Part 7 (1/2)

And in Luke from these words:

The angel said to Mary, ”Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High.” . . . Then Mary said unto the angel, ”How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” The angel answered her, ”The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of G.o.d” (i. 30-35).

It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently called in the Word ”the Son of G.o.d,” and Jehovah is called His ”Father.”

Jehovah in respect to His Esse (being) is Divine love, and in respect to His Existere (outgo) He is Divine good united to Divine truth.

From this it can be seen what is meant by:

The Word that was with G.o.d and that was G.o.d, and also was the light that enlighteneth every man (John i. 1-10), namely, that it was Divine truth going forth from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect to His Existere (outgo). That the Lord in respect to His Existere was Divine truth, and that this was His Divine Human, because this came forth from His Divine Esse as a body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father (i. 14).

”The Word” is the Divine truth, which also is ”glory”; ”flesh” means the Divine Human; ”the only begotten of the Father” means the springing forth or going forth from the Divine Esse in Him. (A.E., n. 1069.)

But as the world does not know how the words in John (i. 1, 2, 14) that the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further explained. It is known in the church that G.o.d is good itself and truth itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has is from G.o.d, and likewise all truth. Now since the Lord is G.o.d He is also Divine good and Divine truth; and this is what is meant by ”the Word, that was with G.o.d, and was G.o.d,” and also was ”the light that enlighteneth every man,” and that also ”became flesh,” that is, Man in the world.

That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is the Word, He Himself teaches in many pa.s.sages where He calls Himself ”the Light,” also where He calls Himself ”the Way, the Truth, and the Life”; and where He says that ”the Spirit of truth” goes forth from Him.

”The Spirit of truth” is the Divine truth. When the Lord was transfigured He represented the Word, ”His face that shone as the sun”

represented its Divine good; and His garments, which were ”bright as the light” and ”white as snow,” represented its Divine truth. ”Moses and Elijah,” who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, ”Moses”

the historical Word and ”Elijah” the prophetic Word. Moreover, all things of the Lord's pa.s.sion represented the kind of violence that the Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth, which He is, is called ”G.o.d,” ”King,” and ”Angel,” and is meant by ”the rock in h.o.r.eb,” and ”the rock” where Peter is spoken of. All this makes clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth. The Word in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truths in outmosts.

(A.E., n. 1070.)

As it cannot but transcend the comprehension that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth; according to these words in John,

”And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (i. 14), it shall be explained, as far as possible, to the comprehension. It can be said of every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, since the thought which belongs to his understanding is from truths, and the affection which belongs to his will is from goods. Whether you say, therefore, that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same thing.

The body is mere obedience; for it speaks that which man thinks from the understanding, and does that which he wills from affection. Thus these things and the body mutually correspond and make one, like an effect and its effecting cause; and these taken together const.i.tute the human.

As it can be said of the regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, so it can be said of the Lord as Man, that He is truth itself or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine good. All this makes evident the truth that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was Divine truth, that is the Word; and that everything that He then said was Divine truth, which is the Word; and that since the time when he went to the Father, that is, became one with the Father, the Divine truth going forth from Him is the Spirit of truth, which goes out and goes forth from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him. (A.E., n. 1071.)

III. The Lord's Words Spirit and Life

That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the Lord leads. For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the Word, and forms his opinion of it from its style; but the man whom the Lord leads forms his opinion of the external of the Word from the holiness that is in it.

The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself forms his opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circ.u.mference, where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are.

The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the circ.u.mference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp, and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on the earth. As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended to men in the world it pa.s.sed through the heavens in their order according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels there. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man's understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three heavens, stored up in distinct order.

From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and treasures of Divine verities. These lie stored up in each particular and in all the particulars of our Word. And as Divine truth is the Lord in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)

As the Divine truth, in pa.s.sing from the Lord Himself through the three heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and becomes the Word in each heaven, so the Word is a bond of union of the heavens with each other, and a bond of union of the heavens with the church in the world.

For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are; consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens into the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the holiness of the Word whenever he reads the Word; and so far as such a man loves wisdom he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished, and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

”The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life” (John vi. 63).

”The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life” (John iv. 14). ”Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of G.o.d”

(Matt. iv. 4). ”Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you” (John vi. 27).