Verses 1-8. A General Summary.

Verses 9-18. The selection of right principles in the mind.

Verses 19-21. Invitation to enter upon the heavenly life.

Verses 22-25. A search into what constitutes the heavenly life.

Verses 26-40. The unwillingness of the unregenerate heart to enter upon it.

Verses 41-46. The attempt to do so from selfhood and defeat in temptation.

293. The Lord came into the world to save the human race, which otherwise would have suffered eternal death. He saved it by gaining control over the hells, which were assaulting everyone who entered this world and everyone who left it. He also saved the human race by glorifying his own human nature, because this gave him the power to keep the hells under his control forever.

His gaining control over the hells and the simultaneous glorification of his human nature were effected by allowing the human nature that he received from his mother to undergo spiritual crises and by continuous victories in those crises. His suffering on the cross was his last spiritual crisis; in it he made his victory complete.