The Lord's Whole Life in the World

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The temptations the Lord sustained ... concerning which nothing is related in the Word of the New Testament, except: —

• concerning His temptation in the wilderness
• soon after He came out of the wilderness
• concerning His last temptation in Gethsemane

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:36-39)

• what then followed

Three Prayers Jesus Prayed on the Cross

• Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)

• Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

• Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:46)

vvv

That 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.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1690 )

The Virgin Birth

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. (Genesis 12:1) —

The Lord's first state, when born, which state, because most deeply hidden, cannot well be set forth to the comprehension.

The Lord was like other men, except that He was conceived of Jehovah, but still was born of a virgin mother, and by birth derived infirmities from the virgin mother like those of man in general. These infirmities are corporeal, and it is said of them in this verse that He should recede from them, in order that celestial and spiritual things might be presented for Him to see.

There are two hereditary natures connate in man, one from the father, the other from the mother. The Lord's heredity from the Father was the Divine, but His heredity from the mother was the infirm human. This infirm nature which a man derives hereditarily from his mother, is something corporeal that is dispersed when he is being regenerated, while that which a man derives from his father remains to eternity. But the Lord's heredity from Jehovah, as was said, was the Divine.

Another arcanum is that the Lord's Human also was made Divine. In Him alone there was a correspondence of all the things of the body with the Divine - a most perfect correspondence, infinitely perfect, giving rise to a union of the corporeal things with Divine celestial things, and of sensuous things with Divine spiritual things; and thus He was the Perfect Man, and the Only Man.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1414)

The evil heredity from the mother, in His external man, is evident from what has been already said concerning that which was inherited by the Lord - for He was born as are other men, and inherited evils from the mother, against which He fought, and which He overcame. It is well known that the Lord underwent and endured the most grievous temptations, temptations so great that He fought alone and by His own power against the whole of hell.

No one can undergo temptation unless evil adheres to him; he who has no evil cannot have the least temptation; evil is what the infernal spirits excite.

In the Lord there was not any evil that was actual, or His own, as there is in all men, but there was hereditary evil from the mother, which is here called "the Canaanite then in the land."

Again, there are two hereditary natures connate in man, one from the father, the other from the mother; that which is from the father remains to eternity, but that which is from the mother is dispersed by the Lord while the man is being regenerated. The Lord's hereditary nature from His Father, however, was the Divine. His heredity from the mother was evil, and this is treated of here, and is that through which He underwent temptations (see Mark 1:12-13; Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1-2). But, as already said, He had no evil that was actual, or His own, nor had He any hereditary evil from the mother after He had overcome hell by means of temptations; on which account it is here said that there was such evil at that time, that is, that the "Canaanite was then in the land."

The Canaanites were those who dwelt by the sea and by the coast of Jordan, as is evident in Moses. The spies on their return said:

We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit the people that dwelleth in the land is strong, and the cities are fenced, very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there; Amalek dwelleth in the south; and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanite dwelleth by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan (Num. 13:27-29).

That the Canaanites dwelt by the sea and by the coast of Jordan, signified evil thence in the external man, such as is the heredity from the mother; for the sea and the Jordan were boundaries.

That such evil is signified by "the Canaanite," is also evident in Zechariah:

In that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah Zebaoth (Zech. 14:21);

where the Lord's kingdom is treated of, and it is signified that the Lord will conquer the evil meant by the Canaanite and will expel it from His kingdom. All kinds of evils are signified by the idolatrous nations in the land of Canaan, among which were the Canaanites (see Gen. 15:18-21; Exod. 3:8, 17; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut. 7:1; 20:17; Josh. 3:10; 24:11; Judges 3:5).

(from Arcana Coelestia 1444)

And the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land. (Genesis 13:7) —

That this signifies evils and falsities in the external man, is evident from the signification of "the Canaanite," as being the hereditary evil from the mother in the external man and from the signification of "the Perizzite," as being the derivative falsity (concerning which see below). That there was with the Lord an evil heredity from the mother in His external man, and that there was falsity from this, is a necessary consequence - for where there is hereditary evil, there is also falsity; the latter being born of the former. But the falsity that is from evil cannot be born until the man has been imbued with knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones]. Evil has nothing but these into which it may operate or flow - for in this way the evil which is of the will part is turned into falsity in the intellectual part so that this falsity also was hereditary, because it was born of what was hereditary, and yet was not the falsity that is derived from principles of falsity but it was in the external man, and there the internal man could see it to be false.

And because there was hereditary evil from the mother before the Lord had been imbued with knowledges, or before Abram sojourned in Egypt, it is said in the preceding chapter, verse 6, that "the Canaanite was in the land," but not the Perizzite; but here, after He had been imbued with knowledges, it is said that "the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in the land;" from which it is evident that by "the Canaanite" is signified evil, and by "the Perizzite" falsity. It is also evident from this, that the mention of the Canaanite and the Perizzite is not in any historical series, for in what goes before and in what follows they are not treated of at all; and the same is true of the mention of the Canaanite in the foregoing chapter, verse 6; from all which it is evident that some arcanum lies hidden here which cannot be known except from the internal sense.

