Conjunction with the Lord

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.   John 1:12, 13

The conjunction of the Human Essence with the Divine Essence was procured and effected by the Lord by continual combats of temptations and victories, and this from His own power.

He who apprehends the mode of the conjunction and union in any other way is much mistaken.

By this He became righteousness. The conjunction or union was effected with the Celestial of Love, that is, with Love itself, which, as before said, is Jehovah.

The conjunction of men with the Lord is also effected by temptations, and by the implanting of faith in love.

Unless faith is implanted in love, that is, unless a man by the things that are of faith receives the life of faith, that is, charity, there is no conjunction.

This alone is to follow Him, namely, to be conjoined with the Lord just as the Lord as to His Human Essence was conjoined with Jehovah. Hence also all such are called "sons of God," from the Lord who was the only Son of God, and hence they become images of Him.

(Arcana Cœlestia 1737)

The Strong Force of Love

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the Ancient Church, Jehovah was called "God Most High" for the reason that "height" represented and therefore signified what is internal, and thus "the Most High" signified what is inmost. Hence the worship of the Ancient Church was upon high places, mountains, and hills. The inmost also has the same relation to the exterior and the outermost, as the highest bears to the lower and the lowest.

The Most High or the Inmost is the Celestial of Love, or Love, itself. Jehovah, or the Lord's internal man, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure Love, thus of pure Mercy toward the whole human race which is such that it wills to save all and make them happy to eternity, and to bestow on them all that It has; thus -

out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow to heaven, that is, to Itself, by the strong force of love.

This Love itself is Jehovah.

Of nothing can Am or Is be predicated except of Love.  From this Love - because in Love, or of Love itself - is the very Being [Esse] of all life, that is, Life itself.  And because Jehovah alone is Being of life, or Life itself, as He alone is Love, each and all things have thence their being and their life; nor can anyone be and live of himself except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord alone; and as no one can be and live of himself except the Lord alone.  It is a fallacy of sense that men seem to themselves to live of themselves.

The angels plainly perceive that they do not live of themselves, but from the Lord, since they live in the very Being of the Lord's life, because in His love.  But yet to them above all others there is given the appearance as of living from themselves, together with ineffable happiness.  This therefore is to live in the Lord, which is never possible unless we live in His love, that is, in charity toward the neighbor.

(Arcana Cœlestia 1735)

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)