Learning from Holy Lives as Examples of God’s Grace at Work
What does a holy person look like?
Perhaps we imagine someone kneeling in a cathedral, surrounded by candlelight, with an expression of perfect serenity.
Someone who never loses patience.
Never becomes frustrated.
Never says something foolish.
Never struggles with doubt.
Never has to apologize.
In other words, someone we have probably never met.
The problem is not that holiness is impossible. The problem is that we often misunderstand what holiness means.
For John Wesley, holiness was not primarily about becoming unusually religious or achieving a flawless public reputation.
It was about being transformed by God’s grace into a person who loves God and neighbor with the love of Christ.
And that kind of holiness has appeared in some remarkable places.
In the life of a fourth-century bishop.
In the courage of a Christian woman caring for the poor.
In the preaching of an eighteenth-century Methodist.
In the sacrificial service of a missionary.
And in the quiet faithfulness of ordinary Christians whose names will never appear in a history book.
The Christian tradition calls such people saints.
For Wesleyans, their lives offer something profoundly valuable.
The saints are not evidence of what extraordinary human beings can accomplish on their own. They are witnesses to what the grace of God can accomplish in human lives.
And their stories can help us understand our own calling to holiness.
What Is a Saint?
The word saint can create confusion.
For some Christians, it refers especially to believers formally recognized by the church for lives of extraordinary holiness.
For others, it refers to all who belong to Jesus Christ.
The New Testament provides the foundation for that second understanding.
Paul addresses Christians in Corinth as those called to be God’s holy people, even though the congregation had serious spiritual and moral problems.
That is significant.
The Corinthians were hardly a collection of spiritually flawless individuals.
They struggled with division, pride, immorality, and confusion about worship.
Yet Paul addressed them as people set apart in Christ.
The biblical word often translated saints means holy ones, those belonging to God.
Saintliness begins with God’s gracious claim upon us.
It does not begin with our achievements.
This is especially important within Wesleyan theology.
We do not become holy in order to persuade God to love us.
We pursue holiness because God has already loved us and called us into a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.
Grace comes first.
Always.
Sanctification: God’s Grace Making Us Holy
John Wesley understood salvation as more than forgiveness.
Justifying grace pardons sinners and restores us to a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
But God does not stop there.
Sanctifying grace continues the work of salvation by renewing our hearts and lives in the image of Christ.
Paul writes:
“And we all … are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV).
Notice the language.
Being transformed.
Sanctification is God’s work within us.
It is not merely the improvement of our behavior.
It is the transformation of our loves, desires, intentions, habits, and relationships.
In his sermon The Scripture Way of Salvation, Wesley describes salvation as involving both justification and sanctification.
The God who forgives us also begins restoring us.
Kenneth J. Collins, in The Theology of John Wesley, emphasizes the central place of holiness and the transforming work of grace within Wesley’s understanding of Christian salvation.
This is why the saints matter.
Their lives help us see what sanctifying grace looks like when it becomes visible in actual human experience.
The Saints Are Witnesses, Not Spiritual Celebrities
There is a temptation to approach the saints as though they were Christian celebrities.
We admire their accomplishments.
We repeat their memorable sayings.
We celebrate their courage.
We place their pictures on walls or their names on buildings.
Then we quietly assume their lives have little to do with ours.
After all, most of us are not going to become famous theologians, missionaries, martyrs, or founders of religious movements.
But that misses the point.
The saints are not given to the church merely as people to admire from a distance.
They are witnesses.
Hebrews speaks of the faithful who have gone before us and then declares:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders” (Hebrews 12:1, NIV).
Their witness encourages us to persevere.
They remind us that faithfulness is possible.
They demonstrate that grace can transform real people living in difficult circumstances.
And perhaps most importantly, they point beyond themselves.
A saint’s life should make us marvel at God’s grace more than at human greatness.
Augustine: Holiness Begins With a Restless Heart
Consider <Entity category=”people” value=”Augustine of Hippo” disambig=”Early Christian bishop and theologian”/>.
Augustine lived in the fourth and fifth centuries and became one of Christianity’s most influential theologians.
But his spiritual journey was not a story of uninterrupted virtue.
In his Confessions, Augustine describes his struggles with disordered desires, ambition, pride, and the long process through which God drew him toward Christian faith.
His story reminds us that sanctification involves the transformation of desire.
We do not merely need better rules.
We need rightly ordered loves.
