What then is entire sanctification? What is this that Wesley calls “perfect love”? According to Wesley it is being so filled with God’s love and grace that we are enabled by God to live within his will for us and thus be free from willful sin.
Perhaps it is more helpful to think of perfect love, not in terms of sins, but in terms of the condition of our heart. J.A. Wood, a prominent early Methodist Episcopal advocate of the doctrine of sanctification sheds light on this point when he quotes another early minister who stated, “It is not purity of action that we contend for, it is exalted purity of heart."
In other words, we do not understand our sanctification in terms of the acts we do. Perfect love is not best described as a list of things Christians don’t do. Rather, entire sanctification is better described as the relationship of our heart to God and the purity of our heart that flows from that divine relationship.
Perfect Love enters the life of the Christian when God weds the heart of the believer to his own heart. Perfect Love is when the will of the believer cooperates with the will of God. Yet, the point we must not neglect as we study Wesley’s hallmark doctrine is this: perfect love is possible. Christians, according to Wesley and much of Christian Tradition are able to not willfully sin, when God’s grace has enabled them to such by the cleansing and sealing of their hearts. Please remember, however, that the freedom from willful sin is the effect of a sanctified heart. It is the relationship to God that we are reestablished in and the purifying of our heart that are at the core of what occurs. All else flows from this.
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