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.

9. CHAPTER VI. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE BY THE ONE INFINITE GOD, FROM THE DIVINE LOVE BY MEANS OF THE DIVINE WISDOM

1. Enlightened reason sees that the very first origin of the world is love, and that the world was created from that by means of wisdom. It is owing to this and not anything else that the world is, from its first things to its last things, a work that is eternally self-consistent.

2. That the world was created from love by means of wisdom, thus by means of the Sun ¹ which is pure Love with Jehovah God in the midst of it, can be seen from the correspondence of love with heat, and wisdom with light. By means of these two, heat and light, the world continues in existence, and year by year all the things on its surface are created; and if they were both withdrawn, the world would fall into chaos, and so into nothing.

3. There are three things that follow in regular sequence and go forth in inseparable companionship, namely, Love, Wisdom, and Use.

4. Love comes into existence by means of wisdom, and in use continues in existence.

5. These three are in God, and the three of them go forth from God.

6. The created universe consists of an endless number of receptacles of those three.

7. Because love and wisdom come into existence and continue in existence in use, the created universe is a receptacle of uses, which, by reason of their source, are limitless.

8. As all good is from God and good and use are one, and as the created universe is the fullness of uses in forms, it follows that the created universe is the fullness of God.

9. That creation was effected from the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom is meant by these words in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... All things were made by Him . . . and the world was made by Him. [John 1:1, 3, 10.]

By " God " there is meant the Divine Good of love, and by " the Word " which also was God, the Divine Truth of wisdom.

10. Evils, or evil uses, did not come into existence until after creation.

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