Augustine’s spiritual autobiography remains valuable because it is honest about the human heart.
We often want good things in the wrong ways.
We seek security in success.
We seek identity in approval.
We seek happiness in things that cannot finally satisfy us.
Wesley’s theology of holiness shares this concern for the transformation of the heart.
Christian perfection is not simply the absence of certain outward sins.
It is the heart increasingly governed by love for God and neighbor.
Augustine reminds us that grace reaches into our deepest desires.
And that is where holiness begins to take shape.
Macrina: Holiness Through Wisdom and Faithful Community
Consider <Entity category=”people” value=”Macrina the Younger” disambig=”Fourth-century Christian teacher and ascetic”/>.
Macrina lived in the fourth century and exercised a profound influence upon her family, including her brothers Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa.
Gregory’s Life of Macrina presents her as a woman of remarkable spiritual wisdom, disciplined prayer, and commitment to Christian community.
Her life challenges the assumption that the most important Christian leaders are always those who occupy the most visible offices.
Macrina’s influence came through teaching, prayer, family relationships, and a community devoted to Christian discipleship.
That sounds remarkably familiar to a Wesleyan understanding of holiness.
The Christian life is formed through relationships.
We teach one another.
Encourage one another.
Correct one another.
Pray for one another.
Grow together.
Macrina reminds us that holy influence does not require a pulpit.
Sometimes the most significant spiritual leadership happens around a table, within a household, or among a small community of believers.
Francis of Assisi: The Freedom of Simplicity
Consider <Entity category=”people” value=”Francis of Assisi” disambig=”Thirteenth-century Italian Christian friar”/>.
Francis lived in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
Born into a merchant family, he eventually embraced a life marked by voluntary poverty, prayer, service, and devotion to Christ.
His example challenges our assumptions about possessions and security.
We live in a culture that constantly tells us we need more.
More money.
More comfort.
More recognition.
More control.
Francis points toward a different kind of freedom.
The freedom to possess less.
The freedom to serve.
The freedom to love creation as God’s gift.
The freedom to recognize Christ among the poor.
Wesley did not share every aspect of Francis’s spirituality, but his teaching on stewardship offers an important parallel.
In his sermon The Use of Money, Wesley encouraged Christians to gain, save, and give all they could, within the demands of love and righteousness.
Wesley believed money should serve God’s purposes rather than become the object of our devotion.
Francis reminds us that sanctification may change not only how we pray, but also how we spend.
Susanna Wesley: Holiness in the Ordinary Responsibilities of Life
We do not have to leave the Methodist tradition to find examples of sanctifying grace.
Consider <Entity category=”people” value=”Susanna Wesley” disambig=”Mother of John and Charles Wesley”/>.
Susanna Wesley lived from 1669 to 1742 and raised a large family under difficult circumstances.
She was deeply committed to Christian education, disciplined devotion, and the spiritual formation of her children.
Her influence upon John and Charles Wesley was substantial.
She did not found the Methodist movement.
But her commitment to prayer, Scripture, education, and Christian discipline helped shape the spiritual environment in which its future leaders were formed.
Susanna reminds us that holiness often grows through ordinary faithfulness.
Teaching children.
Praying.
Persevering through difficulty.
Practicing patience.
Taking responsibility seriously.
Forming habits of devotion.
There is nothing spiritually insignificant about these things.
Sometimes we imagine sanctification must lead us away from ordinary life into extraordinary religious activity.
But Wesleyan holiness belongs in kitchens, classrooms, workplaces, and family relationships.
Grace transforms the way we inhabit everyday responsibilities.
John Wesley: Holiness as Love
Of course, we must also consider <Entity category=”people” value=”John Wesley” disambig=”Founder of the Methodist movement”/> himself.
Wesley was not a flawless man.
He could be demanding, intensely disciplined, and sometimes mistaken in his judgments.
His life included difficult relationships, disappointments, and failures.
Yet his ministry offers a remarkable witness to the transforming and outward-reaching power of grace.
Wesley preached salvation by faith.
He organized societies, classes, and bands to help Christians grow in grace.
He encouraged frequent Holy Communion.
He visited prisoners.
He promoted education.
He supported practical care for the poor.
He opposed slavery.
And he insisted that genuine Christianity involved holiness of heart and life.
In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, Wesley explained Christian perfection in terms of love for God and neighbor.
His vision was not sinless omniscience or freedom from human limitation.
It was the possibility that God’s grace could so transform the heart that love became its governing disposition.
