Amipotence in the Wesleyan Tradition
By Steve Harper
Although John and Charles Wesley never used the word amipotence, their theology conveys the idea.
When I first read the word amipotence, I said to myself, “John and Charles Wesley would have liked it and used it.” That thought came as no surprise, given that Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian steeped in the Wesleyan tradition. His many books confirm this explicitly and implicitly. Fact is, the Wesleys would resonate with the substance and spirit of open-and-relational-theology. The early Methodist movement is a further testimony to it. In this essay I will share three overarching reasons this is so, reasons I find in the Wesleys themselves.
First and foremost, amipotence is rooted in the nature of God, who is love. We see it in each person of the Trinity: love creating (Father), love redeeming (Son), and love sustaining (Holy Spirit). Within each person, there are additional attributes which amplify the message and make the essence of Wesleyan theology a theology of love.[1] John Wesley called God’s love “His darling, His reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all His other perfections.”[2]
This shining is brightened by the fact that God’s nature is also God’s action. Love is a verb. Who God is, is what God does. Again, John Wesley affirmed this essential link when he preached, “what God hath promised, he is able to perform.”[3] I will say more about this in the next two reasons, but here is the place to show that amipotence is a one-word summary of the Wesleyan theology of love. God’s nature of love is God’s actions as love. In fact, God cannot act contrary to God’s nature. Amipotence is the congruence between being and doing.
This is God’s generous love—that is, love residing in every aspect of God’s nature, influencing every fiber of our being. John Wesley called this God’s “necessary, intimate, and most efficacious presence.”[4] Charles penned the same sentiment in his hymn, ‘Maker in Whom We Live’ (1747),
Eternal, Triune God,
Let all the hosts above,
Let all on earth below
Record and dwell upon thy love.
When heaven and earth are fled
Before thy glorious face,
Sing all the saints thy love hath made
Thine everlasting praise.
The second reason for seeing amipotence in Wesleyan theology is God’s purpose, summed up in the word transformation and expressed in the word grace. Grace is love in action, another theological dimension included in amipotence, which makes clear what Paul wrote, “By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:8 NRSVue). Grace is the way of salvation, the formative paradigm in Wesleyan theology. John Wesley affirmed this when he wrote, “Grace, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift.”[5] Here is another indication that salvation is rooted in love.
In Wesleyan theology, grace comes in waves—as John put it in his description of the Word, “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16 NRSVue). That pattern unfolds as prevenient grace, converting grace (that combines justification and regeneration), sanctifying grace, and glorifying grace. The activity of grace creates what I call the formative flow: awakening, attachment, and advancement. Each of these waves of grace is a manifestation of love.[6]
Prevenient grace is love enticing us, wooing us and attracting our attention before we profess faith in Christ. Converting grace is love winning us, overcoming sin and beginning the journey of abundant living. Sanctifying grace is love maturing is, growing us “deep and wide” in every respect, and bearing the fruit of the Spirit in us for the good of others (Galatians 5:22-23). And then, glorifying grace—love bringing us Home to experience the fullness of everlasting life. The Bible calls this the love that extends to us “from everlasting to everlasting.”
