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.

5826. Ye know that my wife bare me two sons. That this signifies that if there be spiritual good which is of the church, there will be internal good and truth, is evident from the representation of Israel, who says this of himself, as being spiritual good from the natural (of which just above, n. 5825); from the representation of Rachel, who is here the “wife who bare him two sons,” as being the affection of interior truth (see n. 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819); and from the representation of Joseph and Benjamin, who are the “two” whom she bare, as being internal good and truth-Joseph internal good, and Benjamin interior truth.

[2] In regard to this, that there will be internal good and truth if there be spiritual good which is of the church, the case is this. The spiritual good which Israel represents is the good of truth, that is, truth in the will and in act. This truth, or this good of truth, in man, makes him to be the church. When truth has been implanted in the will (which is perceived by the fact that the man is affected with truth for the sake of the end that he may live according to it), then there is internal good and truth. When man is in this good and truth, then the kingdom of the Lord is in him, and consequently he is the church, and together with others like him makes the church in general. From this it may be seen that in order that the church may be the church, there must be spiritual good, that is, the good of truth, but by no means truth alone-from which at this day the church is called the church, and one church is distinguished from another. Let everyone think within himself whether truth would be anything unless it had life for the end. What are doctrinal things without this end? and what the precepts of the Decalogue without a life according to them? For if anyone is acquainted with these, and with all their meaning in its fullness, and yet lives contrary to them, of what benefit are they? have they any effect at all? except, with some, damnation? The case is similar with the doctrinals of faith from the Word, which are precepts of Christian life, for they are spiritual laws. Neither do these conduce to anything unless they become of the life. Let a man consider within himself whether there is anything in him that is anything except what enters into his very life; and whether the life of man, which is life, is anywhere else than in his will.

[3] From this then it is that it is said by the Lord in the Old Testament, and confirmed in the New, that all the Law and all the Prophets are founded in love to God, and love to the neighbor, thus in the life itself, but not in faith without life; therefore by no means in faith alone, consequently neither in confidence, for this is impossible without charity. If this appears with the evil in times of danger, or when death is at hand, it is a spurious or false confidence; for not the least of this confidence appears in them in the other life, however much they may have professed it with apparent ardor at the approach of death. That faith, whether you call it confidence or trust, effects nothing with the wicked, the Lord Himself teaches in John:

As many as received, to them gave He the power to be sons of God, to them that believe in His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).

[4] They who are “born of bloods” are those who do violence to charity (see n. 374, 1005), also who profane truth (n. 4735); they who are “born of the will of the flesh” are those who are in evils from the love of self and of the world (n. 3813); and they who are “born of the will of man” are those who are in persuasions of falsity; for a “man” signifies truth, and in the opposite sense falsity. They who are “born of God” are those who have been regenerated by the Lord, and thence are in good. These are they who receive the Lord, and these are they who believe in His name, and these are they to whom He gives the power to be sons of God, but not to the others; from which it is very plain what faith alone effects for salvation.

[5] Moreover in order that man may be regenerated and become the church, he must be introduced through truth to good; and he is introduced when truth becomes truth in the will and in act. This truth is good, and is called the good of truth, and produces new truths continually; for then for the first time it makes itself fruitful. The truth which is thence brought forth or made fruitful is what is called internal truth, and the good from which it is, is called internal good; for nothing becomes internal until it has been implanted in the will, because what is of the will is the inmost of man. So long as good and truth are outside of the will, and in the understanding only, they are outside of the man; for the understanding is without, and the will is within.