This post is an excerpt from a dialogue with the New Wine, New Wineskins Advisory Council on relational spirituality.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for this enriching conversation. I am including current and future Advisory Council members in my response.
The conversation on the Trinity followed by this conversation on the theology of the affections is vitally important to New Wine, New Wineskins. As you know, New Wine’s theology of cultural engagement model is framed by the sacrificial love of the Triune God revealed in Christ and created in our lives by the Spirit.
I have articulated this in various ways over the years. I would encourage each of you on the AC now and those coming on board in the near future to read my essay, “Free at Last,” in New Wine Tastings. There I build on Martin Luther’s essay “Freedom of a Christian,” which was a foundational treatise for the Protestant Reformation. Further to that essay, Luther told Erasmus in his debate on “the bondage of the will” that Erasmus got to the heart of his writings: the matter of the heart (over against the enabled will), not the indulgences. Luther maintained in response to Erasmus that the will is enslaved to the desires (whether they be ungodly desires or godly desires). In my theology classes, I speak of hostility toward God vs. captivating affection from and for God over against disabled will vs. enabled will (the latter model is found in many Roman Catholic and Protestant circles–I reject the latter model as unbiblical and contrary to the Reformation teaching of Luther).
At New Wine, we speak of a Trinitarian theology of the affections. Affections change behaviors, according to Luther. Behaviors don’t change affections. Luther’s associate, Melanchthon, in his 1521 edition of the Loci Communes, develops this model at great length. Luther references Melanchthon in his debate with Erasmus, saying that Melanchthon’s work should be in the canon, and that Melanchthon’s arguments crush Erasmus’s model (most unfortunately, Melanchthon later modified his view, though Luther never did in my estimation).
According to Luther, whom I believe is true to the Apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans and Galatians, we are not made good by doing good things; we do good things because we are made good. For Luther, we are made good as God’s love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5–the later Augustine, Luther and Jonathan Edwards all developed their model of salvation and grace in relation to this text). All good moral actions flow not from spiritual habits and virtues that enable godly desires; rather, all godly actions flow from the Spirit of love poured out into our hearts. Sanctification, for Luther, is not a second work. In fact, he never developed a doctrine of sanctification, in my estimation. He feared that it would compromise the focus on the transformation of our hearts that occurs as the Spirit of God is poured out into our hearts thereby creating faith (Galatians 2:20; no doubt, Luther would also call to mind Paul’s challenge to the Galatians: “… Having begun with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”–Gal. 3:3).
While I find people performing godly actions growing in their love for the Lord, I believe that Scripture teaches that such godly activity flows from a prior love from the triune God of grace poured out in our hearts. As that love is poured out and we respond to that love which is instilled in our hearts by the Spirit, we then perform godly actions. This response to God’s love continues to express itself in godly actions. I am ultimately talking about a deep affection and not a passing feeling of infatuation. Sometimes I may not want to honor God given my struggle with the flesh; but I want to want God as the Spirit of God moves in my life. The affections from the Spirit wage war with the affections of the flesh (Romans 8, Galatians 5).
I have risked speaking more theologically here to get some fundamental issues out on the table. This is consistent with what I was driving at in the discussion of the triune God as love. In addition to the New Wine essay, I also wrote on this for the Westminster Theological Journal (“Mystical Union With Christ: An Alternative to Blood Transfusions and Legal Fictions”), challenging the Roman Catholic notion of infusion of righteousness and the Protestant Scholastic notion of imputation (which I believe is secondary to such participation and follows from mystical marital union with Christ through the affection of love poured out by the Spirit that creates faith in our hearts and the ensuing moral activities). You will find more concrete engagement of this material in my book, The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town. John’s Gospel is steeped in these categories. See John 8, John 14 and John 15 and my discussions of these texts in When Love Comes to Town. I flesh this discussion out culturally in New Wine Tastings.
I hope this moves the conversation forward even further. Thanks so much for your friendship and partnership.
Best wishes,
Paul