This is God’s active love. It commenced before the creation, and it will continue in the new creation. Our response to it matures our faith and life inwardly and outwardly—in what the Wesleys called personal and social holiness. This transformation is emancipating, setting us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2, Galatians 5:1(. Charles Wesley expressed this in his hymn, “And Can It Be!” (1739),
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
The third reason for seeing amipotence in Wesleyan theology is the trajectory set by God’s love: salvation. Indeed, Wesleyan theology is often referred to as a way of salvation,[7] akin to the older notion of an ordo salutis. This harks back to the waves of grace and formative flow that I described in the preceding point, but highlights the soteriological aim in Wesleyan theology. Simply put, this means love wins.[8]
In classical theology God’s saving love is described in various ways: the triumph of righteousness, Christus Victor, the harrowing of hell, and universal salvation, to name a few. It is rooted in the vision Paul described, “all will be made alive in Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22). And as amipotence rightly notes, what God wills in love will be accomplished by love, which is what Peter meant when he wrote that God is “not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That this will happen, and indeed is already underway, is seen in Jesus’ own statement that he would draw all to himself (John 8:12), and in his most explicit statement from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Paul continued the same message in Ephesians 1:9-11, using the phrase “accomplishes all things” to declare that in Christ we are all saved. What God wants to happen does, in fact, happen.[9]
This is God’s victorious love. It is a victory envisioned and set in motion from before the foundation of the world and accomplished by Christ on the cross, bringing about the reconciliation of all things to God (Colossians 1:20). All means all. Charles Wesley envisioned this in relation to love in his hymn, “Love Divine, All Lives Excelling” (1747),
Finish then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
“Lost in love.” I know of no better way to end this essay than with these three words. This is the eschatological fulfillment of amipotent love—love rooted in God’s nature, revealed in God’s action, and realized in God’s purpose through Christ “to seek out and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Is it any surprise that in the new heaven and new earth, everyone gathers around the throne to exclaim night and day, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10).
Amipotence: a word the Wesleys never knew, but one they would heartily embrace and use if they were here today. Why? Because when you boil it down, it is exactly the kind of love we would expect God to have.
Energized by amipotence, we continue the Wesleyan mission, “to spread scriptural holiness across the land,” multiplying love as we go.[10] We pray for and seek after the formative movement of the Gospel, to go “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18) in a never-ending song of ascents.[11] This is amipotence in the Wesleyan tradition.
Bio: Steve Harper (PhD in Wesley Studies, Duke University, 1981) is a retired Elder in the United Methodist Church. He served for thirty-two years as a Professor of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies, teaching in colleges, universities, and seminaries in the USA and elsewhere. He has been married to Jeannie since 1970. They have two children and three grandchildren. Steve has authored and co-authored 52 books and numerous articles, including one novel.
OORD’S DRABBLE* RESPONSE
I agree with Steve Harper that John and Charles Wesley would have appreciated the idea of amipotence. I have often referenced the Wesleys to support my arguments about love’s priority in God. The distinctly Wesleyan view—that God’s love precedes and empowers creatures—aligns with what I mean by amipotence. Although neither John nor Charles Wesley used “amipotence,” of course, Steve is right that amipotence captures the heart of the Wesleyan tradition. This perspective emphasizes God’s nurturing love, shaping a theology centered on grace, empowerment, and relationality rather than coercion or sheer authoritative power. I’m grateful to Steve for his essay!
For more on Oord’s explanation of John Wesley’s view of prevenient grace, see this article.
* A drabble is an essay exactly 100 words in length.
[1]. Many of us, Thomas Jay Oord includes himself in the number, give thanks for Mildred Bangs Wynkoop and her book, A Theology of Love (Beacon Hill Press, 1972) for teaching us that the pervasive essence of Wesleyan theology is love.
[2]. John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament (1755). Still available in a variety of formats. Wesley’s note regarding 1 John 4:8.
[3]. John Wesley, Sermon 43, The Scripture Way of Salvation’ (1755). This was one of John Wesley’s most preached and referenced sermons, considered today to be among his primary ones; still available in a variety of formats.
[4]. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, comment on Acts 17:28, “In God we live, move, and exist” (NRSVue).
[5]. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, comment on Ephesians 2:8).
[6]. I have written about this in more detail in my book, The Way to Heaven: The Gospel According to John Wesley (Zondervan, 2003). This is a revised edition of an earlier book, John Wesley’s Message for Today (1983).
[7]. Randy Maddox, Responsible Grace (Kingswood Books, 1994), 157-158.
[8]. Rob Bell, Love Wins (HarperCollins, 2011).
[9]. I have written in more detail about this in my book, It is Finished! God’s Universal Salvation (SacraSage, 2024).
[10]. Paul W. Chilcote, Multiplying Love (Abingdon Press, 2023).
[11]. Paul W. Chilcote and Steve Harper, Upward! (Abingdon Press, 2024).