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.

7206. And with great judgments. That this signifies according to the laws of order from the Divine Human of the Lord, is evident from the signification of “judgments,” as being truths (see n. 2235, 6397), and in the supreme sense, where it is said of the Lord, as being truths Divine; which truths are nothing but the laws of order from the Divine Human of the Lord, for all order is from Him, thus all the laws of order. The whole heaven, consequently also the universe, is in accordance with these laws. The laws of order, or the truths which proceed from the Lord, in accordance with which is the whole heaven, and the universe, are what are called “the Word by which all things were made” (John 1:1-3); for the “Word” denotes Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good of the Divine Human of the Lord; and hence it is that all things in the spiritual world and also in the natural world have relation to truth, as can be seen by him who reflects.

[2] By “great judgments,” in the proximate sense, are here meant the truths according to which they shall be judged who have infested by means of injected falsities, and who are signified by the “Egyptians” and by “Pharaoh;” and there are also meant the truths according to which they shall be judged who will be released from the infestations, and who are signified by the “sons of Israel.” By these judgments they are condemned who are in falsities from evil, and by these judgments they are saved who are in truths from good. Not that the truths which proceed from the Lord condemn anyone, for all the truths which proceed from the Lord are from His Divine good, thus are nothing but mercies. But as men do not receive the mercy of the Lord, they expose themselves to condemnation, because they are then in evils, and evils condemn. Neither do the truths which proceed from the Lord save, if the man believes that he is saved by virtue of the truths of faith with him, and not by virtue of mercy; for man is in evils, and from himself is in hell, but by virtue of the mercy of the Lord he is withheld from evil and kept in good, and this by a strong force. That by “judgments” both are signified, namely, the condemnation of the evil and the salvation of the good, is plain from those passages in the Word where the Last Judgment is treated of, as in Matthew 25:31-45, and elsewhere .