The Anglican ROSE

This acrostic, a handy rhetorical devise, is based on passages from Romans, on Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and on other worthy sources in the Christian theological tradition.  The passages cited describe the true “Roman Road to Salvation” for use in personal evangelism and basic doctrinal instruction.  The Articles of Religion say, “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”  The Homily on Scripture says, “Therefore, forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly men, which cared not but for their carcase, let us reverently hear and read holy Scriptures, which is the food of the soul [Matt. 4:[4]]. Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men’s traditions, devised by man’s imagination, for our justification and salvation. For in holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God’s hands at length.”  John Wesley wrote, who lived and died an Anglican priest, “Try all things by the written word, and let all bow down before it. You are in danger of [fanaticism] every hour, if you depart ever so little from Scripture; yea, or from the plain, literal meaning of a text, taken in connection with the context." (Works, 11:429).  The acrostic here stands in contrast to the Calvinist TULIP.  The Anglican view begins with …

Reason: What can be known about God, his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and deity, is clearly perceived in the things that he has made; so, we are without excuse (1:18-20).  He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (2:6-8)  For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (2:14-16)  I agree that the law is good (7:16), holy, righteous, and good (v. 12).  I serve the law with my mind (v. 25); it is the law of my mind (it makes sense, v. 23).  It is spiritual (v. 14) and I delight in it (v. 22).

Original Sin: But I am carnal, sold under sin (7:14).  I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members (v. 23).  I know nothing good dwells in my flesh (v. 18).  Wretched man that I am!  Who will save me from this body of death? (v. 24 (referring to physical flesh, the body with which we are burdened in this life, which has a tendency to sin, has sinned, and is, therefore, under a sentence of death))

Salvation Revealed in the Suffering of Christ, God’s Saving Act in Him: God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (8:3-4 ESV)

Eternal Life: If by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body we will live (8:13).  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:12-17 ESV)            For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin … But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (Romans 6:5-6 and 22 ESV)  The sufferings of this present life (understanding that the painful way of the cross liberates us from sin and self, preparing us for eternal life) are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us (8:18).

 

This system is not legalism but describes a Spirit-filled walk in the way of the cross, supported by recognized authorities in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church:

In CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THE GOOD AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS, Augustine wrote: But to the most excellent creatures, that is, to rational spirits, God has offered this, that if they will not they cannot be corrupted; that is, if they should maintain obedience under the Lord their God, so should they adhere to his incorruptible beauty; but if they do not will to maintain obedience, since willingly they are corrupted in sins, unwillingly they shall be corrupted in punishment, since God is such a good that it [goes] well for no one who deserts Him, and among the things made by God the rational nature is so great a good, that there is no good by which it may be blessed except God … For sins, which do not preserve but vitiate nature, are not from [God]; which sins, Holy Scripture in many ways testifies, are from the will of those sinning, especially in the passage where the apostle says, “… [God] will render unto every one according to his works.”

From the SCRIPTURE WAY OF SALVATION by John Wesley: From the time of our being born again, the gradual work of sanctification takes place. We are enabled "by the Spirit" to "mortify the deeds of the body," of our evil nature; and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God. We go on from grace to grace, while we are careful to "abstain from all appearance of evil," and are "zealous of good works," as we have opportunity, doing good to all men; while we walk in all His ordinances blameless, therein worshipping Him in spirit and in truth; while we take up our cross, and deny ourselves every pleasure that does not lead us to God.

From Wesley’s SELF-DENIAL: How vainly we attempt to follow Him that was crucified, unless we take up our cross daily … I know of no writer in the English tongue who has described the nature of self-denial in plain and intelligible terms, such as lie level with common understandings, and applied it to those little particulars which daily occur in common life. A discourse of this kind is wanted still; and it is wanted the more, because in every stage of the spiritual life, although there is a variety of particular hindrances of our attaining grace or growing therein, yet are all resolvable into these general ones, -- either we do not deny ourselves, or we do not take up our cross … Our nature is altogether corrupt, in every power and faculty. And our will, depraved equally with the rest, is wholly bent to indulge our natural corruption. On the other hand, it is the will of God that we resist and counteract that corruption, not at some times, or in some things only, but at all times and in all things. Here, therefore, is a farther ground for constant and universal self-denial … In order to the healing of that corruption, that evil disease, which every man brings with him into the world, it is often needful to pluck out, as it were, a right eye, to cut off a right hand; -- so painful is either the thing itself which must be done, or the only means of doing it; the parting, suppose, with a foolish desire, with an inordinate affection; or a separation from the object of it, without which it can never be extinguished. In the former kind, the tearing away such a desire or affection, when it is deeply rooted in the soul, is often like the piercing of a sword, yea, like "the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow." The Lord then sits upon the soul as a refiner's fire, to burn all the dross thereof. And this is a cross indeed; it is essentially painful; it must be so, in the very nature of the thing. The soul cannot be thus torn asunder, it cannot pass through the fire, without pain … it is always owing to the want either of self-denial, or taking up his cross, that any man does not thoroughly follow Him, is not fully a disciple of Christ … he made shipwreck of the faith, for want of self-denial, and taking up his cross daily … his faith is not made perfect, neither can he grow in grace; namely, because he will not deny himself, and take up his daily cross.

From the Anglican Rite: And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.