2025. That 'I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land of your sojournings' means that the Lord acquired to Himself by His own powers all things meant by 'the land of sojournings' is clear from the meaning of 'sojourning' as receiving instruction, dealt with in 1463. And because man acquires life to himself chiefly through instruction in facts, matters of doctrine, and cognitions of faith, sojourning is consequently the life so acquired. When applied to the Lord it is the life which He obtained for Himself through cognitions, through the conflicts that constituted temptations, and through victories in temptations; and because He obtained it by His own powers, this is what 'the land of your sojournings' means here.

[2] That the Lord obtained all things for Himself by His own powers, and by His own powers united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence and Divine Essence to Human Essence, and that He alone in this way became righteousness, is quite clear in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

Who is this coming from Edom, marching in the vast numbers of His strength? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. I looked around and there was no one helping; and I was astonished that there was no one upholding; therefore My own arm brought Me salvation. Isaiah 63:1, 3, 5.

'Edom' stands for the Lord's Human Essence, 'strength' and 'arm' for power. Plain statements to the effect that He acted from His own power are contained in the phrases 'no one helping' and 'no one upholding', and in that about His own arm bringing Him salvation.

[3] In the same prophet,

He saw that there was no one, and wondered that there was nobody to intercede; and His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. And He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. Isaiah 59:16-17.

This similarly means that He acted by His own power, and in so doing became righteousness. That the Lord is righteousness is stated in Daniel,

Seventy weeks have been decreed to atone for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Daniel 9:24.

And in Jeremiah,

I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and He will reign as king and act with understanding, and He will execute judgement and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in confidence. And this is His name which they will call Him, Jehovah our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

For this reason He is also called 'the Habitation of Righteousness' in Jeremiah 31:23; 50:7, and 'wonderful' and 'Hero' in Isaiah 9:6.

[4] The reason why the Lord so many times attributes to the Father that which is His own has been explained above in 1999, 2004; for Jehovah was within Him, and so within every single part of Him. Something similar in man may be used for illustration, although there can be no comparison. Within man is his soul, and because it is within him, the soul is within every individual part of him, that is to say, within every individual part of his thinking and every individual part of his activity. Anything that does not have his soul within it is not part of him. The Lord's soul was Life itself or Being (Esse) itself, which is Jehovah, for He was conceived from Jehovah; thus Life itself was present within every individual part of Him. And because Life itself, or Being (Esse) itself, which is Jehovah, belonged to Him in the way that the soul does to man, so that which was Jehovah's was His, which is what the Lord says in His statements about His being in the bosom of the Father, John 1:18, and about all things that the Father has being His, John 16:15; 17:10-11.

[5] From good which is Jehovah's He united the Divine Essence to the Human Essence, and from truth united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, and so achieved every single thing all from Himself. Indeed His Human was left to Itself in order that of Himself He might fight against all the hells and overcome them; and because He had life within Himself, as stated, which was His own, He overcame them by His own power and strength, as is also clearly stated in the places quoted from the Prophets. So then, because He acquired all things to Himself by His own powers, He became Righteousness, cleared the world of spirits of hellish genii and spirits, and in so doing rescued the human race from destruction - for the human race is governed by means of spirits - and thus redeemed it. This is why the Old Testament Word speaks so often of Him as Rescuer and Redeemer, and also Saviour, as His name Jesus describes.

158. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

Merit and justice belong to the Lord alone (n. 9715, 9979). The merit and justice of the Lord consist in His having saved the human race by His own power (n. 1813, 2025-2026, 2027, 9715, 9809, 10019). The good of the Lord's justice and merit is the good which reigns in heaven, and is the good of His Divine love from which He saved the human race (n. 9486, 9979). No man can of himself become justice, nor claim it by any right (n. 1813). The quality of those in the other life who claim justice to themselves (n. 942, 2027). In the Word, the man to whom the justice and merit of the Lord are ascribed, is called "just;" and the man to whom his own justice and merit are ascribed, "unjust" (n. 5069, 9263). Whoever is once just from the Lord, will be continually just from Him; for justice never becomes man's own, but is continually the Lord's (n. 3686). They who believe in the justification taught in the church, know little of regeneration (n. 5398).

Man is so far wise as he ascribes all goods and truths to the Lord, and not to himself (n. 10227). As all good and truth which are good and truth are from the Lord, and nothing is from man, and as good from man is not good, it follows that merit belongs to no man, but to the Lord alone (n. 9975, 9981, 9988). They who enter heaven put off all merit of their own (n. 4007). And they do not think of reward for the good they have done (n. 6478, 9174). They who think from merit so far do not acknowledge all things to be of mercy (n. 6478, 9174). They who think from merit, think of reward and remuneration, and therefore to will to merit is to will to be remunerated (n. 5660, 6392, 9975). Such persons cannot receive heaven in themselves (n. 1835, 8478, 9977). Heavenly happiness consists in the affection of doing good, without an end of remuneration (n. 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984). In the other life so far as anyone does good without an end of remuneration, so far happiness inflows with increase from the Lord; and it is immediately dissipated when remuneration is thought of (n. 6478, 9174).

Good is to be done without an end of remuneration (n. 6392, 6478); illustrated (n. 9981). Genuine charity is without anything meritorious (n. 2343, 2371, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). Because it is from love, thus from the delight of doing good (n. 3816, 3887, 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984). "Reward" in the Word, means the delight and happiness in doing good to others without an end of reward, and this delight and happiness is felt and perceived by those who are in genuine charity (n. 3816, 3956, 6388).

They who do good for the sake of reward, love themselves and not the neighbor (n. 8002, 9210). "Mercenaries," in the spiritual sense of the Word, mean those who do good for the sake of reward (n. 8002). They who do good for the sake of remuneration, in the other life desire to be served, and are never contented (n. 6393). They despise the neighbor, and are angry at the Lord Himself, because they do not receive a reward, saying that they have merited it (n. 9976). They who have separated faith from charity, in the other life make their faith, and also the good works which they have done in an external form, thus for the sake of themselves, meritorious (n. 2371). Further particulars respecting the quality of those in the other life who have placed merit in works (n. 942, 1774, 1877, 2027). They are there in the lower earth, and appear to themselves to cut wood (n. 1110, 4943, 8740). Because wood, especially shittim wood, signifies the good of merit in particular (n. 2784, 2812, 9472, 9486, 9715, 10178).

They who have done good for the sake of remuneration, are servants in the Lord's kingdom (n. 6389-6390). They who place merit in works, fall in temptations (n. 2273, 9978). They who are in the loves of self and of the world, do not know what it is to do good without a view to remuneration (n. 6392).