123. 7. It is the unceasing effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us to himself and himself to us in order to give us the joys of eternal life; and this can happen only to the extent that our evils and their compulsions are banished. I explained in 27-45 that it is the constant effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us to himself and himself to us, and that this union is what we call reformation and regeneration. I explained also that this is the source of our salvation. Can anyone fail to see that union with the Lord is eternal life and salvation? Everyone can see this who believes that we were originally created in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26-27) and who knows what the image and likeness of God are.

[2] If we are truly rational and use our rationality when we think and use our freedom when we try to think, can any of us believe that there are three gods equal in essence and that the divine Being or divine Essence can be divided? As for a threefold nature in one God, that is something we can conceive and understand, just as we understand the soul and the body of an angel or a person and the life that they bring forth. Further, since this threefold nature in a single Being exists only in the Lord, it follows that any union must be a union with him.

Use your rationality and think freely, and you will see this truth in its own light. First, though, admit that the Lord, heaven, and eternal life are real.

[3] Now, since God is one and since by creation we have been made in his image and likeness, and since we have come into a love for all our evils through our hellish love, its compulsions, and their pleasures, thereby destroying the image and likeness of God within us, it follows that it is the constant effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us with himself and himself with us and thereby to make us his images. It also follows that the Lord is doing this so that he may give us the bliss of eternal life, since this is the nature of divine love.

[4] The reason he cannot make this gift, cannot make us images of himself, unless we banish sins from our outer self in apparent autonomy is that the Lord is not just divine love but divine wisdom as well; and divine love does nothing unless it stems from divine wisdom and is in accord with it. It is in accord with divine wisdom that we cannot be united to the Lord and thus reformed, regenerated, and saved unless we are allowed to act freely and rationally. This is what makes us human. Anything that is in accord with the Lord's divine wisdom is also in accord with his divine providence.

10442. 'Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants' means for heaven and the Church's sake. This is clear from the meaning of 'Abraham, Isaac, and Israel' as the Lord's Divine Human, thus that which is Divine and His in heaven and in the Church; and since that which is Divine and the Lord's composes heaven and the Church, the same three also mean heaven and the Church. For 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' in the Word, that these things are meant by them, see 1965, 3305(end), 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6589, 6804, 6847, and also by 'Israel', 4286, 4570, and in the places referred to in 8805, 9340. The fact that such things are meant by 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 8:11.

Here 'reclining with them' means being in heaven where the Lord is. This is also evident from the consideration that names do not pass into heaven but the heavenly and Divine realities meant by them, 10216, 10282.