DE B LASIO : CON\TERSION, ] cSTlFICATl ON AND ΤΗΕ E XI'ERIE'-:CE OF G IV\ CE Ι 23
been a Chtistian ίη 1725; by the 1770's, he was WΊlling to admit that perhaps his middle views were wrong, and that he could understand himself as haVΊng been ίη some real sense a Cll tistian ίη 1725.16 λccordingΙΥ, the λldersgate expetience "must be understood in the his10tical context of l1iS own developing self-consciousness." 1ndeed λ Ιdersgate emerged from \'i/esley's sensitivity to the framework of a ΛIoravian understanding of soteriology. Nevertheless he was quite "self-conscious" at λ ldersgatc of expetiencing something new and thίs was profoundly special to him "at tl1at time." So it is fair to say that the event produced a new sotcriological understanding for him "at tl1at time" that would arguably mature and define his ongoing ministr)'1mmediately in June of 1738, the theological impact of λΙdersgate began 10 take shape ίη \'i/esley's preaching οη S alvatiotl f:y Faith, employing the sote riologic al language of trusting ίη Christ for an assurance of reconciliation, of receiving the inner WΊtne ss of being a child of God, and the all sufficicncy of justifying faith 10 save from Sin. 17 So after 1738, as H eitzenrater also affirms, "two ideas ... continued to find a central place ίη Wesle)"s theology even though he modified their explanation: salva tion b)' faitl1 alone and the ,vitness of the Spiii.t."I HPart of the inquiry, then, is
whether or not these subsequent modifications rcdefined his tl1eological understanding of who qualified as a child of God. Thus it becomes helpful to note how the mature \'i/esley viewed conversion to Christian faith and its consequential implication for a believer's sclf-understanding. Wesley's View of Conversion and Justifying Faith There is, ho\vcver, a well founded acknowledgement that, "Weslcy himself did not usc the word ' cοωτersίοη' that often." 19 1η his theology, the \vord portrays "more connotations of consciolls c11ange than the synonym of 'new birth,' and this emphasis οη consciolls change l1ad great importance ίη We sley's tl10Ught. "20 Conversion was not llsed by \'i/esley as an intcrchangeable term with jllstification, regcncration, or evcn tl1c "new birth." 1η fact, tl1e term conversion \vas rarely llsed at al1. λs \XΙesley referred to thc term conversion ίη a letter of 1750, "λ, term, indeed, wl1ich Ι vef)' rarely llse, becallse it rarely occllrs ίη tlle .'\e,v Te stament." 21 Yet he devcloped a theology of conversion that began WΊth an initial repentance and an in,vard cxperience of grace, and tl1en onward with a gradllal tran sforma tion of life in Christ. λ convert is on e who therefore experiences jllstification by faitl1 and is consciolls of a change, and of progressing towards complete holiness. Fllrther, it is "an encollnter ,vith God's lovc tl1at lays a new foundation relationally and dispositionally, enabling sllbseqllent gro,νth ίη the Christian life." 22