Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, just weeks after Wesley's Aldersgate experience. The first of the Standard Sermons and the doctrinal cornerstone of the Methodist revival.
Sermon 1 of 44 · 1738 · Ephesians 2:8
Salvation by Faith
A passage from the sermon
All the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man are of his mere grace, bounty, or favour: his free, undeserved favour; favour altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of his mercies. It was free grace that formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him a living soul. It was free grace which, after we had lost the image of God by sin, gave us his only Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish. And whatsoever righteousness may be found in man, this is also the gift of God.
Wherewithal then shall a sinful man atone for any the least of his sins? With his own works? No. Were they ever so many or holy, they are not his own, but God's. With repentance? No: this also is the gift of God. Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation.
The full sermon is in the public domain and freely available from CCEL and other archives.