1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

4577. 'And to your seed after you I will give the land' means Divine Truth when made over [to the Natural] as its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, but in the highest sense Divine Truth, 3038; and from the meaning of 'giving the land' as making over good, dealt with immediately above in 4576; so that in the highest sense 'giving the land to your seed' means making Divine Good over to Divine Truth. But the reason why Divine Truth was made over is that before the Lord's Human was glorified it was Divine Truth, which is why the Lord speaks of Himself in John 14:6 as 'the Truth', and in Genesis 3:1 'He is called 'the seed of the woman'. But after the Lord's Human was glorified it was made Divine Good. At this point it was from Him as Divine Good that Divine Truth went forth, and goes forth still. Such Divine Truth is the Spirit of Truth whom the Lord will send, referred to in John 14:16-17; 15:26-27; 16:13-15; see 3704. From this it may be seen that 'to your seed after you' in the highest sense means Divine Truth when made over to Him as His own, and also that Divine Truth goes forth from Divine Good which He is and is made over as their own to those in whom good and its partner truth are present.