This remains one of Methodism’s most important contributions to Christian theology.
Holiness is not reserved for a spiritual elite. It is the calling of every Christian.
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher: Grace and the Courage to Serve
Another important Methodist witness is <Entity category=”people” value=”Mary Bosanquet Fletcher” disambig=”Eighteenth-century Methodist preacher and philanthropist”/>.
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher lived from 1739 to 1815.
She became known for her ministry among the poor, her involvement in Christian education, and her work as a Methodist preacher.
Her ministry challenged assumptions about women’s roles in public Christian leadership.
John Wesley eventually recognized her preaching as an expression of an extraordinary calling.
Mary’s life reminds us that sanctifying grace does not merely make us inwardly devout.
It can make us courageous.
Love sometimes requires us to act when prevailing expectations tell us to remain silent.
It may require us to serve people others overlook.
It may lead us into unfamiliar responsibilities.
It may challenge our comfort.
For Wesleyans, holiness is never simply withdrawal from the world.
It is love entering the world through lives surrendered to God.
Phoebe Palmer: The Call to Entire Consecration
Consider <Entity category=”people” value=”Phoebe Palmer” disambig=”Nineteenth-century Methodist holiness teacher”/>.
Palmer lived from 1807 to 1874 and became a major figure in the nineteenth-century holiness movement.
Through her teaching, writing, and Tuesday Meetings for the Promotion of Holiness, she encouraged Christians to pursue entire sanctification.
Her book The Way of Holiness helped spread her understanding of consecration and faith.
Palmer’s approach was not identical to Wesley’s in every theological detail, and her emphasis on the immediacy of consecration and assurance has been discussed and debated within Wesleyan scholarship.
Nevertheless, her ministry demonstrates the enduring conviction that holiness is not merely an abstract doctrine.
It is something Christians should seek.
Her example raises a searching question.
Do we actually expect God’s grace to transform us?
Or have we quietly settled for the assumption that our character will remain essentially unchanged?
Wesleyan theology refuses to treat spiritual stagnation as inevitable.
God calls us to grow in love.
And God provides grace for that growth.
The Saints Were Not Perfect People
At this point, we need an important reminder.
The saints were not flawless.
Their lives were shaped by particular historical circumstances.
They possessed limitations.
They made mistakes.
Some held assumptions we would rightly question today.
Some Christians whose lives contain genuine examples of holiness also participated in systems or practices that caused harm.
Learning from the saints does not require pretending otherwise.
Christian history should be studied truthfully.
We can recognize genuine grace without excusing sin.
We can celebrate courage while acknowledging failure.
We can learn from spiritual wisdom without treating every historical opinion as authoritative.
This is especially important within Wesleyan theology because sanctification does not make a person omniscient.
Even those growing deeply in holy love remain human.
They can misunderstand situations.
Make poor decisions.
Hold mistaken beliefs.
And need correction.
The saints are not substitutes for Jesus Christ.
They are fellow recipients of grace.
Christ alone is the perfect revelation of holiness.
The Saints and Christian Perfection
Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection can help us understand why the saints matter.
Christian perfection does not mean becoming incapable of mistakes, weakness, ignorance, or suffering.
Wesley distinguished the perfection of love from absolute perfection.
In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, he repeatedly emphasized that Christian perfection concerns love filling the heart and governing the life.
That means holiness can take different outward forms.
For one person, holy love may appear through courageous public witness.
For another, through years of patient caregiving.
For another, through generous stewardship.
For another, through teaching children.
For another, through reconciliation after a painful conflict.
The saints are not identical.
Their circumstances differ.
Their gifts differ.
Their personalities differ.
But the grace shaping them comes from the same Lord.
This is why studying holy lives can expand our imagination.
There is no single personality type called holiness.
There is no one career called holiness.
There is no one temperament called holiness.
There is, however, one great commandment.
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
And allow grace to transform everything else.
The Saints Reveal the Importance of the Means of Grace
When we study the lives of faithful Christians, certain patterns appear repeatedly.
Prayer.
Scripture.
Worship.
Holy Communion.
Fasting.
Christian fellowship.
Confession.
Works of mercy.
These are not magical techniques for manufacturing saints.
They are ways Christians place themselves before the God who sanctifies.
Wesley called such practices means of grace.
In his sermon The Means of Grace, he described the ordinary channels through which God communicates grace to his people.
The saints remind us that holiness generally grows through faithful participation in the life of grace.
