1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

36. Thus God became man, as in the firsts of creation, so also in the lasts of it. God is human, and every angel and spirit is human because God is human, as we showed several times in the book Heaven and Hell, and as we will show additionally in short works with the title Angelic Wisdom.

From the beginning, however, God was human in the firsts of creation, but not in the lasts of it. Not until after He took on a humanity in the world did He become also human in outmost expressions. This follows from the confirmatory passages above, confirming that the Lord united His humanity to His Divinity, and so made His humanity also Divine.

[2] It is because of this that the Lord is called the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, and the Alpha and the Omega, being called so in the book of Revelation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, ” says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8, cf. 1:11)

When John saw the Son of man in the midst of the seven lampstands,

...(he) fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on (him), saying..., “...I am the First and the Last....” (Revelation 1:13, 17, cf. 2:8, 21:6)

Behold, I am coming quickly..., to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. (Revelation 22:12-13)

And in Isaiah:

Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and its Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: “I am the First and I am the Last....” (Isaiah 44:6, cf. 48:12)