Apocalypse Revealed # 949
949. 22:12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work." This symbolically means that the Lord will surely come, and His presence is heaven and the felicity of eternal life for everyone in accordance with his faith in the Lord and his life in obedience to the Lord's commandments.
"Behold, I am coming quickly" symbolically means that the Lord will surely come, namely, to execute judgment and to establish a new heaven and a new church. That immediacy in time means certainty may be seen in nos. 4, 943, 944, 947. "My reward is with Me" symbolically means that the Lord's very presence is heaven and the felicity of eternal life. That the reward is heaven and eternal happiness may be seen in no. 526. That it is the Lord's very presence will be seen below.
To give to everyone according to his work means, symbolically, to do so in accordance with a person's conjunction with the Lord through faith in the Lord and living in obedience to His commandments. This is the symbolic meaning because good works symbolize charity and faith internally, and at the same time the effects of these outwardly. And because charity and faith come from the Lord, and are received in accordance with a person's conjunction with Him, it is apparent that these are what are symbolically meant. The meaning here thus coheres as well with what has been said before.
That good works are charity and faith inwardly and at the same time the effects of these outwardly may be seen in nos. 641, 868, 871 above.
[2] People know that charity and faith come not from man, but from the Lord. And because they come from the Lord, they are received in accordance with a person's conjunction with Him, and a conjunction with Him is formed through faith in Him and living in accordance with His commandments. Faith in Him means a confidence that He will save, and this confidence is found in people who turn to Him directly and refrain from evils as being sins. Such a faith is not possible in others.
We said that "My reward is with Me" symbolically means that the Lord's very presence is heaven and the felicity of eternal life, for the reward is an inward bliss, called peace, and a consequent outer joy. This is possible only from the Lord, and whatever comes from the Lord not only emanates from Him, but also constitutes His very presence. For the Lord cannot emit anything from Himself without His being present in it. Indeed, He is omnipresent in everyone in accordance with some conjunction, and the conjunction depends on reception, and the reception on love and wisdom, or if you please, on charity and faith, and charity and faith on the person's way of life, and the person's way of life on an aversion to evil and falsity, and an aversion to evil and falsity on knowing what evil and falsity are, and on repenting then and at the same time looking to the Lord.
[3] That the reward not only comes from the Lord but also constitutes His very presence is apparent from passages in the Word where we are told that those people who are conjoined with Him are in Him and have Him in them, as may be seen in John 14:20-24, 1 15:4, 15:5ff., 2 17:19, 17:21-22, 17:26, 3 and elsewhere (see no. 883 above). And also where we are told that the Holy Spirit is in them 4 - the Holy Spirit being the Lord, for it is His Divine presence. So, too, when we pray that God may dwell in people, teaching them, leading them, giving them a tongue to preach and a body to do what is good, and other like things as well.
The Lord, indeed, is love itself and wisdom itself. These two do not exist in some location, but are present wherever they are received, in accordance with the character of the reception.
But this arcanum can be understood only by people who are wise owing to their receiving the light of heaven from the Lord. It is for them what we wrote in two works, one being Divine Providence and the other Divine Love and Wisdom, where we showed that the Lord Himself is present in people in accordance with their reception, and not some Divine quality apart from Him. This is the concept that angels have when they conceive of the Divine omnipresence, and I do not doubt that some Christians have a similar concept.
Сноски:
1. "At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."
2. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
3. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth..., that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one... And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
4. E.g., John 20:22
Apocalypse Revealed # 642
642. 14:14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man. This symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word.
A cloud symbolizes the Word in its literal sense, and a white cloud the Word in its literal sense as to what it is like interiorly. And the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word. Therefore we are told that on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man.
That a cloud symbolizes the Word in respect to its literal sense may be seen in nos. 24, 513 above. A white cloud symbolizes the literal sense of the Word as to what it is like interiorly because whiteness is predicated of truths in a state of light (nos. 167, 367), and the literal sense has interiorly within it spiritual truths, which appear in the light of heaven. That the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word may be seen in no. 44 above, and confirmed by numerous proofs in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.
[2] The Lord often said that His disciples would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. He said this in Matthew 24:30; 26:64, Mark 14:61-62, Luke 21:27, and no one knows that this symbolically means anything else than that when He comes to execute judgment He will appear on clouds in the sky. But this is not what it means. Rather it means that when He comes to judge, He will appear in the literal sense of the Word; and because He has now come, He has appeared therefore in the Word by revealing the existence of a spiritual meaning in every particular of the Word's literal sense, having the Lord alone in it as its subject, teaching that He alone is God of heaven and earth.
This is what is meant by the Lord's coming on the clouds of heaven.
That every particular of the Word's literal sense has in it a spiritual meaning, that this has the Lord alone in it as its subject, and that He alone is God of heaven and earth, is something we have shown in two Doctrines of the New Jerusalem - The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, and The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture.
[3] Because the Lord's coming on the clouds of heaven means His coming in His Word, at a time when He is ready to execute judgment, and because this is the subject of the book of Revelation, therefore we are told there, "Behold, He is coming with clouds" (Revelation 1:7). And in the present verse, "I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man."
Moreover, in The Acts of the Apostles we are told:
...while they watched, (Jesus) was taken up (into heaven), and a cloud received Him out of their sight... And... two men... in white apparel... said, ."..This same Jesus, who was taken up... into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." (Acts of the Apostles 1:9-11)
A cloud symbolizes the Word's literal sense because that sense is natural, and in the sight of angels, whose light is a spiritual light, Divine truth in natural light appears as a cloud - as a white cloud in the case of people who possess genuine truths from the Word's literal sense, as a dark cloud in the case of people who lack genuine truths, as a black cloud in the case of people caught up in falsities, and as a black cloud combined with fire in the case of people caught up in a faith divorced from charity, because they are engaged in evil practices. I have witnessed it.
