Apocalypse Revealed #200
200. "'The beginning of the workmanship of God.'" This symbolically means the Word.
That the Word is the beginning of the workmanship of God is something not yet known in the church, because it has not understood these words in John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men... He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, but the world did not know Him... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father... (John 1:1-14)
Someone who understands these words in respect to their inner meaning, and at the same time compares them with what we wrote in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, as well as with some sections in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, can see that the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, means the underlying Divine truth in the Word that previously existed in this world (as reported in no. 11), and that which is present in the Word that we have today. It does not mean the Word viewed in respect to the words and letters of its languages, but viewed in terms of its essence and life which is inmostly present in the meanings of its words and letters. By this life the Word animates the will's affections of the person who reads it reverently, and by the light of this life it enlightens the thoughts of his intellect. Therefore we are told in John, "In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4) The Word does this because the Word comes from the Lord and has the Lord as its subject and so is the Lord.
All thought, speech, or writing takes its essence and life from the one doing the thinking, speaking, or writing. It has the person in it, along with his character. And the Word has in it the Lord alone.
Still, no one senses or perceives the Divine life in the Word but one who, when reading it, is impelled by a spiritual affection for truth, for through the Word he is conjoined with the Lord. He experiences something inmostly affecting his heart and spirit, which flows with enlightenment into in his intellect and testifies.
[2] The following words in the first chapter of Genesis have a similar symbolic meaning to those in John:
In the beginning God created heaven and earth... And the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
The spirit of God is Divine truth, and also light, the Divine truth being the Word; and therefore in John 1:4, 8-9 the Lord calls Himself the Word, and also the light.
A similar meaning is found in this declaration in the book of Psalms:
By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6)
In short, without the Divine truth of the Word, which in its essence is the Divine goodness of the Lord's Divine love and the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom, no mortal could have life. The Word is the means of the Lord's conjunction with a person, and of the person with the Lord, and through that conjunction comes life. There must be something from the Lord that a person can receive which makes possible that conjunction and so eternal life.
[3] It can be seen from this that "the beginning of the workmanship of God" means the Word, and if you would believe it, the Word such as it is in the sense of its letter, for this sense embraces the inner, holy levels, as we showed many times in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture.
Moreover, wonderful to say, the Word has been so written that it communicates with the whole of heaven, and every particular with some society there, as I have been given to know through personal experience, of which more elsewhere.
That the Word in its essence is such as described is still more apparent from these words of the Lord:
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
1 Corinthians 15
1
Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2
by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.
3
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
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and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6
Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
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Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8
and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9
For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10
But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was bestowed on me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11
Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12
Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
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But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
14
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
15
Yes, we are found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn't raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.
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For if the dead aren't raised, neither has Christ been raised.
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If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
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Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19
If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
20
But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
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For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
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But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ's, at his coming.
24
Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
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The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
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For, "He put all things in subjection under his feet." But when he says, "all things are put in subjection," it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
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When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
29
Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren't raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
30
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
31
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32
If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
33
Don't be deceived! "Evil companionships corrupt good morals."
34
Wake up righteously, and don't sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35
But someone will say, "How are the dead raised?" and, "With what kind of body do they come?"
36
You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37
That which you sow, you don't sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38
But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
39
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40
There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41
There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
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So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.
43
It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
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It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45
So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46
However that which is spiritual isn't first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
47
The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48
As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49
As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let's also bear the image of the heavenly.
50
Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
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in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
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For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
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But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55
"Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?"
56
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
