As I thought about this more and more I began to have a really strong desire to illustrate this somehow. I thought that if I could get it on paper and see it for myself, it would help me do a better job of guarding my heart with all diligence, and fleeing temptation. It might even be a help to others, so what follows is my initial attempt.
Before we even begin to discuss temptation I think we must conclude what a Christian looks like from the inside out, and what makes him different from a non-believer.
The Unbeliever
Here is our first chart, this is my proposal of what a non-believer looks like from the inside out:
Let me explain. First off you can see the gray heart of stone at the core of the unbeliever. God has not replaced this heart of stone with a heart of flesh. You see that surrounding the heart is nothing but sinful flesh. The green circle is the intellect and will. The intellect makes active decisions to choose what the will desires most. The will, will always desire the overflow of the heart, which in the case of the unbeliver is always to please their sinful flesh (Romans 3:10-18, Romans 8:8, Romans 14:23). The blue circle then represents actions and behavior. The unbeliever acts on the sinful choices made by the intellect through the will representing the sinful desires of the heart.
The Believer
Below is chart #2. This is my proposal of what a believer looks like from the inside out.
You can see right off the bat that the believer above looks different. There has been a change on the inside. The gray heart of stone has been replaced with a red heart of flesh (Eze. 36). You can also see an area of white surrounding the new heart. These are new affections found in the believer as a result of the new heart. The believer can now seek after God, do good and please God. Unfortunately the sinful nature is still there represented by the black circle. The good news is that the heart is no longer surround by or in bondage to it. However, because of the curse of sin the flesh will always be battling agaist the Godward affection in the believer.
Here is an example of what the battle looks like and the subsequent results:
This is what takes place when the beleiver falls prey to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The affection for God is [temporarily]overcome by the sinful flesh. This results in the intellect making the active decision to choose what the will wants and the will wants to satisy the flesh (the overflow of the heart). Therefore the subsequent behavior and actions sinfully carry out the intellects active decision to choose what the will desires most which was to satisfy the sinful flesh which was an overflow of the heart...whew, that's a keyboard full.
Now let's take a look at the bright side:
This is what it looks like when the Christian wins the battle against the flesh, when by the Spirit he is putting to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13). You see that heart is overflowing with affection for God which leads right into the will and intellect. The intellect then actively chooses what the will desires most which is to please and make much of God. The subsequent actions and behavior are then an overflow of the will to please God which is an overflow of the Godward affection of the heart.
So what say you? Is this really how it works, is it biblical or just philosophical. Does it make sense or is it wacky? I'm going to wait to post part 2 which actally deals with the response to the temptation until I see if what the meta thinks of part 1.
2 comments:
Greg,
Great job on the illustrations. I think they make a good representation of the description of these events as described in scripture.
I do have one suggestion, do you think it might be more consistant to incorporate the idea of "affections" in the illustration of the unbeliever, or did you not do that for a reason I fail to see? Maybe contrast fleshly affections against religious affections.
I certainly don't think you've engaged in "worldly philosophy", in fact, I am beginning to believe that "good philosophy" is just what comes from right thinking about God's Word while considering exegetical, systematic, and historical theology.
Jason, that's a good point and did think about it and decided to leave it as fleshly lust. My thought was that people just don't seem to understand what we mean by Godward affections, and I thought it might muddy the waters even more to paint affections in the negative light also.
However, Edwards described them in the both the positve and negative sense. I suppose if it's good enough for him it should also be good enough for me...:) I might change it in part 2...
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