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.

3212. 'And Isaac was comforted after [the death of] his mother' means a new state. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'receiving comfort' as a new state, for a state of comfort is a new state, which, following the previous one, is meant by 'after his mother'. The new state is a state of glorification of the Rational; already so as to good, it now became glorified as to truth. The Rational was glorified when it became Divine as regards both good and truth.

[2] As to the Human the Lord was made new, that is, was glorified, or what amounts to the same, was made Divine; but nobody can possibly grasp this, nor thus believe it, who is immersed in worldly and bodily loves. He has no knowledge at all of what spiritual or celestial is, and does not even wish to know. But anyone who is not immersed in worldly and bodily loves can perceive it, for he believes that the Lord is one with the Father, that everything holy comes from Him, and consequently that He is Divine even as regards the Human. And anyone who believes this perceives it in his own way.

[3] The state of the Lord's glorification can be grasped to some extent from the state of man's regeneration, for man's regeneration is an image of the Lord's glorification, 3043, 3138. When a person is being regenerated he becomes completely different from before and is made new. Once he has been regenerated therefore he is called one who has been born again and created anew. At that point a person's face and speech remain the same, but not so his mind. Once he is regenerate his mind is open towards heaven, and love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, together with faith, reside in it. It is the mind that makes him a person who is different and new. Change of state cannot be discerned in a person's body, only in his spirit. The body is merely the covering for his spirit. When he lays aside the former his spirit is seen, and indeed in a form altogether different if he has been regenerated. In this case it is a visible form of love and charity that possesses beauty beyond description, 553, replacing the previous form, which had been a visible form of hatred and cruelty possessing ugliness also beyond description. From this it may become clear what a regenerate person is, that is, one born again or created anew, namely one who is altogether different from before and who is new.

[4] From this image one can have some conception of the Lord's glorification. He was not regenerated as man is but was made Divine, being made so from Divine love itself, for He was made Divine love itself. The nature of His form at that time was shown to Peter, James, and John when they were allowed to see Him not with their physical eyes but with those of the spirit, that is to say, on the occasion when His face shone like the sun, Matthew 17:2. This was His Divine Human, as is clear from the voice which at that time declared from the cloud, 'This is My beloved Son', Matthew 17:5 - 'the Son' being the Divine Human, see 2628.