With the Lord ALL is Jehovah

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the universal heaven they know no other Father than the Lord, because He and the Father are one, as He Himself has said:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.  Philip saith, Show us the Father; Jesus saith to him, Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip?  He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?  believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me  (John 14:6, 8-11).

It is the Lord's Human Essence which is called the "Son of man;" which also, after the combats of the temptations, was united to His Divine Essence, so that it was itself also made Jehovah; wherefore in heaven they know no other Jehovah the Father than the Lord. With the Lord all is Jehovah; not only His internal and His interior man, but also the external man, and the very body; and therefore He alone rose into heaven with the body also; as is sufficiently evident in the Gospels, where His resurrection is treated of; as also from the words of the Lord Himself:

Wherefore do thoughts arise in your hearts?  See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have.  And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet  (Luke 24:38-40).

(Arcana Cœlestia 15; 1729:2)

The Lord's Love Toward the Whole Human Race

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The temptations ... that the Lord sustained in His childhood, concerning which nothing is related in the Word of the New Testament, except concerning His temptation in the wilderness, or soon after He came out of the wilderness, and finally concerning His last temptation in Gethsemane and what then followed.

The Lord's life, from His earliest childhood even to the last hour of His life in the world, was continual temptation and continual victory, is evident from many things in the Word of the Old Testament; and that it did not cease with the temptation in the wilderness is evident from what is said in Luke:

And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from Him for a season (Luke 4:13)

as also from the fact that He was tempted even to the death on the cross, and thus to the last hour of His life in the world. Hence it is evident that the whole of the Lord's life in the world, from His earliest childhood, was continual temptation and continual victory. The last was when He prayed on the cross for His enemies, and thus for all in the whole world.

In the Word of the Lord's life, in the Gospels, none but the last is mentioned, except His temptation in the wilderness. More were not disclosed to the disciples. The things that were disclosed appear in the sense of the letter so slight as to be scarcely anything; for to speak and to answer in this manner is no temptation, when yet

His temptation was more grievous than can ever be comprehended and believed by any human mind.

No one can know what temptation is except the one who has been in it. The temptation that is related in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13, contains all temptations in a summary; namely —

that from love toward the whole human race, the Lord fought against the loves of self and of the world, with which the hells were filled.

All temptation is an assault upon the love in which the man is, and the temptation is in the same degree as is the love. If the love is not assaulted, there is no temptation.  To destroy anyone's love is to destroy his very life; for the love is the life.  The Lord's life was love toward the whole human race, and was indeed so great, and of such a quality, as to be nothing but pure love.  Against this His life, continual temptations were admitted, as before said, from His earliest childhood to His last hour in the world.

The love which was the Lord's veriest life is signified by His "hungering," and by the devil's saying,

If Thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread and by Jesus answering that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:2-4; Matt. 4:2-4).

That He fought against the love of the world, or all things that are of the love of the world, is signified by:

The devil took Him up into a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee and the glory of them, for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it; if Thou therefore wilt worship before me, all shall be Thine. But Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve (Luke 4:5-8; Matt 4:8-10).

That He fought against the love of self, and all things that are of the love of self, is signified by this:

The devil took Him into the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and upon their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Matt. 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-12).

Continual victory is signified by its being said that after the temptations, angels came and ministered unto Him (Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:13).

In brief, the Lord from His earliest childhood up to the last hour of His life in the world, was assaulted by all the hells, against which He continually fought, and subjugated and overcame them, and this solely from love toward the whole human race. And because this love was not human but Divine, and because such as is the greatness of the love, such is that of the temptation, it may be seen how grievous the combats were, and how great the ferocity on the part of the hells.

(Arcana Cœlestia 1690)

Such as is a Man's Love, Such is His Life

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip, and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. Genesis 11:6

Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip.

...The people is said to be "one," and their "lip one," when all have as their end the common good of society, the common good of the church, and the kingdom of the Lord; for when this is the case the Lord is in the end, and all are a one from Him.

But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a man whose end is his own good; the Own [proprium] itself of man estranges the Lord, because thereby the man twists and turns the common good of society, and that of the church itself, and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself, insomuch that it is as if it existed for him. He thus takes away from the Lord what is His, and puts himself in His place. When this condition reigns in a man, there is the like of it in every single thought he has, and even in the least particulars of his thoughts; for such is the case with whatever is regnant in any man.

This does not appear so manifestly in the life of the body as it does in the other life - for there whatever is regnant in anyone manifests itself by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him, and which is of this character because it exhales from every single thing in him.

The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates to itself, and, as is said there, absorbs everything that is favorable to itself, and therefore it absorbs all the delight of the surrounding spirits, and destroys all their freedom, so that such a person has to be banished from society.

But when the people is one, and the lip one, that is, when the common good of all is regarded, one person never appropriates to himself another's delight, or destroys another's freedom, but insofar as he can he promotes and increases it. This is the reason why the heavenly societies are as a one, and this solely through mutual love from the Lord; and the case is the same in the church.

And this is what they begin to do.

That this signifies that now they began to become different, is evident from the connection. To begin to do, here signifies their thought or intention, and consequently their end, as also is evident from the words that next follow, and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. That in the internal sense their end is signified, is because nothing else than the end in a man is regarded by the Lord. Whatever may be his thoughts and deeds - which vary in ways innumerable - provided the end is made good, they are all good; whereas if the end is evil, they are all evil.

It is the end that reigns in everything a man thinks and does.

The angels with a man, being the Lord's angels, rule nothing in the man but his ends; for when they rule these, they rule also his thoughts and actions, seeing that all these are of the end.

The end with a man is his very life.

All things that he thinks and does have life from the end, for, as was said, they are of the end; and therefore such as is the end, such is the man's life.

The end is nothing else than the love; for a man cannot have anything as an end except that which he loves. He who thinks one thing and does another, still has as the end that which he loves;

in the dissimulation itself, or in the deceit, there is the end

which is the love of self or the love of the world, and the derivative delight of his life. From these considerations anyone may conclude that such as is a man's love, such is his life. These therefore are the things signified by "beginning to do."

(Arcana Cœlestia 1316 - 1317)