Not every spiritual breakthrough is dramatic.
Sometimes sanctification happens slowly.
Through years of prayer.
Through repeated acts of forgiveness.
Through patient service.
Through returning to Communion.
Through confessing the same weakness and receiving strength to resist it.
Through learning to love someone who is difficult to love.
God’s grace is extraordinary.
But it often works through remarkably ordinary practices.
The Saints Teach Us That Holiness Is Communal
We sometimes tell the stories of saints as though they became holy entirely on their own.
But Christian holiness is rarely a solitary achievement.
Augustine was influenced by his mother Monica, the preaching of Ambrose, and the Christian community.
Macrina formed others through family and communal life.
Susanna Wesley helped shape her children through intentional Christian education.
John Wesley’s ministry depended upon societies, class meetings, band meetings, and lay leadership.
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher ministered within networks of Methodist fellowship and service.
These lives remind us that grace works through relationships.
We need people who encourage us.
People who challenge us.
People who pray for us.
People who tell us the truth.
People who demonstrate what faithful discipleship looks like.
Kevin Watson, in The Class Meeting, emphasizes the importance of accountable Christian fellowship within early Methodism.
The saints show us why such fellowship matters.
We do not become holy by admiring one another from a distance.
We grow as we participate together in the life of Christ.
The Saints and the Communion of Saints
The Apostles’ Creed declares belief in the communion of saints.
This confession reminds us that the church is larger than our particular congregation or generation.
We belong to a living communion extending across time and space.
The saints who have gone before us remain part of the story of God’s people.
Their witness continues through Scripture, Christian history, hymns, prayers, writings, and the lives they influenced.
Wesleyans can give thanks for these witnesses without adopting every devotional practice associated with the saints in other Christian traditions.
We do not need to direct our prayers to departed saints in order to learn from their faithfulness.
We can honor their witness by praising the God whose grace sustained them.
The point is not to create another object of devotion.
The point is to remember that God’s grace has been transforming human lives for centuries.
And the same grace is available to us.
The Saints Are Not All Famous
There is another group of saints we must not overlook.
The ordinary faithful.
The Sunday school teacher who taught children for forty years.
The widow who continued praying through grief.
The church member who quietly provided groceries for struggling families.
The nurse who treated patients with compassion.
The parent who modeled repentance by apologizing to a child.
The person who forgave a terrible wrong.
The caregiver who remained faithful through exhausting years.
The Christian who resisted bitterness when bitterness would have been easier.
These lives may never appear in a theological textbook.
But they matter.
They reveal that sanctifying grace is not restricted to the famous.
Some of the clearest examples of holiness may be sitting in the pew beside us.
Or preparing a meal in the church kitchen.
Or visiting someone in the hospital.
Or quietly doing good without expecting recognition.
The kingdom of God is filled with people whose faithfulness is known fully only to God.
How to Learn from the Saints
If the saints are witnesses to God’s sanctifying grace, how should we learn from them?
Here are several practical ways.
1. Read Their Lives With Discernment
Choose a Christian biography, autobiography, or collection of historical writings.
Read Augustine’s Confessions.
Explore Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Macrina.
Study John Wesley’s sermons and journals.
Read about Mary Bosanquet Fletcher or Phoebe Palmer.
Ask what these lives reveal about God’s grace.
But do not suspend critical thinking.
Read honestly, recognizing both faithfulness and human limitations.
2. Look for Grace Rather Than Greatness
Instead of asking, “How did this person become so impressive?” ask:
How was God’s grace at work in this person’s life?
What changed?
What desires were transformed?
What habits were formed?
What sacrifices became possible?
What acts of love emerged?
The purpose is not hero worship.
It is theological reflection.
3. Notice the Means of Grace
Pay attention to the practices that sustained their discipleship.
Prayer.
Scripture.
Holy Communion.
Christian friendship.
Fasting.
Service.
Accountability.
Ask which of these practices may need renewed attention in your own life.
4. Learn From Their Failures
Do not ignore mistakes.
Sometimes the failures of faithful Christians teach us as much as their successes.
Where did pride interfere?
Where did cultural assumptions distort judgment?
Where did good intentions produce harmful consequences?
What might we learn from their limitations?
Holiness requires humility.
5. Imitate Their Faith, Not Their Circumstances
You do not need to become a fourth-century monastic or an eighteenth-century Methodist preacher.
You are called to follow Christ in your own circumstances.
