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:

6373. 'Until Shiloh comes' means the Lord's Coming, and the peaceful tranquillity at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'Shiloh' as the Lord, who is called Shiloh because He brought peace to all things and gave them tranquillity; for in the original language Shiloh is derived from a word meaning tranquil. Why the Lord is called Shiloh here is evident from what has been stated immediately above in 6371, 6372, regarding the celestial kingdom and its power and control. For when the Divine presented Himself by means of that kingdom there was no tranquillity, since things in heaven and those in hell could not be brought by means of that kingdom into a state of order. This was because the Divine, as it passed through that kingdom, could not remain pure since heaven is not pure; ¹ so neither was that kingdom strong enough to serve as the means by which all things could be preserved in a state of order. And what is more, as a consequence hellish and devilish spirits were at that time breaking out of hell and having dominion over souls who were coming from the world, as a result of which a situation was coming about in which none but the celestial ones could be saved. At length scarcely these could have been saved if the Lord had not taken on the Human and made that Human within Himself Divine.

[2] By doing this the Lord brought all things into a state of order, first those in heaven, then those in hell; and this gave rise to peaceful tranquillity.

Spiritual people, that is, those who belonged to the spiritual Church, were saved through the Lord's Coming, see 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834.

When He was in the world the Lord brought all things into a state of order, 1810, 4286, 4187.

Divine Truth from Jehovah or the Lord flowed through heaven to the human race. But because this was insufficient when mankind departed from good, the Lord came into the world and made the Human within Himself Divine, so that the Lord's Divine Human would then be the source from which Divine Truth went forth and thereby saved a person who received good by means of truth, 4180, 6280.

Footnotes: