse the experience of grace with the goal of that experience. This is the furthest vision Wesley had of a life with grace, it was something he maintained was or had to be possible to give us hope, even though he conceded there remains a kernel of sin. We can always imagine getting closer to perfection without ever quite getting there.
This evening I attended a community commemoration of the death of Martin Luther King and of the inauguration (tomorrow) of Barach Obama. In conversation about some of King's sayings we realised that (1) those who do evil think they are doing good, and that (2) we too think we are doing good. The work of perfection is to see the ways in which our best intentions are warped by sin. Those who attain perfection are not aware of it, they know their own sin.
Perfection is a way, not a state of being, and so the invitation to faith is first and foremost to be people of the way. The point is this does not only radicalise personal ethics but also causes social transformation. The slogan this evening was 'Rosa Parks sat, so that King could walk, so that Obama could run, so that our children can fly'.
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