137. It says in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word: all things were made by means of him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind. He was in the world, and the world was made by means of him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory. (John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14)

It is clear that the Lord is the one who is meant by "the Word," since it says that the Word was made flesh. Precisely what is meant by "the Word," though, is not yet known and must therefore be stated. The Word in this passage is the divine truth that is in the Lord and from the Lord, ¹ so here it is also called the light, which is divine truth, as has been shown earlier in this chapter. Now we need to explain the statement that all things were made and created by means of divine truth.

[2] In heaven, it is divine truth that possesses all power, and apart from it there is no power whatever. ² All angels are called "powers" because of divine truth, and are powers to the extent that they are recipients or vessels of it. Through it they prevail over the hells and over all who oppose them. A thousand enemies there cannot bear one ray of heavenly light, which is divine truth. Since angels are angels because of their acceptance of divine truth, it follows that all heaven is from this source and no other, since heaven is made up of angels.

[3] People cannot believe that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth if the only concept of truth they have has to do with thought or speech, which have no power in them except to the extent that other people concede it by being obedient. There is an intrinsic power within divine truth, though, power of such nature that by means of it heaven, the world, and everything in them was created.

We can illustrate the fact that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth by two comparisons - by the power of what is true and good in us, and by the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world.

By the power of what is true and good in us: Everything we do, we do out of our discernment and intent. Out of our intent, we act by means of what is good, and out of our discernment by means of what is true. In fact, all the elements of our volition are related to what is good, and all the elements of our discernment are related to what is true. ³ On this basis, then, we set our whole body in motion and a thousand things there rush to do our bidding of their own accord. We can see from this that our whole body is formed for obedience to what is good and true and therefore from what is good and true.

[4] By the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world: Everything that grows in our world - things like trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, fruits, and seeds - arises only by means of the warmth and light of the sun. So we can see what kind of productive power is inherent in that warmth and light. What about the divine light that is divine truth, then, and the divine warmth that is divine good, the source from which heaven comes into being and consequently the world as well, since as we have shown above, it is through heaven that the world comes into being?

This enables us to determine how to understand the statement that all things were made by means of the Word, and that without him nothing was made that was made, and further that the world was made by means of him, namely that this was accomplished by means of divine truth from the Lord. ⁴

This is also why in the book of creation it first mentions light and then the things that arise from light (Genesis 1:3-4). It is also why everything in all heaven and earth has to do with what is good and true and to their union if it is to be anything at all. ⁵

Footnotes:

10020. Verses 10-14 And you shall bring ¹ the young bull, before the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the young bull. And you shall slaughter the young bull before Jehovah, at the door of the tent of meeting. And you shall take some of the blood of the young bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat covering the intestines, and the omentum over the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them; and you shall burn [them on] the altar. And the flesh of the young bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin [offering].

'And you shall bring the young bull' means a state in which the natural or external man, as this is in its infancy, applies itself. 'Before the tent of meeting' means to purification, the reception of truth from heaven, and the joining of it to good. 'And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the young bull' means a representative sign of the reception of goodness and truth in the natural or external man. 'And you shall slaughter the young bull before Jehovah' means preparation for the purification of goodness and truth from God in the external or natural man. 'At the door of the tent of meeting' means in order that they may be joined together. 'And you shall take some of the blood of the young bull' means Divine Truth accommodated in the natural or external man. 'And put it on the horns of the altar with your finger' means power that is Divine and the Lord's, originating in Himself. 'And shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar' means the whole of Divine Truth present on the level of sensory perception, which is the lowest level of life in a person. 'And you shall take all the fat' means the accommodated good. 'Covering the intestines' means which exists on last or lowest levels. 'And the omentum over the liver' means the more internal good of the external or natural man. 'And the two kidneys and the fat on them' means the more internal truth of the external or natural man, and the good of that truth. 'And you shall burn [them on] the altar' means springing from the Lord's Divine Love. 'And the flesh of the young bull' means the evil of the earlier loves which are present there. 'And its skin' means falsity on lowest levels. 'And its dung' means all other unclean things. 'You shall burn with fire outside the camp' means that those things must be banished to hell and be consumed by the evils of self-love. 'It is a sin [offering]' means that which has been purified in this manner from evils [and falsities].

Footnotes: