This is a key moment in this story. The beginning of John 1 explained that the Lord is perfect, infinite love which gave itself expression as divine truth. The duality of love and expression formed a template for humanity, which meant that the Lord’s duality made him the ultimate, divine human. It showed that the divine truth was the power of creation, and that the Lord shared that truth with humanity from the outset, so that people could receive His love and return it. But people kept turning away, and the Lord had to keep expressing his love in more and more external forms to maintain a connection.

By mentioning John the Baptist, the chapter showed that the Jews of the time still had the truth – the Lord’s Word – contained inside the rough-hewn images of the Old Testament. But they were so steeped in evil loves and false thinking that the connection to the Word – to the love within the Old Testament – was about to be snipped forever.

So the Word became flesh. The Lord passed the full expression of His love and His full humanity into physical flesh as Jesus. That way He could once again show the life within the existing Scriptures and could make His own life and His own words part of an expanded expression of truth for a new age of humanity. People could no longer see and feel the Lord’s love through the Old Testament, but they could see and feel it in the face and hands and words of Jesus.

The "glory" here expresses the blinding brilliance of that truth. The "Father" represents the Lord’s actual love itself, and being "begotten" means that the love was expressed in the form of truth. Being full of "truth" has a pretty obvious meaning, but "grace" means an affection, a love for what is true.

The Lord had to come. He had to let His humanity flow down into the flesh, into the most external of forms, because that was the only way we were going to see and embrace it.

(റഫറൻസുകൾ: A Brief Explanation of the Teachings of the New Church 117; The Apocalypse Explained 1069 [3]; The Word 20; True Christian Religion 3, 85)

THE LORD

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Translated from the Latin by George F. Dole

The Portable New Century Edition

Swedenborg Foundation, West Chester, Pennsylvania

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Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

Preface:

Some years ago, I published five small works:

1. Heaven and Hell

2. The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Teachings

3. Last Judgment

4. White Horse

5. Planets and Worlds in the Universe

Many things were presented in these works that had previously been unknown. Now the following works are to be offered to the public at the command of the Lord, who has been revealed to me.

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture

- Teachings about Life for the New Jerusalem: Drawn from the Ten Commandments

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Faith

- Supplements on the Last Judgment [and the Spiritual World]

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Infinity, and Eternity

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom

- Angelic Wisdom about Life

“Teachings for the New Jerusalem” means teachings for the new church now to be established by the Lord. The fact is that the old church has come to its end, as can be seen from what is said in of the booklet Last Judgment and from more that will be said in the forthcoming booklets just listed.

The twenty-first chapter of Revelation tells us that after the judgment the New Jerusalem will come. As you will see under the last heading below, this New Jerusalem means a new church.