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.

3134. 'Who said, Thus the man spoke to me' means the leanings of truth in the natural man. This likewise is clear from the affection that occurs here, and also from what the man, or Abraham's servant, said to Rebekah, from which it is evident that the leanings of truth are meant; and from the meaning of 'the man' as truth, dealt with in 265, 749, 1007, here truth within the natural man and coming from the Divine, as he is Abraham's oldest servant, who means the natural man, see 3019. In the prophetical part of the Word especially 'man' (vir) is a word that occurs often - in the expressions 'man and wife', 'man and woman', 'man and inhabitant', and also 'man and human being' (vir et homo). In those expressions 'man' in the internal sense means that which belongs to the understanding, which is truth, while 'wife', 'woman', 'inhabitant', and 'human being' mean that which belongs to the will, which is good. As in Isaiah,

I look, and there is no man, and from these there is no counsellor. Isaiah 41:28.

'No man' stands for no one having intelligence, and so for no truth.

[2] In the same prophet,

I came, and there was no man; I called and no one answered. Isaiah 50:2.

Here the meaning is the same. In the same prophet,

Truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness has been unable to come in, and truth has been removed, and he who retreats from evil is insane. Jehovah saw, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgement. And He saw, and there was no man, and wondered. Isaiah 59:14-16.

'No man' clearly stands for no one having intelligence, and so in the universal sense for no truth. These verses in Isaiah refer to the final period of the Church when no truth at all exists any longer. Hence the statement 'truth has stumbled in the street, uprightness cannot come in, and truth has been removed'. 'The street' too has reference to truth, see 2336, as does 'judgement', 2235. In Jeremiah,

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now, and take note, and search in its broad places, if you find a man, if anyone is executing judgement and seeking truth. Jeremiah 5:1.

Here also 'a man' clearly stands for one having intelligence, and for truth. In Zephaniah,

I will make their streets desolate with none passing through; their cities will be devastated, with not a man and not an inhabitant there. Zephaniah 3:6.

'Not a man' stands for no truth, 'not an inhabitant' for no good, 2268, 2451, 2712. The same occurs in many other places besides these.