151. These things saith the Son of man. That this signifies the Lord as to the Divine Human, from which is that constituent of the church, is evident from the signification of the Son of God, as denoting the Lord as to His Divine Human, and as to Divine truth, inasmuch as the latter proceeds from Him (concerning which see above, n. 63). That it also denotes from whom is that constituent of the church, that is, the opening of the internal or spiritual man and its conjunction with the external, is, that everything of the church pertaining to man is from the Lord's Divine Human. For everything of love and faith constituting the church proceeds from the Divine Human of the Lord, and not immediately from the Divine itself; for what immediately proceeds from the Divine itself does not enter into any thought or affection of man, and consequently not into faith and love, because it is far above them, as is evident from the fact that a man cannot think of the Divine without connecting with such thought the human form, unless he thinks of nature, as it were, in its minutest parts. The thought which is not directed to some particular form is diffused in all directions, and what is thus diffused is dissipated. This it has been specially granted me to know, from those in the other life who come from the Christian world, and who have thought only of the Father, and not of the Lord, that they make nature in its minutest parts their God, and at length fall away from any idea of God, consequently from the idea and faith of all things of heaven and the church.

[2] It is different with those who have thought of God in the human form; all these have their ideas directed to the Divine, nor do their thoughts, like those of the former, wander in every direction. And, inasmuch as the Divine under a human form, is the Divine Human of the Lord, therefore the Lord bends and determines their thoughts and affections to Himself. Because this is the essential of the church, therefore it continually flows in from heaven with man, consequently it is, as it were, implanted in every one to think of the Divine under a human form, and thus inwardly in themselves to see the Divine, except in the case of those who have extinguished this impression in themselves (as may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 82). It is therefore evident why all men after death, however vast their number, when they become spirits, are turned to their own loves, and that hence those who have worshipped the Divine under the human form turn to the Lord, who is seen by them as a Sun above the heavens. But those who have not worshipped Him under the human form are turned to the loves of their own natural man, all of which have reference to the loves of self and of the world; thus they turn backwards from the Lord; and to turn themselves backwards from the Lord, is to turn towards hell. (That all turn themselves to their own loves in the spiritual world, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-145, 151, 153, 255, 272, 510, 548, 552, 561.

[3] All those who lived in ancient times, and worshipped the Divine, saw the Divine, in thought, under a human form, and scarcely any one thought of an invisible Divine; and the Divine under the human form, even at that time, was the Divine Human. But because this Divine Human was the Lord's Divine in the heavens and passing through the heavens, when heaven became weakened for the reason that men, of whom heaven consists, from internal became successively external, and thus natural, it therefore pleased the Divine Himself to put on the Human, and to glorify this, or make it Divine, that thus from Himself He might affect all, both those who are in the spiritual world and those who are in the natural world, and save those who acknowledge and worship His Divine in the Human.

[4] This is manifest from many passages in the Prophets of the Old Testament, and also in the Evangelists, from which we shall adduce only the following in John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world knew him not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory" (1:1-14).

That the Lord as to the Human is there meant by the Word, is quite clear, for it is said, "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory;" and that the Lord made His Human Divine, is also plain from these words, "the Word was with God, and God was the Word," and this was made flesh, that is, man. And whereas all Divine truth proceeds from the Divine Human of the Lord, and this is His Divine in the heavens, therefore by the Word is also signified Divine truth; and it is said, He was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Light also is Divine truth; and because men, from being internal, became external or natural, because they no longer acknowledged Divine truth, or the Lord, therefore it is said that the darkness comprehended not the light, and that the world acknowledged Him not. (That the Word is the Lord as to the Divine Human, and Divine truth thence proceeding, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 263 and 304. That light is Divine truth, and that darkness denotes the falsities in which those are who are not in the light, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 126-140, 275.)

[5] That those who acknowledge the Lord, and worship Him from love and faith, and are not in the loves of self and of the world, are regenerated and saved, is also taught in these words,

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name; which were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (vir), but of God" (1:12, 13).

