305. In this way the Lord made his human nature divine. The Lord's human nature is divine because it came from the underlying reality of the Father that was the Lord's soul (10269, 10372, 10823, which use as an illustration the way children resemble their fathers) and because it came from the divine love that is within him (6872). The nature of every individual is determined by the nature of his or her love; we are all our own love: 6872, 10177, 10284. The Lord was divine love: 2077, 2253. The Lord made every aspect of his human nature divine, both inner aspects and outer ones: 1603, 1815, 1902, 1926, 2093, 2803. So unlike anyone else, he rose from the dead with his whole body: 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825. The fact that the Lord's human nature is divine can be recognized from the omnipresence of that human nature in the Holy Supper (2343, 10826) and from his transfiguration in the presence of three of his disciples ¹ (3212) as well as from various statements in the Word (10154), particularly his being called "Jehovah" in it (1603, 1736, 1815, 1902, 2921, 3035, 5110, 6303, 6281, 8864, 9194, 9315). A distinction is maintained between the Father and the Son or between Jehovah and the Lord in the literal meaning, but not in the inner meaning of the Word, which the angels have: 3035. The Christian world does not recognize the Lord's human nature as divine; the view that his divinity and his humanity are separate was arrived at in a council to support recognition of the pope as the Lord's vicar (as I learned from conversation with members of that council in the other life) ² : 4738.

[2] The divine-human nature has existed from eternity, in the form of divine truth in heaven and therefore as the manifestation of divine presence; later, in the Lord, though, the divine-human nature became the divine underlying reality, the source of the manifestation of divine presence in heaven: 3061, 6280, 6880, 10579. What the state of heaven was like before the Lord came into the world: 6371, 6372, 6373. What was divine could not be perceived then and therefore could not be accepted unless it had passed through heaven: 6982, 6996, 7004. The Lord from eternity was the divine truth in heaven: 2803, 3195, 3704. This is "the Son of God born from eternity": 2628, 2798.

[3] The only divinity they perceive in heaven is the divine humanity: 6475, 9303, 9356, 10067. The earliest people were not able to worship the infinite underlying reality but they were able to worship the infinite manifestation of it, which is the divine humanity: 4687, 4692. The ancients acknowledged the Divine because it appeared in a human form, and this was the divine humanity: 5110, 5663, 6846, 10737. The inhabitants of all planets worship the Divine in a human form; they rejoice when they hear that God actually became a human being: 6700, 8541-8547, 9361, 10736, 10737, 10738. See my booklet "The Earthlike Bodies Called Planets in Our Solar System and in Deep Space". ³ If we do not think of God as being in a human form, we can have no definite idea of God, because what is incomprehensible does not take shape in the mind: 9359, 9972. We can worship only something of which we have some concept; we cannot worship something of which we have no concept: 4733, 5110, 5663, 7211, 9356, 10067. So most people throughout the world worship the Divine in a human form, and this happens because of an inflow from heaven: 10159. When people who are devoted to living good lives think about the Lord, they all think about him as having a divine-human nature and not as having a human nature separate from a divine one: 2326, 4724, 4731, 4766, 8878, 9193, 9198. Why the people in today's church who are consumed with leading an evil life, as well as the people who are devoted to faith apart from caring, think about the Lord's human nature as not being divine, and why they do not understand what the divine-human nature is: 3212, 3241, 4689, 4692, 4724, 4731, 5321, 6371, 8878, 9193, 9198.

Footnotes:

6996. 'Send, I beg You, through the hand [of another] You may send' means that Divine Truth going forth from the Divine Human will be uttered in an indirect way. This is clear from the representation of Moses, who says these words, as the Lord in respect of the Word, that is, of Divine Truth, dealt with in 6752; from the meaning of 'sending', when used in reference to the Lord, as going forth, dealt with in 2397, 4710; and from the meaning of 'sending through the hand' as through another to whom power will be given, power to utter Divine Truth going forth from the Lord's Divine Human. And since it comes through another to whom power has been given it comes in an indirect way. It was shown above in 6982, 6985, that Divine Truth going forth directly from the Lord's Divine Human cannot be heard or discerned by anyone, not even by an angel. If therefore it is to be heard and discerned an intermediary is required; heaven acts as that intermediary, and then the angels and spirits present with a person.

[2] This is plainly recognizable from the consideration that a person does not even hear the spirits who are present with him talking to one another; and if he did he would not discern what they said because spirits' speech does not contain any words used by men but is the universal speech of all languages. What is more, spirits cannot hear angels, and if they did they would not discern what they said, for angels' speech is even more universal. Still less can angels belonging to the inmost heaven be heard or understood, because their speech is not speech consisting of ideas but of the affections immanent in heavenly love. Since these kinds of speech are so remote from a person that he cannot by any means hear or discern them, then how remote must Divine speech be - if one may use that expression - which is infinitely superior to the kinds of speech in the heavens? (The expression 'Divine speech' is being used, but by it Divine Truth going forth from the Lord's Divine Human is meant.) This being so, it may be seen that if Divine Truth going forth from the Lord is to be heard and discerned, it must come to man by way of intermediaries, the final one being a spirit present with a person, whose entrance takes place either into the person's thought or by means of a living voice.

[3] The fact that Divine Truth coming forth directly from the Lord cannot be heard or discerned is also evident from correspondences and from the representatives based on them. That is to say, the things that man says present themselves among spirits in an altogether different form, and the things spirits say present themselves among angels in an altogether different form, as may be recognized from the spiritual sense of the Word and the literal sense of it; the literal sense, which is suitable for man, serves to denote and represent things contained in the spiritual sense. Since this sense cannot be perceived by man - still less the angelic sense - except insofar as it is able to be presented and revealed by means of such things as belong to the world and natural order, how can he discern Divine Truth coming directly from the Lord's Divine? That Truth is infinitely higher than angels' level of understanding and cannot be perceived in heaven either, except insofar as it passes through heaven and in so doing takes on a form suitable for and compatible with the perception of those who are there. This is accomplished by means of an influx that is marvellous and beyond all possible comprehension by anyone. These matters have been stated in order that people may know that Divine Truth going forth from the Lord cannot be heard or discerned by anyone without intermediaries.