In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

10026. 'And you shall take some of the blood of the young bull' means Divine Truth accommodated to the natural or external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the young bull' as the natural level in a person, which must be purified and must have truth and good implanted in it, dealt with in 9990. The reason why the blood is here spoken of first ¹ and why some of it must be put on the horns of the altar and the remainder poured out at the base of it is that in the Word 'blood' means Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and by means of that Truth all purification is accomplished. For truth teaches a person what good is and how he ought to live; and when the person knows this an affection for or love of good can start to be implanted, and he can thereby be regenerated. For knowledge must be received before a person can possess faith and lead the life of faith, which is the life of good. For the truth that all purification from evils and falsities, and consequently all regeneration, is accomplished by means of the truths of faith, see the places referred to in 9959.

[2] Those who are ignorant of the inner meaning of the Word, thus those who do not know that 'blood' means Divine Truth nor that purification is accomplished by the Lord by means of it, suppose that a person is made pure by the Lord's blood, by which they understand His suffering on the Cross. But let them know that no one is made pure by the Lord's suffering on the Cross, and so by His blood, only by a life in accord with His commandments, as He Himself teaches in many places. The suffering on the Cross was the final stage of temptation which the Lord underwent and through which He fully glorified His Human, as indeed He Himself says in Luke,

Ought not the Christ to have suffered this and to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26.

For the Lord came into the world to subdue the hells and to restore all things to order, even those in the heavens, which was accomplished through the temptations He allowed Himself to undergo. The suffering on the Cross was the final stage of temptation undergone by Him, through which He gained total victory over the hells, brought order to the heavens, and at the same time glorified His Human. And unless He had done all this, no one could have been saved. But see what has already been shown abundantly on these matters in the places referred to in 9528, 9715, 9937, 10019, and that by 'blood', and also 'the Lord's blood', Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good is meant, 4735, 6378, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393.

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