Its being said that there was with the Lord hereditary evil from the mother may cause surprise, but as it is here so plainly declared, and as the Lord is treated of in the internal sense, it cannot be doubted that so it was. For no human being can possibly be born of another human being without thence deriving evil. But the hereditary evil derived from the father is one thing, and that from the mother is another. The hereditary evil from the father is more internal, and remains to eternity, for it cannot possibly be eradicated, but the Lord had not such evil, because He was born of Jehovah the Father, and thus as to internals was Divine or Jehovah. But the hereditary evil from the mother is of the external man; this did exist with the Lord, and it is called "the Canaanite in the land;" and the falsity from this is "the Perizzite." Thus was the Lord born as are other men, and had infirmities as have other men.

That He derived hereditary evil from the mother is clearly evident from the fact that He underwent temptations; no one can possibly be tempted who has no evil; it is the evil in a man which tempts, and through which he is tempted. That the Lord was tempted, and that he underwent temptations a thousandfold more grievous than any man can ever endure; and that He endured them alone, and overcame evil, or the devil and all hell, by His own power, is also evident.

Concerning these temptations we read thus in Luke:

Jesus was led in the spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted by the devil, so that He did not eat in those days. But after the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him for a season. Thence He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee (Luke 4:1-2, 13-14)

And in Mark:

The Spirit impelling Jesus made Him go forth into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted, and He was with the wild beasts (Mark 1:12-13);

where hell is signified by "the wild beasts." Moreover, He was tempted even unto death, so that His sweat was drops of blood:

And being in an agony, He prayed the more earnestly; and His sweat became as drops of blood falling down upon the earth (Luke 22:44).

No angel can ever be tempted of the devil; because, while he is in the Lord, evil spirits cannot approach him, even distantly, without being instantly seized with horror and terror. Much less would hell have been able to approach the Lord if He had been born Divine; that is, without evil adhering from the mother.

It is likewise a common expression with preachers, that the Lord also bore the iniquities and evils of the human race, but for Him to admit into Himself iniquities and evils, except by the hereditary way, is utterly impossible — for the Divine is not susceptible of evil. And therefore in order that He might conquer evil by His own powers - which no man has been able to do, or is able to do - and so might alone become righteousness, He was willing to be born as are other men. If it had not been for this, there would have been no need of His being born, for the Lord could have assumed the Human Essence without birth, as He did sometimes assume it, when seen by the Most Ancient Church, and likewise by the prophets, but for the additional purpose of putting on evil, against which He might fight, and which He might conquer, and might thus conjoin in Himself the Divine Essence with the Human Essence, He came into the world.

But the Lord had no evil that was actual, or His own, as He also says in John:

Which of you convicted Me of sin? (John 8:46).

From what has been said it is now clearly evident what is signified by there being "strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle," which words immediately precede. The reason was that "the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land."

(from Arcana Coelestia 1573)

Those Who are in Knowledges Alone, and Not in a Life of Love

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Those who love knowledges alone, and not a life according to them, for the most part pride themselves on them, and seem to themselves to be wiser than others. Thus they love themselves and despise others, especially those who are in good, whom they regard as simple and unlearned. But the lot is inverted in the other life, where those who have seemed to themselves wise become foolish, and those who seemed simple are wise.

Every love contains within it all power to know what belongs to that love.

Take for example the animals of the earth, and also the animals or birds of heaven. These have the knowledge of all things of their love. Their loves are to feed themselves, to dwell safely, to propagate offspring, to rear their young; and they have all the requisite knowledge for these purposes; for this is in these loves, and flows into these creatures as into its own receptacles. This knowledge is in some cases so extraordinary that man cannot but be amazed at it. It is said to be inborn, and is called instinct; but it is of the love in which they are.

If man were in his own love, which is love to God and toward the neighbor, this being man's proper love by which he is distinguished from the beasts, he would then be not only in all requisite knowledge, but also in all intelligence and wisdom, neither would he have occasion to learn them, for they would flow in from heaven into these loves, that is, through heaven from the Divine. But as man is not in these, but in contrary loves, namely, in the love of self and the love of the world, therefore he must needs be born into all ignorance and lack of skill; yet by Divine means he is brought to something of intelligence and wisdom, but still not actually into anything unless he removes the loves of self and of the world, and thus opens the way for love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor.

That love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor have within them all intelligence and wisdom, can be seen from those who in the world have been in these loves, for when in the other life they come into heaven, they there know and are wise in such things as before they had never known; nay, they think and speak there as do the rest of the angels such things as the ear has never heard, nor the mind known, which are unutterable. The reason is that these loves have in them the capacity to receive such things.

(from Arcana Coelestia 7749-7750)