The Third Round: The Lord’s Human is that Through Which He Makes Himself Known

From the work, Arcana Coelestia 2531

That which is Divine is beyond comprehension since it surpasses all understanding, even that of angels. Nevertheless this Divine, which in itself is beyond comprehension, is able to flow in by way of the Lord’s Divine Human into man’s rational. And when it flows into his rational, the way it is received there is determined by the truths that are there. Thus it is received in varying ways, differently from one person to another. To the extent therefore that the truths residing with a person are more genuine, the Divine flowing in is also received more perfectly, and the understanding part of his mind is enlightened.

From the work, True Christian Religion 193

The Word is spiritual in its inmost content because it descended from Jehovah the Lord, and passed through the angelic heavens; and the Divine Itself, which in itself is ineffable and incomprehensible, was adapted in its descent to the perception of angels, and lastly to that of men. Hence the Word has a spiritual sense which is within the natural sense just as the soul is in man, or as the thought of the understanding is in speech, or as the affection of the will is in act.

From the work, True Christian Religion 263

263. Few understand how the Lord is the Word; for they think that although the Lord can enlighten and teach men through the Word, He cannot on this account be called the Word. But let it be understood that every man is his own will and his own understanding, each man being thus distinct from every other; and as the will is the receptacle of love, and thus of all the goods of that love, and the understanding is the receptacle of wisdom, and thus of all things of truth belonging to that wisdom, it follows, that each man is his own love and his own wisdom, or what is the same thing, his own good and his own truth. For no other reason is man a man, and nothing else than this in man is man. In respect to the Lord, He is love itself and wisdom itself, thus good itself and truth itself; and this He became by fulfilling all the good and all the truth in the Word. For he who thinks and speaks nothing but truth becomes that truth; and he who wills and does only what is good becomes that good; and as the Lord fulfilled all the Divine truth and Divine good contained in the Word, both in its natural sense and in its spiritual sense, He became good itself and truth itself, that is, the Word.

From the work, Divine Providence 172

[3] SECOND, that the Lord is the Word because it is the Divine truth belonging to Divine good: The Lord teaches that He is the Word with these words in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God?. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us?. (John 1:1,14

Because this statement has been interpreted previously to mean only that God teaches mankind through the Word, it has therefore been explained as a hyperbolic expression, with the implication that the Lord is not really the Word. That is because people have not known that by the Word is meant the Divine truth accompanying Divine good, or to say the same thing, the Divine wisdom accompanying Divine love. That these are the Lord Himself we showed in Part One of our treatise Divine Love and Wisdom, and that they are the Word, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 1-26.

From the work, Arcana Coelestia 9405

That the coming and presence of the Lord in the Word is signified, is because the Word is the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord, and that which proceeds from the Lord, is the Lord Himself. And therefore they who read the Word and at the same time look to the Lord-acknowledging that all truth and all good are from Him, and nothing from themselves-are enlightened, and see truth and perceive good, from the Word.

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