Av Curtis Childs
Could there be reasons for the humble, vulnerable beginnings of Jesus’s life?
In this video from his Swedenborg and Life web series, host Curtis Childs and featured guests explore how the Divine design may have been at play from the very beginning of Christ's life.
(Referenser: Apocalypse Explained 706 [12]; Luke 2:8-12; The Word 7; True Christian Religion 89, 90, 96, 766)
89. 3. In the process of taking on a human manifestation, God followed his own divine design. In the section on divine omnipotence and omniscience we showed that in the act of creating, God introduced his design into the universe as a whole and into each and every thing in it. Therefore in the universe and in all its parts God's omnipotence follows and works according to the laws of his own design. The treatment of those laws runs from 49 to 74.
Now, because God came down, and because he is the design (as was also shown in that section), there was no other way for him to become an actual human being than to be conceived, to be carried in the womb, to be born, to be brought up, and to acquire more and more knowledge so as to become intelligent and wise. Therefore in his human manifestation he was an infant like any infant, a child like any child, and so on with just one difference: he completed the process more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than the rest of us do.
This statement in Luke shows that he followed the divine design in his progress: "The child Jesus grew and became strong in spirit, and he advanced in wisdom, age, and grace with God and with humankind" (Luke 2:40, 52). Other statements about the Lord in the same Gospel make it clear that he grew up more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than the rest of us; for example, when "he was a child of twelve, he sat and taught in the Temple in the midst of the scholars, and all who heard him were astounded at his insightful answers" (Luke 2:46-47). Likewise later on; see Luke 4:16-22, 32.
The Lord's life followed this path because the divine design is for people to prepare themselves to accept God; and as they prepare themselves, God enters them as if he were coming into his own dwelling and his own home. The preparation entails developing a concept of God and of the spiritual things related to the church - that is, developing intelligence and wisdom.
It is a law of the divine design that the closer and closer we come to God, which is something we have to do as if we were completely on our own, the closer and closer God comes to us. When we meet, God forms a partnership with us. The Lord followed this design even to the point of union with his Father, as we will show later on [97-99, 105-106].
1
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.
2
Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
3
They were saying among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"
4
for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
5
Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed.
6
He said to them, "Don't be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him!
7
But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.'"
8
They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.
9
Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
10
She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
11
When they heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they disbelieved.
12
After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country.
13
They went away and told it to the rest. They didn't believe them, either.
14
Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn't believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
15
He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
16
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
17
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages;
18
they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
19
So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
20
They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
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