From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #92

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92. (iv) THE HUMAN BY WHICH HE BROUGHT HIMSELF INTO THE WORLD IS THE SON OF GOD.

The Lord said on many occasions that the Father sent Him and that He was sent by the Father; e.g, Matthew 10:40; 15:24; John 3:17, 34; 5:23-24, 36-38; 6:29, 39-40, 44, 57; 7:16, 18, 28-29; 8:16, 18, 29, 42; 9:4; and very many other passages. He said this because by 'being sent into the world' is meant coming down and mixing with human beings; this He did by means of the Human, which He took upon Himself by means of the Virgin Mary. The Human too is really the Son of God, because it was conceived of Jehovah God as the Father (as is stated by Luke 1:32, 35). The Human is called the Son of God, the Son of Man and the Son of Mary; by the Son of the God is meant Jehovah God in His Human, by the Son of Man the Lord as to the Word, and by the Son of Mary the actual human which He took upon Himself. It will be proved in the following pages that these are the meanings of the Son of God and the Son of Man; that the Son of Mary means His purely human nature is evident from the reproduction of human beings, where the soul comes from the father and the body from the mother. The father's semen contains the soul, and this is clothed with a body in the mother's womb. To put it another way, everything spiritual a person has is from his father, everything material from his mother.

[2] In the case of the Lord, what was Divine in Him was from His Father Jehovah, and His human was from His mother; the union of these two is the Son of God. This is clearly proved from the account of the Lord's birth, of which we read in Luke:

The angel Gabriel said to Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore the holy thing that shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God, Luke 1:35.

The Lord also described Himself as 'sent by the Father' because 'sent' has a similar meaning to 'angel', for angel in the language of the original means one who is sent. For it is said in Isaiah:

The angel of Jehovah's faces 1 has set them free, on account of His love and mercy He has redeemed them, Isaiah 63:9.

And in Malachi:

Suddenly the Lord whom you seek shall come to his temple, and also the messenger of the covenant, whom you long for, Malachi 3:1.

There are other similar passages elsewhere. It will be seen in Chapter 3 of this book that the Divine Trinity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is in the Lord, and that the Father in Him is the originating Divine, the Son the Divine Human and the Holy Spirit the emanating Divine.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin here follows the Hebrew in using the plural.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #688

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688. VII. By John's baptism the way was prepared for Jehovah the Lord to come down into the world and carry out redemption.

We read in Malachi:

Look, I am sending my messenger who will prepare the way before me, and suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Who will endure the day of his coming, and who will stand firm when he appears? Malachi 3:1-2.

and again:

Look, I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of Jehovah comes, so that I may not come and strike the land with a curse, Malachi 4:5-6.

When his father Zechariah prophesied about his son John:

You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, Luke 1:76.

The Lord Himself said about John the Baptist:

He it is of whom it was written, Look, I am sending my messenger before your 1 face, who will prepare your way in front of you, Luke 7:27.

It is clear from these passages that John was the prophet who was sent to prepare the way for Jehovah God, so that He could come down into the world and carry out redemption. It is also clear that he prepared that way by baptising, and by announcing the Lord's coming; and that but for that preparation all there would have been struck with a curse and would have perished.

Footnotes:

1. Latin: 'my face', corrected in the Author's copy.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.