Those who are born of bloods, are those who destroy love and charity; the will of the flesh denotes all evil derived from the loves of self and of the world, and is man's voluntary proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil; the will of man is falsity derived from that voluntary proprium. That those who are not in these loves receive the Lord, are regenerated and saved, is meant by them that believe in His name becoming the sons of God, and being born of God. (That to believe in the name of the Lord, is to acknowledge His Divine Human, and to receive from Him love and faith, may be seen above, n. 102, 135. That bloods denote those things that destroy love and charity, see Arcana Coelestia 4735, 5476, 9127: that flesh denotes the voluntary proprium of man, which in itself is nothing but evil, n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 4328, 8480, 8550, 10283-10286, 10731; and that man's proprium is the love of self and the love of the world, n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660. That man (vir) denotes the Intellectual, and hence truth or falsity, because the Intellectual is from the one or the other, see n. 3134, 3309, 9007, thus the will of man (vir) denotes the intellectual proprium, which, when it exists from the voluntary proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil, is nothing but falsity; for where evil is in the will there falsity is in the understanding. That to be born of God is to be regenerated by the Lord, may be seen inThe Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 173-184. Moreover, that all in the universe, from influx out of heaven, and from revelation, worship the Divine under the human form, may be seen in the small work, The Earths in the Universe 98, 121, 141, 154, 158, 159, 169; and likewise all the angels of the higher heavens, in the work, Heaven and Hell 78-86.)

[6] From these considerations it is now evident that the all of the church, thus also the all of heaven pertaining to men, is from the Lord's Divine Human. It is on this account that the Son of Man, who is the Divine Human, is described, in the first chapter of the Apocalypse, by various representatives, and afterwards from that description are taken the exhortations to the several churches (as may be seen above, n. 113), and specifically to this church, in writing to which this great essential of the church is treated of, that is, the conjunction of the internal and external, or the regeneration of the man of the church; for it is said to the angel of this church, "These things saith the Son of man, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire."

263. The Lord is the Word. The sole subject of the deepest meaning of the Word is the Lord, and it describes all the phases of the glorification of his human nature (that is, of its union with the divine nature itself), as well as all the phases of his taking control of the hells and setting in order everything there and in the heavens: 2249, 7014. So in this meaning there is a description of the Lord's whole life in our world, and by means of this there is a constant presence of the Lord with the angels: 2523. At the very center of the Word there is only the Lord, and this is the source of what is divine and holy in the Word: 1873, 9357. The Lord's saying that the Scripture about him was fulfilled [Luke 18:31; 24:44] was referring to everything in the deepest meaning of the Word: 7933.

"The Word" means divine truth: 4692, 5075, 9987. The Lord is the Word because he is divine truth: 2533. The Lord is the Word also because the Word comes from him and is about him (2859); and in its deepest meaning is about no one but the Lord, so the Lord himself is there (1873, 9357); and also because there is a marriage of divine goodness and divine truth throughout the Word and in its every detail (3004, 5502). "Jesus" means divine goodness and "Christ" means divine truth: 3004, 3005, 3009. Divine truth [ coming from divine goodness] is the sole reality, and only what it dwells in-which comes from what is divine-is substantial: 5272, 6880, 7004, 8200. ¹ And because divine truth emanating from the Lord is heaven's light and divine goodness is its warmth, and because everything there comes into being from that light and warmth, and because this earthly world as a whole comes into being by means of heaven or the spiritual world, we can see that everything that has been created has been created from divine truth-that is, from the Word, just as it says in John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things that were made were made through him. And the Word became flesh" [John 1:1, 3, 14]: 2803, 2894, 5272, 7678. For more on the creation of everything by divine truth and therefore by the Lord, see §137 of the book Heaven and Hell. A fuller picture can be drawn from two of its chapters: §§116-125 ["The Sun in Heaven"] and 126-140 ["Light and Warmth in Heaven"].

A joining together of the Lord and us is accomplished through the Word, by means of its inner meaning: 10375. Absolutely everything in the Word is a means to this joining together, and this is why the Word is more wondrous than anything else that has been written: 10632, 10633, 10634. Now that the Word has been written, the Lord speaks to us through it: 10290.

Notes de bas de page: