806. Whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, signifies by all who have not become spiritual through regeneration by the Lord. This is evident from the signification of "names," as being their quality; for in the Word "name" signifies the quality of a thing or a state, and for the reason that in the spiritual world persons do not have names as in the natural world, but everyone there is named according to his quality (See above, n. 676). Also from the signification of "written in the book of life of the Lamb," as being to be in love and faith in the Lord (See above, n. 199, 222, 299), thus also to become spiritual through regeneration by Him; for they who are in love and faith in the Lord from the Lord become spiritual, since their love and faith are spiritual; and they also are called regenerated, and are meant by those "whose names have been written in the book of life of the Lamb." From this it is clear that "names written in the book of life of the Lamb" means not that their names are there, but that their quality is such, namely, that they have become spiritual through regeneration by the Lord.

[2] It has been shown in the preceding article what ¹ the faith is that has been accepted by the general body in the church, namely, a belief that God the Father sent the Son, that through Him there might be propitiation, mercy, redemption, and salvation; likewise that the Son of God bore our iniquities, that He intercedes for us, and that His merit is attributed to those who pray for it from trust and confidence; and it has been shown in a former article that these are all vain expressions, in which as interpreted by the learned there is nothing of truth and thus nothing of salvation. That these are vain expressions in which there is nothing of truth is evident from the teachings of the Word respecting the reason of the Lord's coming and why He suffered, namely, that the Lord came into the world to save the human race, who otherwise would have perished in eternal death, and that He saved them by subjugating the hells, which infested every man coming into the world and going out of the world, and at the same time by glorifying His Human, since thus He is able to keep the hells subjugated to eternity. The subjugation of the hells, together with the glorification of His Human, was accomplished by means of temptations admitted into the human that He had from the mother, and by continual victories therein. His passion in Gethsemane and on the cross was the last temptation and complete victory.

[3] That the Lord came into the world for these two reasons, and that He thus saved the human race from eternal death, can be seen from this, that before the Lord's coming the hells were not in order, and consequently there was no equilibrium between hell and heaven, but hell on its part prevailed over heaven. And yet man has been placed in the midst between heaven and hell; in consequence of this whatever before the Lord's coming flowed into man out of heaven was taken away by hell, because of its superior power. Therefore to restore the destroyed equilibrium it pleased the Lord to come into the world, and to accomplish at that time a Last Judgment, and subjugate the hells; and by doing this the Lord acquired for Himself the power to save the men who have faith in and love to Him from Him. These things could be carried into effect only by the Lord's assuming a Human, for the reason that God works such effects from first principles by means of ultimates, since to work from first principles by means of ultimates is to work in fullness. The very might of the Divine power rests in things ultimate; so the Lord's might rests in His Human because that is in the ultimate. This was one reason of His coming into the world. The other reason was that He might glorify His Human, that is, make it Divine, since by this and by no other means is He able to keep the hells subjugated to eternity, for He thus acts to eternity from first principles by means of things ultimate, and in fullness. In this way His Divine operation reaches down even to those who are lowest in the world, while otherwise it would reach only to those who are first in heaven, and mediately through these and those that follow to the lowest, who are men; consequently if these should give way, as happened just before the Lord's coming, the Divine operation among men would cease, and consequently they would have no means of salvation. The Divine operation of the Lord through the Human assumed in the world is called His immediate influx even to those who are lowest.

[4] These are the two means whereby man has salvation, which is called redemption. This is called the redemption by His blood because the subjugation of the hells, together with the glorification of the Lord's Human, could be effected only by means of temptations admitted into Himself from the hells, the last of which temptations was the passion of the cross. From this it can now be seen that the Lord did not come into the world to propitiate the Father and to move Him to mercy, nor to bear our iniquities and thus take them away, nor that we might be saved by the imputation of His merit, or by intercession, or by immediate mercy, consequently not by a faith in these things, still less by the confidence of that faith, since that confidence confirms such things as are not true, thus such things as do not belong to faith. He who knows why the Lord came into the world, and knows that all who believe and do the things that He taught are saved by Him, and at the same time by the Father in Him, and not by the Father separated from Him, can see that many of the things that the leaders teach respecting redemption must be understood otherwise than according to their explanation of them.

[5] That the Lord subjugated the hells He taught when the passion of the cross was at hand, in John:

Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out (John 12:27, 28, 31).

In the same:

Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

In Luke:

Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven (Luke 10:18).

In Isaiah:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, walking in the multitude of his power? great to save; Mine arm brought salvation for Me; so He became their Savior (Isaiah 63:1, 5, 8; also Isaiah 59:16-21).

Because the Lord subjugated the hells He gave the seventy disciples:

Authority over demons (Luke 10:17, 19).

[6] That the Lord glorified His Human, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and complete victory by which He glorified it, He teaches in John:

When Judas was gone out Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him (John 13:31, 32).

In the same:

Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 17:1, 5).

In the same:

Now is my soul troubled; Father, glorify Thy name. And there came a voice out of heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again (John 12:27, 28).

And in Luke:

Ought not the Christ to suffer this and to enter into glory? (Luke 24:26).

This was said of His passion. "To glorify" is to make Divine. From this it can be seen that unless the Lord had come into the world and had become Man, and by this means had liberated from hell all those who believe in Him and love Him, no mortal could have been saved. Thus it is understood that without the Lord there is no salvation. This, now, is the mystery of the Lord's incarnation.

Poznámky pod čarou: