1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

9383. All the words of Jehovah and all the judgments. That this signifies those things in the Word that belong to life in the spiritual and in the natural state, is evident from the signification of “the words of Jehovah,” as being those things in the Word that belong to life in the spiritual state (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “the judgments,” as being those things in the Word that belong to life in the natural state. It is said “in the spiritual state,” and “in the natural state,” because with every man there are in general two states; one peculiar and proper to the internal man, which is called the spiritual state; and the other peculiar and proper to the external man, which is called the natural state. The reason why the state of the internal man is called spiritual, is that it is affected by the truths which are of the light of heaven, and by the good which is of the heat of this light, which heat is love. This light is called spiritual light because it illumines the understanding; and this heat is called spiritual heat, which is love and enkindles the will. Hence it is that the state of the internal man is called a spiritual state.

But the reason why the state of the external man is called a natural state, is that it is affected by the truths which are of the light of the world, and by the good which is of the heat of this light; which heat also is love, but the love of such things as are in the world; for all the heat of life is love. Hence it is that the state of the external man is called natural. Those things which are of life in the natural state are meant by “judgments;” but those which are of life in the spiritual state are meant by “the words of Jehovah.”

[2] That both are from the Word is because in the Word are all things that are of life, for they have in them life itself; because in the Word is the Divine truth which has proceeded and still proceeds from the Lord, who is life itself. It is from this that all things in the Word are matters of life; and also that all things therein have relation to the life; as can be seen from the two commandments on which all things of the Word are based, of which we read in Matthew:

Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from all thy heart, and in all thy soul, and in all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second Is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40; also Mark 12:29-31);

“to love God and the neighbor” is of the life, because everything of life is of love, insomuch that without love there is no life; and such as the love is, such is the life. “The law and the prophets” denote the whole Word.