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.

8409. As “flesh” signifies one’s own in both senses, in the supreme sense the Lord’s Divine own, which is His Divine Human, thus the good of His love toward the universal human race; therefore “flesh” in the sense which has reference to man denotes one’s own made alive by the Lord’s own, that is, it denotes the Lord’s own with man, thus the good of love to Him. (On the signification of “flesh” in this sense, see n. 3813, 7850.) But in the opposite sense, “flesh” denotes man’s own, thus the evil of the love of self, and from this the cupidities or concupiscences of this love (n. 999, 3813). (That man’s own is nothing but evil, see n. 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 3812, 5660, 5786) That “flesh” denotes man’s own, thus evil of every kind, is further evident from the following passages in Isaiah:

I will feed thine oppressors with their flesh, and they shall be drunken with their blood, as with new wine (49:26);

“to feed with flesh” denotes to be gorged with their own evil.

[2] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, but his heart departeth from Jehovah (17:5);

“to make flesh his arm” denotes to trust in his own power; and therefore in Isaiah 9:20, “to eat the flesh of his arm” denotes to trust in himself. Again in Isaiah:

Egypt is a man, and not God; and his horses flesh, and not spirit (31:3);

“the horses of Egypt” denote memory-knowledges from a perverted understanding (n. 6125); “flesh” denotes what is dead; “spirit,” what is alive; therefore the sons of Egypt are said to be “great in flesh” (Ezekiel 16:26). What is “dead” is so called from evil, for spiritual death is from evil; and what is alive is so called from good, for spiritual life is from good.

[3] Hence it is that “flesh” and “spirit” in the Word are opposed to each other, as in John:

That which is born from the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

It is the spirit that maketh alive, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life (John 6:63).

Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not reprove man forever, for that he is flesh (Genesis 6:3);

here “flesh” denotes man’s own. In like manner in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it, but My Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 16:17).

As many as received, to them gave He power to be sons of God, to them that believe on His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (1:12-13);

“the will of the flesh” denotes one’s own of the will; “the will of man,” one’s own of the understanding; “sons of God” denote the regenerate, and they who are being regenerated are all made alive from the Lord’s own, which is “the flesh and body of the Lord,” and is the Divine good itself.

[4] As “flesh” in the opposite sense denotes man’s own, thus evil, it also denotes concupiscence, for the life of the flesh, which is the body’s own life, is nothing but the pleasure of the senses, the delight of the appetites, and concupiscence. That “flesh” denotes concupiscence, is evident from these words in Moses:

The rabble that was in the midst of the people lusted a lust, whence the sons of Israel wept again, and said, Who shall feed us with flesh? our soul is now dry, our eyes have nothing to turn to but the manna: and Jehovah said unto Moses, Say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves for the morrow, that ye may eat flesh, for ye have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, who shall feed us with flesh? for it was better with us in Egypt; Jehovah will give you flesh to eat, for a month of days, even until it come out from your nose, and it shall be a loathing to you. The flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was swallowed, when the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague, whence he called the name of that place “the graves of lust,” because there they buried the people that lusted (Numbers 11:4, 6, 16, 18, 20, 33-34).

From all this it is now evident what is signified by “sitting by the flesh-pot in the land of Egypt,” namely, a life according to what they like and as they had desired, thus a life of their own.