44. BRIEF ANALYSIS
This is the Faith of the New Church in simple form. It will appear more fully in the Appendix, and in still greater fulness in the first part of the major work, treating of the Lord God the Saviour, and of the Trinity in Him; of love to God and love towards the neighbour; of faith, and its conjunction with those two loves. This faith will also be treated of in the remaining parts of that work, which will follow in their proper order there. But it is important that this preliminary account of the above-mentioned faith should be shown here to some extent.
The first Article, viz., that there is one God in Whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ, is shown by the following summary. It is a sure and abiding truth that God is one, that His essence is indivisible, and that there is a Trinity. Since, therefore, God is one, and His essence is indivisible, it follows that God is one Person; and that, since He is one Person, the Trinity is in that Person. That this Person is the Lord Jesus Christ is evident from the following statements: He was conceived of God the Father,Luke 1:34-35: thus, as to His soul and essential life, He is God. Therefore, as He Himself said, the Father and He are one, John 10:30. He is in the Father, and the Father in Him, John 14:10-11. He who sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father, John 14:7, 9. No one sees and knows the Father except He Who is in the bosom of the Father, John 1:18. All things of the Father are His, John 3:35, 16:15. He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him, John 14:6; consequently by Him, because He is in Him, thus is He Himself. According to Paul, in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9; and according to Isaiah,
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, Whose name is God, Father of eternity. Isaiah 9:6.
Further, He has power over all flesh, John 17:2 whence it follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.
The second Article, viz., that a saving faith is to believe on Him, is shown by these sayings:
Jesus said . . . He that believeth on Me shall never die, but shall live. John 11:25-26.
This is the will of My Father, that everyone who believes on the Son may have eternal life. John 6:40.
God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3:36.
There is no need to illustrate and prove the remaining Articles, which are that evils ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil, that good actions ought to be done because they are of God and from God, yet that man ought to believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him; for the whole Sacred Scripture from beginning to end confirms them and, in short, teaches nothing else than shunning evils and doing goods, and believing on the Lord God. Besides, without these three things there is not any religion, for religion belongs to life, and life is to shun evils and do goods; and man cannot do the one or the other except as of himself. Wherefore, if you remove these three things from the Church, you remove the Sacred Scripture, and religion also; in which case the Church ceases to be a Church.
For a further account of the Faith of the New Church in its universal and particular forms, see below, nos.116-117. All this will be demonstrated in the major work.
