For hundreds of years the church has preached a gospel of grace but has typically limited it to conversion and the forgiveness of sins. In the 18th century, God raised up John Wesley and the people called Methodists who experienced and preached the penetrating character of the gospel as the powerful work of God to overcome sin and radically transform lives. This is what John Wesley meant by Christian perfection, or entire sanctification. Christian perfection, then, is the work of God in the hear