Everyone Becomes Imbued With The End He Has In View

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Actual repentance is to examine oneself, to recognize one's sins, to confess them before God, and thus to begin a new life.

To the Reformed Christian world, this repentance is a very difficult task. This is because some are unwilling and some are afraid to practice it; and continued neglect establishes a habit, induces unwillingness, and at length gains the endorsement of the reasoning intellect, and this with some produces sadness, dread, and terror at the thought of repentance.

Actual repentance is so extremely difficult in the Reformed Christian world chiefly because of their belief that repentance and charity contribute nothing to salvation, but faith alone, from the imputation of which forgiveness of sins, justification, renovation, regeneration, sanctification, and eternal salvation follow. Moreover, their dogmatic writers say that man's cooperation of himself, or as if of himself, is useless, is an obstacle to Christ's merit, and is repugnant and injurious to it.  And this idea is implanted in the minds of the common people, although they are ignorant of the mysteries of that faith, merely by the sayings, that "faith alone saves," and who can possibly do good of himself?"  For this reason: repentance among the Reformed is like a nest of young birds deprived of the parent birds, which have been captured and killed by the fowler.

To this another reason may be added, that a so-called Reformed Christian is associated in the spiritual world as to his spirit, only with such as are like himself, who introduce such things into the ideas of his thought, and lead him away from the very first step toward self-inspection and self-examination. ...

Habit is a second nature — what is easy for one is difficult for another; and this is true of self-examination and a confession of what is thereby discovered.

What is easier for a hired laborer, a porter, or a farmer, than to work with his hands from morning till evening, while a gentleman or a delicate person could not do the same work for half an hour without fatigue and sweating? ... Every mechanic who is attentive to his task goes through it easily and willingly, and when he leaves it, longs to return; while another, who understands the same trade, but is indolent, can scarcely be driven to work. The same is true of everyone, whatever may be his office or pursuit.

To one diligent in piety, what is easier than to pray to God? while to one who is a slave to impiety, what is more difficult, and vice versa? What priest, preaching before a king for the first time, does not feel timid? but after doing it frequently he goes through boldly.  What is easier for an angelic man than to raise his eyes to heaven, or for a devilish man than to cast them down toward hell? But if the latter becomes a hypocrite, he too can look up to heaven, but his heart is turned away. Everyone becomes imbued with the end he has in view and the habit arising therefrom.

(True Christian Religion 561,563)

The Lord — The Essential Prophet

Selections from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Lord was willing to be tempted even to the passion of the cross, because He was the essential Prophet.

Prophets formerly signified the doctrine of the church from the Word, and therefore the state of the church was represented by them in various ways, some of which were unjust, grievous, and abominable, and these representations were enjoined upon them by God. But because the Lord was the Word itself, He, as the essential Prophet, represented in the passion of the cross the Jewish church in its ways of profaning the Word.

To this reason another may be added, namely, that thereby He might be acknowledged in the heavens as the Savior of both worlds; for all things pertaining to His passion signified things pertaining to the profanation of the Word; and while men of the church understand these naturally the angels understand them spiritually.

That the Lord was the essential Prophet is evident from the following passages:
The Lord said, A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house (Matt 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24).

Jesus said, It is not meet that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem (Luke 13:33).

Fear took hold on all, praising God, and saying that a great prophet is risen up among us (Luke 7:16).

They said of Jesus, This is the prophet of Nazareth (Matt. 21:11; John 7:40, 41).

That a prophet was to be raised up from the midst of the brethren to whose words they should hearken (Deut. 18:15-16).
...
Surely He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all by His knowledge He hath justified many, in that He hath borne their iniquities (Isa. 53:4, 6, 11).  This whole chapter treats of the Lord's passion.

That the Lord as the essential Prophet represented the state of the Jewish church with regard to the Word is evident from the particulars of His passion; as that He was betrayed by Judas: was seized and condemned by the chief priests and elders; that they buffeted Him; smote Him on the head with a reed; put a crown of thorns on His head, divided His garments, and cast lots for His vesture; crucified Him; gave Him vinegar to drink and pierced His side; that He was buried; and that He rose again the third day.

His betrayal by Judas signified — He was betrayed by the Jewish nation, which then possessed the Word (for Judas represented that nation); His seizure and condemnation by the chief priests and elders signified — this was done by the whole Jewish church; their buffeting Him, spitting in His face, scourging Him, and smiting Him on the head with a reed, signified — they did like things to the Word in respect to its Divine truths; their putting a crown of thorns upon His head signified — they falsified and adulterated those truths; their dividing His garments and casting lots upon His vesture signified — they dispersed all the truths of the Word, but not its spiritual sense, the Lord's vesture signifying that sense; their crucifying Him signified — they destroyed and profaned the whole Word; their offering Him vinegar to drink signified — the truths they had were wholly falsified, and therefore He did not drink the vinegar; their piercing His side signified — they wholly extinguished everything true and good in the Word; His burial signified the rejection of everything — was left in Him from the mother; His resurrection on the third day signified  — His glorification, or the union of His Human with the Divine of the Father.

Evidently, then, "bearing iniquities" does not mean taking them away, but it means representing the profanation of the truths of the Word.

(True Christian Religion 129, 130)

Illustrations of Redemption

Passage from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The subjugation of the hells, the restoration of order in the heavens, and the institution afterwards of a church, is a work that may be illustrated by various similitudes.

It may be illustrated by comparison with an army of robbers or rebels who invade a kingdom or a city, and set fire to its dwellings, plunder its inhabitants, divide the spoil among themselves, and then rejoice and exult — while redemption itself may be compared to the lawful king who advances against these rebels with his army, puts some to the sword, and some in prison, recovers the booty, and restores it to his subjects, thereafter establishing order in his kingdom, and rendering it secure against like assaults.

It may also be illustrated by comparison with a troop of wild beasts issuing from a forest, attacking flocks and herds and even human beings, so that nobody dares to go outside of the walls of his city to till the ground, and therefore the fields become deserts, and the townsmen are threatened with starvation — while redemption may be compared to the slaughtering and scattering of these wild beasts, and the protection of the fields from any such irruption thereafter.

It may be likened also to locusts consuming every green thing of the ground, and to the means to prevent their further progress; and again, to worms in early summer, which strip the trees of their foliage and thus of their fruit, so that they stand bare as in midwinter, and to the extermination of the worms, and the consequent restoration of the garden to its state of bloom and fruitfulness.

Thus would it be with the church, if the Lord had not by redemption separated the good from the evil, casting the evil into hell and raising the good to heaven.

What would become of an empire or kingdom if by the exercise of justice and judgment the evil were not separated from the good, and the good protected from violence, so that everyone might dwell safely in his own home, or, as is said in the Word, sit in peace under his own vine and fig tree?

(True Christian Religion 117)