29. The Lord Made His Humanity Divine from the Divine in Him, and So Was United with the Father

The doctrine of the church, accepted throughout the Christian world, is this:

...our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.... But although He is God and man, still there are not two Christs but one, being one because the Divine took to Himself a humanity; yet still completely one, for...He is one person. For as soul and body form one person, so God and man are one Christ....

These words are taken from the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed, which has been accepted throughout the Christian world. They constitute the essential teaching there regarding the union of the Divine and human in the Lord. Everything else said in this same doctrine regarding the Lord — this we will explain in its own section.

It is apparent, clearly, from the above citation, that it accords with the Creed of the Christian Church to say that the Divine and the human in the Lord are not two entities but one, as soul and body are one person; and that it was the Divine in Him that took on the human.

[2] It follows from this that the Divine cannot be separated from the human, nor the human from the Divine, as separating them would be like separating soul and body.

The reality of this is something everyone acknowledges who reads what we have cited above in nos. 19 and 21 from the two Gospels that tell of the Lord’s birth, namely from Luke 1:26-35 and from Matthew 1:18-25. These descriptions make clear that Jesus was conceived of Jehovah God and born from the virgin Mary, thus that the Divine was present in Him and was His soul.

Now because His soul was the Divinity itself of the Father, it follows that His body or humanity became also Divine; for when one element is Divine, the other must be also.

In this way and no other are the Father and Son one — the Father being in the Son, and the Son in the Father —and all things of the Son are the Father’s, and all things of the Father are the Son’s, as the Lord Himself teaches in His Word.

[3] But how the union was formed — this we will tell point by point as follows:

1. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah.

2. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, assumed a humanity in order to save mankind.

3. He made His humanity Divine from the Divinity in Him.

4. He made His humanity Divine through temptations or trials that He underwent.

5. The complete union of the Divine and the human in Him was achieved by His suffering of the cross, which was the last of those temptations or trials.

6. He gradually put off the humanity received from the mother and put on a humanity from the Divinity in Him, which is the Divine humanity and the Son of God.

7. Thus God became human in final elements as well as in first ones.

543. She bore a male Child. (12:5) This symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church.

A son in the Word symbolizes doctrinal truth, and also an understanding of and consequent thought about truth and goodness. A daughter, on the other hand, symbolizes the goodness taught by doctrine, and also a willing of and consequent affection for truth and goodness. A male child, moreover, symbolizes truth conceived in the spiritual self and born in the natural one.

The reason for this is that generations and births in the Word symbolize spiritual generations and births, all of which relate in general to goodness and truth (no. 535). For nothing else is begotten and born of the Lord as husband and of the church as wife.

Now because the woman who bore the child symbolizes the New Church (no. 533), it is apparent that the male child symbolizes that church's doctrine.

The doctrine meant here is The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), and also The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem in Accordance With the Ten Commandments (Amsterdam, 1763). For doctrine means all the truths of doctrine, since doctrine embraces them all. When I was writing these doctrines, followers of the dragon stood about me and with all their fury endeavored to devour them, that is, to extinguish them.

I am permitted to report this new information, because of a truth it happened as I have said. The followers of the dragon who stood about me came from all over the Protestant Reformed Christian world.

[2] Since these and no other are the offspring born of the spiritual marriage, and male offspring are truth and good in the intellect and consequent thought, while female offspring are truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore a son in the Word symbolizes truth. To confirm this we will cite some passages from which it can in some measure be seen:

Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one's youth. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Make yourself bald and shave yourself, because of your delightful sons..., for they are gone from you. (Micah 1:16)

(I saw two olive trees beside the lampstand,) and he said, "These are the two sons of the olive tree, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11, 14)

My tent is destroyed...; my sons have gone from me, and they are no more. (Jeremiah 10:20)

My sons are made desolate because the enemy prevailed. (Lamentations 1:16)

Your sons, (O Jerusalem,) have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets... (Isaiah 51:17-18, 20)

...fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers..., and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezekiel 5:10)

Son will be divided against father, and father against son... (Luke 12:53, cf. Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12)

You have also taken your beautiful vessels of My gold... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. (Ezekiel 16:17)

(Jesus said,) ...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of evil. (Matthew 13:38)

[3] That the Son of Man is the Divine truth in the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.

In the passages cited, sons mean people who possess doctrinal truths drawn from the Word, and abstractly, those truths themselves. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:17-18; 14:21-23; 43:6; 49:17, 22; 51:17-18; 60:9; Deuteronomy 32:8.

That daughters symbolize an affection for the church's truth, thus the church in relation to that affection, follows from so many passages in the Word that if I were to quote them, they would fill many pages. Nothing else is meant by daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem, daughter of Judah, and daughter of Israel. See some passages cited in no. 612[1-4] regarding the daughter of Zion. Who cannot see that no actual daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah or of Israel, so often mentioned in the Word, can be meant?