281. "Because You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." This symbolizes deliverance from hell and salvation by conjunction with the Lord.

We need not have recourse to the spiritual sense to explain the specific symbolic meanings of the particulars here, such as what it means to be slain, to redeem us to God, and the meaning of His blood, for they are arcana which are not apparent in the literal sense. It is enough to say that it is redemption that is thus described. And because redemption is deliverance from hell and salvation by conjunction with the Lord, these are what are symbolically meant.

Here we will simply confirm from the Word that Jehovah Himself came into the world, was born a human being, and became the Redeemer and Savior for all who by a life of charity and its faith are conjoined with His Divine humanity, and that Jehovah is the Lord from eternity, so that the Lord's Divine humanity, with which one must be conjoined, is the Divine humanity of Jehovah Himself.

[2] We will accordingly cite here passages which confirm that Jehovah and the Lord are one, and that because they are one and not two, the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, is, by assuming a human form, the Redeemer and Savior. This is apparent from the following:

You, O Jehovah, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is Your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, and He who formed you...: "I am Jehovah, who makes all things and... alone... by Myself. (Isaiah 44:24)

Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am Jehovah your God...." (Isaiah 48:17)

...Jehovah, my rock, and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)

Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of Hosts is His name. (Jeremiah 50:34)

...Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He shall be called the God of the whole earth. (Isaiah 54:5)

...that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Isaiah 49:26; 60:16)

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name... (Isaiah 47:4)

."..with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you." Thus said Jehovah your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:8)

...said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 43:14)

...said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One... (Isaiah 49:7)

You have redeemed me, O Jehovah, God of truth. (Psalms 31:5)

Let Israel hope in Jehovah, for... with Him is abundant redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (Psalms 130:7-8)

Arise (O Lord) for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies' sake. (Psalms 44:26)

(Jehovah God said,) I will redeem them from the power of hell; I will redeem them from death. (Hosea 13:4, 14)

(O Jehovah,) hear my voice... He will redeem my soul... (Psalms 55:17-18)

See also Psalms 49:15; 69:18; 71:23; 103:1, 4; 107:2, Jeremiah 15:20-21.

[3] People in the church do not deny that the Lord is the Redeemer in His humanity, because it accords with Scripture, including this statement:

Who... comes from Edom..., traveling in the greatness of His strength? ...the year of My redeemed has come... ...He redeemed them... (Isaiah 63:1, 4, 9)

Say to the daughter of Zion, "Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and... they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of Jehovah." (Isaiah 62:11-12)

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people... (Luke 1:68)

And so, too, elsewhere.

For still more passages confirming that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, came into the world and assumed human form in order to redeem mankind, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 37-46.

Jehovah is also called a Savior in many places, too many to cite them here.

37. The Lord Is God Himself, the Origin of and Subject of the Word

In the first section we began to demonstrate that the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject, and that the Lord embodies the Word. Here we will demonstrate it further from passages in the Word in which the Lord is called Jehovah, the God of Israel and of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, the Lord and God, as well as King, the Anointed of Jehovah, and David.

I may relate to begin with that I have been granted to go through the Prophets and the Psalms of David and to examine each verse and see what the subject is there, and I saw that the subjects were nothing else than the church established by the Lord and the church to be established, the Lord’s advent, His battles, His glorification, redemption and salvation, and the heaven established by Him and to be established, and at the same time their opposites.

Because these are all works of the Lord, it was apparent that the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject, and that the Lord therefore embodies the Word.

[2] However, this can only be seen by people who are enlightened by the Lord and who are acquainted as well with the spiritual sense of the Word. Angels in heaven all possess this sense. Consequently, when a person reads the Word, that is the only meaning the angels comprehend. For a person has spirits and angels with him continually, and because they are spiritual, they understand spiritually everything that the person understands naturally.

That the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject can be seen dimly, and as though through a screen, from the passages presented from the Word in the first section above, nos. 1-6, and from those we will present now regarding the Lord, showing how often He is called the Lord and God. This may make clear that it is the Lord who spoke through the prophets, in whose books we find everywhere the declarations, “Jehovah spoke, ” “Jehovah said, ” and “the saying of Jehovah.”

[3] That the Lord existed prior to His advent into the world is apparent from the following:

(John the Baptist said of the Lord:) “It is He who, coming after me, is before me, whose shoelace I am not worthy to loosen.... This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who was before me, and who was of prior standing to me.’ ” (John 1:27, 30)

In the book of Revelation:

...they...fell (before the throne on which the Lord sat), saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who are and who were and who are to come....” (Revelation 11:16-17)

And in Micah:

You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall come forth to Me One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity. (Micah 5:2)

It is apparent in addition from the Lord’s words in the Gospels that He was before Abraham, that He had glory with the Father before the foundation of the world, that He came forth from the Father, and that the Word was from the beginning with God, that God was the Word, and that this became flesh.

That the Lord is called Jehovah, the God of Israel and of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, God and the Lord, as well as King, the Anointed of Jehovah, and David, can be seen from what follows next.