Imparted righteousness

Imparted righteousness, in Methodist theology, is that gracious gift of God given at the moment of the new birth which enables a Christian disciple to strive for holiness and sanctification. John Wesley believed that imparted righteouness worked in tandem with imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus credited to the Christian, enabling the Christian to be justified; imparted righteousness is what God does in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit after justification, working in the Christian to enable and empower the process of sanctification (and, in Wesleyan thought, Christian perfection).

Scriptural support

• Jeremiah 31:33–34 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”" (ESV)
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (ESV)

John Wesley

• Sermon #4: "Scriptural Christianity"
• Sermon #14: "The Repentance of Believers"
• Sermon #17: "The Circumcision of the Heart"
• Sermon #20: "The Lord Our Righteousness"
• Sermon #45: "The New Birth"

Hymnody & other sources

See also:

• Righteousness

External links

• John Wesley's Doctrine of Justification by Charles Brockwell...includes a concise discussion of imparted righteousness
• Encountering God by Andrew Purves and Charles Partee, Chapter 9: "The Struggle for Saintliness" (ISBN 0664222420)...opposed to the idea of imparted righteousness