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.

6717. 'And married a daughter of Levi' means its being joined to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'marrying a daughter' as a joining together; and from the representation of 'Levi' as good, dealt with immediately above in 6716. How to understand the idea that truth which had its origin in good was joined to good must be stated. The truth that is instilled by the Lord into a person who is being regenerated traces its origin back to good. Initially good does not reveal itself because it is in the internal man; but truth does reveal itself because it is in the external and because the internal acts on the external, and not vice versa, 6322. Good is that which acts on truth and makes it its own, since nothing else than good acknowledges and receives truth. This becomes apparent in the affection for truth that is present with a person who is being regenerated. The affection derives from the good, for an affection that is a mark of love cannot come from any other source. But this truth that is received at this initial stage, that is, before regeneration, is not the genuine truth of good; rather, it is the truth of doctrine. For at this stage a person does not ponder on whether it is the truth but accepts it because it is part of the teaching of the Church. And as long as he does not ponder on whether it is the truth and then accept it, it is neither his own nor thereby comes to be his own. This state is the first for a person who is being regenerated.

[2] But once he has been regenerated the good reveals itself, in particular through the fact that he loves to lead his life in accordance with the truth which of his own accord he acknowledges to be the truth. At this point because he wills and acts on the truth he accepts, it comes to be his own. The reason for this is that it is not merely in his understanding, as it was previously, but is also in his will; and what is in the will has come to be his own. And since the understanding now makes one with the will - for the understanding accepts and the will puts into practice - there is a joining together of the two, that is to say, of good and truth. Once the joining together has been effected, then as if from a marriage offspring are born repeatedly, such offspring being truths and forms of good, and all the blessing and delight that accompanies them. These two states are what are meant by truth that has its origin in good and by truth joined to good.

[3] But the truth that is joined to good, meant here by 'a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi', is not the kind of truth that a person receives in the first state; for what he receives then is the truth of doctrine taught by the Church in which he was born. Rather, it is truth itself, for the subject in the highest sense is the way in which the Lord as to His Human became the law of God, the truth embodied in this law being what is meant by truth itself. The reason why the origin of such truth is good is that it was the Divine - what was the Lord's inmost Self and the Being (Esse) of His life - that gave rise to that truth in His Human. This was how that truth came to be joined to good, for the Divine is nothing other than good.