Apocalypse Revealed #281
281. "Because You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." This symbolizes deliverance from hell and salvation by conjunction with the Lord.
We need not have recourse to the spiritual sense to explain the specific symbolic meanings of the particulars here, such as what it means to be slain, to redeem us to God, and the meaning of His blood, for they are arcana which are not apparent in the literal sense. It is enough to say that it is redemption that is thus described. And because redemption is deliverance from hell and salvation by conjunction with the Lord, these are what are symbolically meant.
Here we will simply confirm from the Word that Jehovah Himself came into the world, was born a human being, and became the Redeemer and Savior for all who by a life of charity and its faith are conjoined with His Divine humanity, and that Jehovah is the Lord from eternity, so that the Lord's Divine humanity, with which one must be conjoined, is the Divine humanity of Jehovah Himself.
[2] We will accordingly cite here passages which confirm that Jehovah and the Lord are one, and that because they are one and not two, the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, is, by assuming a human form, the Redeemer and Savior. This is apparent from the following:
You, O Jehovah, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is Your name. (Isaiah 63:16)
Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)
Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, and He who formed you...: "I am Jehovah, who makes all things and... alone... by Myself. (Isaiah 44:24)
Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am Jehovah your God...." (Isaiah 48:17)
...Jehovah, my rock, and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)
Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of Hosts is His name. (Jeremiah 50:34)
...Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He shall be called the God of the whole earth. (Isaiah 54:5)
...that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Isaiah 49:26; 60:16)
As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name... (Isaiah 47:4)
."..with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you." Thus said Jehovah your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:8)
...said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 43:14)
...said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One... (Isaiah 49:7)
You have redeemed me, O Jehovah, God of truth. (Psalms 31:5)
Let Israel hope in Jehovah, for... with Him is abundant redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (Psalms 130:7-8)
Arise (O Lord) for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies' sake. (Psalms 44:26)
(Jehovah God said,) I will redeem them from the power of hell; I will redeem them from death. (Hosea 13:4, 14)
(O Jehovah,) hear my voice... He will redeem my soul... (Psalms 55:17-18)
See also Psalms 49:15; 69:18; 71:23; 103:1, 4; 107:2, Jeremiah 15:20-21.
[3] People in the church do not deny that the Lord is the Redeemer in His humanity, because it accords with Scripture, including this statement:
Who... comes from Edom..., traveling in the greatness of His strength? ...the year of My redeemed has come... ...He redeemed them... (Isaiah 63:1, 4, 9)
Say to the daughter of Zion, "Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and... they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of Jehovah." (Isaiah 62:11-12)
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people... (Luke 1:68)
And so, too, elsewhere.
For still more passages confirming that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, came into the world and assumed human form in order to redeem mankind, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 37-46.
Jehovah is also called a Savior in many places, too many to cite them here.
Habakkuk 1
1
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out to thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3
Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for devastation and violence are before me: and there are that raise strife and contention.
4
Therefore the law is slackened, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth encompass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
5
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you.
6
For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed from themselves.
8
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
9
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
11
Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power to his god.
12
Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
13
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: why lookest thou on them that deal treacherously, and keepest silence when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14
And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping animals that have no ruler over them?
15
They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16
Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their food plenteous.
17
Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
