Who then can be saved?
With mortals it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 48
26Jesus looked at them and said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is begotten out from water and Spirit, that one cannot enter the kingdom of God. 16For God so loved the world that he gave the unique son, in order that everyone who trusts in him should not perish but have eternal life. 36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him."
24Truly, truly, I say to you that the one who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
51Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will certainly not see death forever."
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live. 26And everyone who lives and trusts in me will never die into the age. Do you believe this?"
8But God commends his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
21I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
1And you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now active in the sons of disobedience, 3among whom we also all once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the wills of the flesh and of the minds, and we were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest, 4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5and when we were dead in the trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you are saved 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not from works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time,
5not by works that we did in righteousness, but according to his own mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Salvation is God's work from beginning to end. After Jesus told the rich young man to sell what he had, the disciples asked who then could be saved, and Jesus answered them: "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). That answer is the catechism's answer too, and with it the Wesleyan way of salvation begins. The questions that follow describe how God does the impossible, through the stages of grace laid out in ΒΆ102 of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline.
With men it is impossible. Paul describes the Ephesians as people who "were dead in your trespasses and sins" and "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:1, 3). Article VII of the Confession of Faith teaches the same in the church's words: apart from the grace of Christ, humanity is destitute of holiness and inclined to evil. If people could save themselves by keeping the law, the cross would have been unnecessary, and Paul says so: "if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing" (Galatians 2:21).
With God all things are possible. God "commends his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Salvation is entirely his gift. God is the one (2 Timothy 1:9), and he saved us (Titus 3:5). This salvation is eternal life for "everyone who trusts in him" (John 3:16), a passing "from death to life" (John 5:24), and the promise Jesus made to Martha, "The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live" (John 11:25).
A Methodist's confidence rests in God. It does not rest in the strength of one's own resolve or the tidiness of one's record; it rests in a God for whom all things are possible. Salvation begins with him, and the good works that follow are works "which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).