287. We can also tell that love and wisdom are human by looking at heaven's angels, who are people in full beauty to the extent that they are caught up in love, and therefore in wisdom, from the Lord. The same conclusion follows from what it says in the Word about Adam's being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), because he was created in the form of love and wisdom.

All earthly individuals are born in the human form as to their physical bodies. This is because our spirit, which is also called our soul, is a person; and it is a person because it is receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. To the extent that our spirit or soul actually accepts love and wisdom, we become human after the death of these material bodies that we are carrying around. To the extent that we do not accept love and wisdom we become grotesque creatures, retaining some trace of humanity because of our ability to accept them.

9400. 'And said, Behold the blood of the covenant' means that by means of this truth the Lord's Divine Human is joined to heaven and to earth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with above in 9393, 9399; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, also dealt with above, in 9396. The reason why it is a joining to heaven and to earth is that the Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Human passes through the heavens, right on to mankind in the world; and on the way down it is adapted to suit each heaven, and ultimately mankind itself. Divine Truth on our planet is the Word, 9350-9362, which is composed in such a way that it has, in every detail, an inward sense intended for the heavens, and finally an outward sense, which is the literal sense, intended for mankind. From this it is evident that through the Word the Lord is joined to the heavens and to the world, 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, 9396.

[2] All this leads to the definite conclusion that without the Word on this planet heaven would not be joined to mankind, and neither therefore would the Lord, and if that conjunction did not exist the human race on this planet would entirely perish. For what composes a person's interior life is God's truth flowing in from the Lord. This truth is light itself, enlightening the person's inner sight, that is, his understanding; it is also the heavenly heat, held within that light, which is love, warming and bringing life to the will part in the internal man. Left without this light and heat therefore the inner being of a person would become blind and cold and it would die, in the same way that a person's outward being would if left without the heat and light of the worldly sun. But all this will seem to be absurd to those who do not believe that the Word is of such a nature, also to those who believe that life in a person is intrinsically his own and not something flowing in unceasingly from the Lord by way of heaven.

The life within a person is not intrinsically his but flows in from the Lord, see 4249, 4882, 5147, 5150, 5986, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7147, 7270, 7343, 8685, 8701, 8717, 8728, 9110, 9111, 9223, 9276.

Before the Lord's eyes His Church, spread throughout the world, is like one human being, 9276, in the same way as heaven is, which is consequently called the Grand Man. The Church, where the Word exists, is like the heart and lungs in that human being, and all outside the Church receive life from it, even as the members, viscera, and all other organs of the body receive life from the heart and lungs, 2054, 2853, 7396.