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.

6959. And Jehovah said further to him. That this signifies foresight as to what would be the quality of those of the spiritual church if they did not have faith, is evident from the signification of “Jehovah said,” as being foresight (as above, n. 6946). The reason why these words denote what would be the quality of those of the spiritual church if they did not have faith, is that in what follows the subject treated of is what would be the further quality of those who are of the spiritual church (who are represented by the sons of Israel), if they did not have faith, namely, that they would be profaners of truth. For the first miracle of the rod becoming a serpent signifies their state, that they would become altogether sensuous and corporeal. This miracle of the hand becoming leprous signifies profanation, for this succeeds if the church persists in faithlessness.

[2] In their childhood, and afterward in their youth, they of the spiritual church have faith in the doctrinal things of their church, but at that time they have faith from parents and masters, and not from themselves, and therefore if they afterward recede from faith, they profane the truth only slightly, which profanation can be removed by Divine means, and thus the man be freed from the guilt of it. But if a man has faith in the doctrine of the church, and in the Word, from himself, that is, by confirmations in himself, and if he then afterward recedes, and denies in himself what he had before believed, especially if he lives contrary to the truth which he had confirmed in himself, and either explains it in his own favor, or altogether rejects it, he profanes the truth; and this because he commingles and conjoins together within himself truth and falsity. As such persons have scarcely any remains of truth and good, in the other life they finally become like skeletons; and have as little life remaining as have the bones relatively to the organic life of the flesh. But still harder is the lot of those who profane good than that of those who profane truth, they who are of the Lord’s spiritual church can profane truth but not so much good.

[3] As “leprosy” signifies the profanation of truth, and as this is the subject treated of in what follows, see first of all what has been before said and shown about profanation, namely: That they who are within the church can profane holy things, but not they who are without it (n. 2051, 3399): That holy things cannot be profaned, except by those who have previously acknowledged them (n. 1008, 1010, 1059, 3398, 3898, 4289): That it is also profanation to acknowledge and believe truths and goods, and yet to live contrary to them (n. 4601): That man is withheld from profanation as much as possible (n. 301-303vvv2, 1327-1328, 3398, 3402); that the lot of profaners is the worst of all in the other life (n. 6348).