The First-Fruits Of The Spirit: John Wesley's Sermon In Today's English (8 of 44)

The First-Fruits Of The Spirit is the eighth message from Wesley's 'Forty-Four Sermons'. The text for this sermon is Romans 8:1-2; 'So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.'

In this sermon, Wesley contrasts following the Spirit with following the sinful nature, and discusses how those who follow the Spirit are no longer condemned by anything - including past sins, their own hearts, being young in the faith, having a sinful nature, accidental sins, 'sins of surprise' and sins as a result of illness.

John Wesley led one of the greatest Christian revivals in the history of England, and his open air preaching saw many thousands of conversions all across Great Britain. The 'Forty-Four Sermons' which he compiled for use by Methodist Local Preachers remains a timeless classic, and a definitive collection of core Wesleyan doctrine, along with his Notes on the New Testament.

Forty-Four Sermons was first published in 1759, over 250 years ago, and since then the English language has changed and evolved to the point that his works can no longer be easily read and understood in their original dialect. Therefore to preserve Wesley's message and to allow it to come to life for a new generation, this project has been undertaken.

The sermons are translated sentence by sentence, carefully and prayerfully. The aim has been to communicate both word-for-word and thought-for-thought, choosing clarity of communication in simple English over archaic sentence structure where necessary, and preferring the original word order when there is no difference.

Wesley used the King James Bible in his original sermons, whereas to remain consistent with the word-for-word and thought-for-thought method used in these translations, the New International Version and New Living Translation have been used instead. The complete original sermon is also included. Each sermon will be translated and published in order, from 1 to 44, and when the series is completed, they will be published as one volume.

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