Ask:
What would the same kind of holy love look like in my life?
Perhaps Francis’s simplicity challenges your spending.
Perhaps Susanna Wesley’s devotion challenges your family priorities.
Perhaps Mary Bosanquet Fletcher’s courage challenges your reluctance to serve.
Perhaps Augustine’s honesty challenges your unwillingness to examine your desires.
Learn the principle.
Then practice it where God has placed you.
6. Tell the Stories of Ordinary Saints
Ask older members of your congregation about the Christians who shaped them.
Remember faithful teachers, pastors, parents, and friends.
Tell their stories.
Give thanks for their witness.
Help younger Christians understand that holiness is not merely something found in ancient books.
It is something God’s grace produces in real communities.
A Simple Practice: The Saints and Your Own Sanctification
Consider setting aside a few minutes each week for reflection.
Choose one faithful Christian from Scripture, church history, or your own experience.
Then ask five questions:
- What evidence of God’s grace do I see in this person’s life?
- What Christian virtue or expression of holy love stands out?
- What struggles or limitations remind me of this person’s humanity?
- What can I learn from this example about my own discipleship?
- What is one concrete way I can respond to God’s grace this week?
Then pray.
Do not ask God to make you famous.
Do not ask God to make you impressive.
Ask God to make you faithful.
Ask God to increase your love.
Ask God to transform your heart.
Ask God to help you become the kind of person through whom others can glimpse Jesus Christ.
The Goal Is Not to Become Another Saint
There is a subtle danger in studying holy lives.
We may begin comparing ourselves with them.
Why am I not as courageous as Francis?
Why am I not as disciplined as Wesley?
Why am I not as devoted as Susanna?
Why am I not as influential as Augustine?
Comparison can quickly turn admiration into discouragement.
But sanctification is not a competition.
God does not call you to become another John Wesley.
God calls you to become fully devoted to Jesus Christ.
Your circumstances are different.
Your gifts are different.
Your responsibilities are different.
Your opportunities are different.
The Holy Spirit is not trying to manufacture identical Christians.
The Spirit is forming the character of Christ within the diverse members of his body.
The saints remind us that holy love can take many forms.
And that is good news.
Becoming Witnesses of Grace
There is a final question worth considering.
What if the purpose of learning from the saints is not merely to admire the past?
What if it is to prepare us to become faithful witnesses in the present?
Imagine someone looking back upon your life.
What would they see?
Would they remember your accomplishments?
Perhaps.
Your career?
Maybe.
Your possessions?
Probably not for very long.
But perhaps they would remember your patience.
Your generosity.
Your courage.
Your willingness to forgive.
Your faithfulness in suffering.
Your compassion toward people who could offer you nothing in return.
Your love for Jesus Christ.
Not because you were perfect.
Not because you never struggled.
But because God’s grace was visibly at work within you.
That is the Wesleyan vision of sanctification.
God takes ordinary people and transforms them through holy love.
The saints are evidence that this transforming grace is not merely a doctrine written in theological books.
It is a living reality.
It happened in the ancient church.
It happened in the Methodist revival.
It has happened in countless congregations across the centuries.
And it can happen in us.
The same Holy Spirit who formed the saints is still at work in the church today.
So learn from their lives.
Give thanks for their witness.
Imitate their faithfulness.
Recognize their humanity.
And above all, look to Jesus Christ, the source and perfect expression of holiness.
Because the ultimate goal of sanctification is not to become a famous saint.
It is to become a person whose life increasingly reflects the love of God.
And that is a calling worthy of every Christian.
A Closing Prayer
Gracious and holy God,
We thank you for the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us.
Thank you for the saints of Scripture, the faithful Christians of history, and the ordinary believers whose lives have shaped our own.
Forgive us when we imagine holiness belongs only to extraordinary people.
Remind us that sanctification is your gracious work within all who belong to Jesus Christ.
Teach us to learn from the faithful without idolizing them.
Give us wisdom to recognize both their virtues and their limitations.
Through your Holy Spirit, transform our desires, renew our minds, purify our hearts, and teach us to love as Christ loves.
Make us faithful in ordinary responsibilities.
Courageous in difficult circumstances.
Generous toward those in need.
Patient with those who challenge us.
Humble when we fail.
And joyful in the grace that continues to sustain us.
May our lives become living testimonies to your sanctifying power.
And when our earthly journey is complete, may those who come after us remember not our greatness, but your goodness.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
