According to some Christian traditions, a second work of grace is a transforming interaction with God which may occur in the life of an individual Christian. The defining characteristics of this event are that it is separate from and subsequent to salvation, and that it brings about significant changes in the life of the believer.
, the founder of the Methodist movement, taught that there were two distinct phases in the Christian experience. In the first work of grace, the new birth, the believer received forgiveness and became a Christian. During the second work of grace, sanctification, the believer was purified and made holy. Wesley taught both that sanctification could be an instantaneous experience, and that it could be a gradual process. After Wesley's death, mainstream Methodism "emphasized sanctification or holiness as the goal of the Christian life", something that "may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God." The Holiness movement emerged in the 1860s in the USA with the desire to re-emphasize Wesley's sanctification doctrine. Holiness preachers taught that sanctification was an instantaneous experience. In the Holiness movement, the second work of grace is considered to be a cleansing from the tendency to commit sin, an experience called entire sanctification which leads to Christian perfection. The Core Values of the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches thus teaches that: Reflecting this, they have emphasized Wesley's doctrine of outward holiness, which includes practices such as the wearing of modest clothing and not using profanity in speech.
was born out of the Holiness movement. William J. Seymour and Charles Fox Parham were both Holiness ministers and were seen by their followers as being used by God to restore Pentecost to the Church. Pentecostalism teaches that the believer could, in addition to becoming sanctified, receive power from God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In early Pentecostal thought, and the classic form of Pentecostalism influenced by Wesleyan-Arminian theology, this was considered the third work of grace that followed the new birth and entire sanctification. Pentecostals who believe in the doctrine of Finished Work, however, reject the second work of grace to mean entire sanctification.
