At face value, the Ten Commandments can seem intense and unforgiving. But Emanuel Swedenborg’s understanding of the internal sense of the Bible—spiritual meanings that lie beneath the literal words—can give us a new perspective on these familiar rules.

In this episode of their Swedenborg and Life web series, hosts Curtis Childs and Jonathan Rose study the inner meaning of the first commandment.

(Referenties: Apocalypse Revealed 950; Arcana Coelestia 8864, 8865, 8868, 8869, 8875, 8878, 8879, 8880, 8881)

59. This much in the doctrine has to do with the trinity and unity of God. It is followed next there by a treatment of the Lord’s assumption of manhood in the world, called the Incarnation. This treatment in the doctrine is also in its every word true, provided we clearly distinguish between the humanity acquired from the mother, which was the Lord’s state when He was in a state of submission or kenosis and suffered temptations or trials and the cross, and the humanity acquired from the Father, which was His state in a state of glorification or union. For the Lord assumed a humanity in the world that was conceived of Jehovah, who is the Lord from eternity, and born of the virgin Mary. He possessed, therefore, a Divinity and a humanity — a Divinity from His Divinity from eternity, and a humanity from Mary, His mother in time. This latter humanity, however, He put off, and put on a Divine humanity. The humanity He put on is what we call His Divine humanity, and which in the Word is called the Son of God.

So, then, when what is said first in the doctrine about the Incarnation is interpreted to apply to the maternal humanity, which was the Lord’s state when He was in a state of submission, and what is said there afterward to apply to the Divine humanity, which was the Lord’s state when He was in a state of glorification, then everything said there also concurs.

Concurring with the maternal humanity, the Lord’s state when in a state of submission, is the following statement that precedes in the doctrine:

Jesus Christ...(was) God and man; God, of the substance of the Father..., and Man of the substance of His mother, born in the world; perfect God and perfect Man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead; and less than the Father, as touching His manhood.

Also the statement that this manhood was not converted into the Godhead, nor commingled with it, but put off, and a Divine manhood put on in its stead.

Concurring with the Divine humanity, the Lord’s state when in a state of glorification, and now to eternity, is the following statement that comes afterward in the doctrine:

...although (our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God) is God and Man, yet there are not two, but one Christ...; (indeed) one altogether..., (for) He is one person. For as the rational soul and flesh form one man, so God and man is one Christ.