In the last newsletter the focus was on the conversion of the eye of the soul which is the understanding. The eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye is bad, the body is full of darkness. In conversion the eye is converted and is now light. The body, therefore, is full of light. For those accustomed to people just praying a prayer, this sounds very radical. But Jesus taught us this: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Mat 7:15-20). The context of this passage is about salvation, how hard it is to be saved, and then how to distinguish false prophets from the bad.
Using the analogy that Scripture uses, what must happen for a bad tree to become a good tree? There must be a radical change. It is not a change in the power of humans but is something only God can do. True salvation is a true conversion by the Creator of all things. It is the Creator alone who can take a sinner and make him a new creation in Christ Jesus. Part of the work of God in making a new creation is to give and equip this new creature with new affections. A new creature must have new affections. By this it is meant that the new creature will have affections for different things than it previously did. Now the new creature loves spiritual things which it once hated. While love is not limited to the affections only, yet it certainly has affections. The creature that once hated God now loves God. The creature that once hated the lordship of Christ now loves Christ and His rule over it.
Jonathan Edwards wrote the classic work on the affections (Religious Affections). In that work he distinguished between affections and passions. This is very important since modern people refer to all feelings as “emotions.” The soul has many feelings, yet in our day we note that we have feelings and go on. If we hear a sermon and have good feelings, then we assume that our feelings are a good sign. But Edwards did not think so. The feelings of the soul can be divided into at least two parts. The passions of the soul are those feelings that drive the human soul. A person that has a passion is one that has a high degree of feeling and those control the person rather than truth or reason. A person in a fit of anger is being driven by the passion that is involved in the anger rather than being controlled by truth or reason. A person can hear a sermon and be driven by feelings rather than the truth of the Word of God. That is not a positive thing though it can appear to be so from the outside.
The affections are those feelings of the soul that arise and follow the truth. In one sense the unbeliever has affections when the feelings follow the mind or reason. It is here that the distinction is seen. The passions (root word passive) are those feelings that overcome the mind and the soul is driven along and controlled by the feelings. The affections are those feelings that rise toward truth and follow after the reasoning part of the soul. In terms of Christianity, a true affection is a feeling of the soul that rises because of the truth of God and then follows the truth as it follows the mind that is enlightened with the truth. The mind and understanding that has been changed to see the truth will also have affections that love the truth and desire it. One problem, however, is that an unbelieving mind can love to study the Bible and religious things for selfish reasons. True and spiritual affections, however, rise because of spiritual things and love spiritual things because they shine forth the glory of God.
Jonathan Edwards spoke a lot about the importance of true affections. He points out how the Bible treats the affections a vital for true religion. He used the text of I Peter 1:8 to illustrate this point: “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” In this text we see a mark of true faith. True faith spiritually beholds Christ and in beholding the glory of God that shines in Christ it loves Him. When one believes and loves Christ, that person can rejoice with joy that is so deep that it is inexpressible. It is a joy that is full of the glory of God as well. But note the pattern of true and spiritual affections in this text. The understanding of the soul first beholds Christ. We know that the glory of God shines in Christ so the soul is really beholding the glory of God in Christ as in the Gospel (II Cor 4:6). The soul that beholds the glory of God in Christ now has the affections of love and joy rising toward the object of the sight of the believing soul. The soul is now filled with a joy that is so great it cannot describe what is going on within it. It is a soul that is filled with a sight and the joy of the glory of God.
The unconverted soul, however, is one that is filled with hatred for the glory of God if there is no self-centered or selfish benefit to it. The unconverted soul has no sight that allows the light of the glory of God in and there are no affections of love and desire for that glory. It is a soul that is totally depraved and is dead in its sins and trespasses. By “totally depraved” it is meant that the soul is depraved in all (total) of its parts. The mind is depraved, the affections are depraved, and the choices are depraved. If a person truly believes in total depravity, then it must be driven to the conclusion that all the parts or aspects of the soul must be converted or changed. Last time we looked at how the eye of the soul or the understanding must be converted. Now we are looking at how the affections or feelings of the soul must be converted. If the affections are not converted, then the understanding that is converted would allow light in that would fill the soul with hatred for God. But the converted soul loves God and so the affections and desires are changed in order that the soul could have the love and joy of God in it.
In past newsletters on conversion (two and three weeks ago) the assertion was made that God must convert the soul so that it would be able to be filled with His glory in order to manifest His glory. The topic of the affections has not departed from that at all. When we see I Peter 1:8 as given above, we can see that the believing soul is filled with a joy that is inexpressible. But not only that, and perhaps because of that, the believing soul is filled with a joy that is full of glory. The unbelieving or unconverted soul is not full of the glory and joy of God like this. It is the converted and believing soul that is full of the glory of God because the believing soul is full of God Himself. It is not just any joy that the believer has, but it is the very joy of Christ Himself. The affections must be converted in order that the very joy of God would reside in and be expressed in the soul. This is seen in John 15:11 quite clearly: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” It is not that Christ speaks these things so that the people would have joy or even what He had joy in, but so that His joy would be in them. When His joy is in them, then and only then will their joy is made full.
We can also see that verse 13 of John 17 teaches the same thing: “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” It is the very joy of Christ Himself that is in those He prays for that makes their joy full. It is His joy that is made full in people that gives people true spiritual joy. We must remember that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that accompanies love (Galatians 5:22-24). We can also see the same teaching in John 17:25-26: “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” The Son makes the name of the Father known so that the love with which the Father loved the Son would be in believers and Christ Himself would be in believers. The affections must be converted in order that they would be able to manifest the affections of Christ. The desires must be turned from loving the things of the world to loving the things of God because the life of Christ in His people will love the things of God and not the things of the world.
1 Corinthians 2:16 says that believers have the mind of Christ: “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” Philippians 1:8 teaches that we are to have the affection of Christ as well: “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Surely Christ-likeness is more than just behaving in certain ways. To be like Christ we are to be like Him in our joy, zeal, hate, love, desires, sorrows, and other affections. He whose zeal consumed Him for the house of God would work a zeal for His glory and honor in our hearts as well. The Scriptures are full of the affections of Christ as we see His biography in the Gospels. The Scriptures are also full of the affections of the apostles as well as their teaching on the affections. In the words of Jonathan Edwards, true religion consists much in the affections. I might add that false religion and the ways of the world also consists much in the affections as well. Those with affections for the world will not be satisfied with a faith that has no affections at all. If the professing Church wants to preach a true Gospel, then it must teach doctrine that has true affections or it will not go far in being like Christ. If the professing Church wants to preach a true Gospel and a true Christ, then it must preach truth with affection or it will also not go far in being like Christ. The eternal God who lives in perfect and infinite love and joy within the Trinity shares His joy in Himself with His people through Christ and by the Spirit. True conversion reaches the depths of the affections and those affections are transformed to be like Christ because they are from the life of Christ in the soul. A sinner that has worldly affections for sin in and sinful things cannot be said to be a new creature and have the life of Christ in the soul. A believer is one that has been truly converted and his or her affections have been converted to have the affections of Christ. With anything less the totally depraved soul has not been converted.
God Loves... Himself 
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