Old Testament

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?  

Psalms 41:7,9

All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they devise my hurt.
Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me.  

They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without a cause.
In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
Thus have they rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.   

All those who see Me laugh Me to scorn;
…they shake the head, saying,
“He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”   

He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief….
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows….
He was bruised for our iniquities…
And by His striped we are healed.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth….    

His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head….   

In His love and in His pity He redeemed them….

The New Testament

“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.... Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane…and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” 

And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 

“Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.” Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.

When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death…. Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” So Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.

Pilate said to them [the multitudes], “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”

And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him…. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS…. And those who passed by blasphemed Him…. Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”… And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” 

The Heavenly Doctrines

Why the Lord Came into the World

The Lord came into the world that He might save the human race, which otherwise would have perished. He saved them by subjugating the hells—which infested every person coming into the world and going out of the world—and at the same time by glorifying His Human.

Unless the Lord had come into the world, and been made Man, and in this manner had liberated from hell all those who believe in Him and love Him, no mortal could be saved.

To take away sins means to redeem a person and to save him. The Lord came into the world to render salvation possible to people. Without His advent no mortal could have been reformed and regenerated, and so saved. But this became possible after the Lord had deprived the devil (that is, hell) of all his power; and had glorified His Human, that is, had united it to the Divine of His Father. If these things had not been done, no person would have been capable of permanently receiving any Divine truth, still less any Divine good.

Fighting the Hells

All the hells fought against the Lord’s love, which was the salvation of the whole human race.

Out of His love toward the whole human race He fought against self-love and love of the world, with which the hells were filled completely.

The Lord’s combat against the hells was not an oral combat, like one between reasoners and disputants…. It was a spiritual combat, which is that of Divine truth from Divine good.

The Lord, in all His conflicts brought about by temptations, never fought out of self-love, that is, for Himself, but for all throughout the universe…. He fought solely so that all others might become something and be saved.

 The Lord made His Human Divine by means of temptations admitted into Himself, and by means of continual victories in them. Temptations are nothing but combats against evils and falsities; and as evils and falsities are from hell, temptations are combats against hell. The Lord fought from His own power against all the hells, and completely mastered and subjugated them. Before the Lord’s advent the hells had grown up to such a height that they were beginning to infest the very angels of heaven, and also every person that came into the world and went out of it. No one could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world.

Liberation from hell by the Lord was also accomplished by His glorifying His Human, that is, making it Divine. For only in this way could He hold the hells in subjection forever.

Nature of Lord’s Temptations

The Lord endured the most grievous and dreadful temptations, which are but little described in the sense of the letter of the Word, but much in the internal sense.

The description of the Lord’s suffering temptations when He was in the world is brief in the Gospels, but in the Prophets, and especially in the Psalms of David, it is extensive.

The Lord’s temptations were the most frightful of all. He suffered agony from the inmost parts of His being, even to the sweating of blood. He was at the time in a state of despair over the end in view and over the outcome.

He seemed to Himself to be in hell among the damned, so fierce and enormous were the temptations the Lord endured…. And He then seemed to Himself to be without power.

The Lord could not possibly be tempted when He was one with the Divine itself, for the Divine is infinitely above all temptation. But He could experience temptation as to His human…. The truth that neither the Divine itself nor the Divine Human could be tempted may become clear to anyone merely from the fact that not even angels can approach the Divine, still less the spirits who bring temptations about, and least of all the hells. From all this it is evident why the Lord came into the world and took on the human state of being with all its weakness, for by doing so He was able to be tempted as regards the human and by means of temptations to suppress the hells. He was able to restore every single thing to obedience and to order, and to save the human race which had removed itself so far away from the Supreme Divine.

The Lord was attacked by all the hells from earliest childhood right through to the last hour of His life in the world. The hells were constantly overpowered, subdued, and vanquished by Him; and this He did solely out of love toward the whole human race. And because this love was not human but Divine, and because the intensity of the love determines that of the temptation, it becomes clear how severe His conflicts were, and on the part of the hells how fierce.

Passion of the Cross—His Final Temptation

The passion of the cross was the final combat, whereby He fully conquered the hells and fully glorified His Human.

The subjugation of the hells, and the glorification of His Human at the same time, were effected by means of temptations admitted into the human which He had from the mother, and by continual victories therein. His passion on the cross was the last temptation and full victory.

The fact that temptation grows ever stronger until a person reaches the point of despair is plainly evident from the Lord’s temptation in Gethsemane, and also after that on the cross. 

The passion of the cross was the last temptation which the Lord, as the greatest Prophet, endured. It was the means whereby His Human was glorified, that is, united with the Divine of the Father. But it was not redemption. There are two things for which the Lord came into the world, and by means of which He saved people and angels, namely, redemption and the glorification of His Human. These two are distinct from each other, yet in relation to salvation they make one.

The Lord did not take away sins by the passion of the cross. He takes them away, that is, removes them, in those who believe in Him by living according to His commandments. Who cannot see from reason alone that sins cannot be taken away from a person except by actual repentance, which consists in his seeing his sins, imploring the Lord’s help, and desisting from them?

The whole of the Lord’s life in the world from earliest childhood consisted in constant temptation and constant victory. The last was when on the cross He prayed for His enemies, and so for all people in the whole world.

Glorification—Uniting His Human with the Divine Within Him

The Lord came into the world in order to glorify His Human.

Glorification is the uniting of the Lord’s Human with the Divine of His Father. This was effected gradually, and was completed through the passion of the cross. The union itself was made complete through the passion of the cross, because that was the last temptation endured by the Lord in the world, and it is by means of temptations that conjunction is effected.

In the Word of the New Testament, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned as three, when yet by these three names one is meant. For by the Father is meant the Lord as to the Divine itself, which was His soul from the Father. By the Son is meant the Divine Human. And by the Holy Spirit, the proceeding Divine. Thus the three are one.

By temptations the Lord united the Divine itself, which was in Him from conception, to His Human, and made this Divine, as He makes a person spiritual by temptations.

The Lord could not be tempted as to the Divine itself, because the hells cannot assault the Divine. Therefore He assumed a human from the mother into which He admitted temptations. By means of temptations and victories He expelled all that was hereditary from the mother, and put off the human which He had from her, until at length He was no longer her son.

The Lord assumed in the world a Human conceived of Jehovah, who is the Lord from eternity, and born of the Virgin Mary. Hence He had both a Divine and a Human, a Divine from His Divine from eternity, and a Human from the mother Mary in time. This latter, however, He put off, and put on a Human which was Divine. This is what is called the Divine Human.

The progress toward union was His state of exinanition [a state of humiliation or sense of separation from the Divine], and the union itself is His state of glorification. In the prior state, He prayed to the Father, said that He did the Father’s will, and ascribed to the Father all that He did and said. Moreover, except for this state He could not have been crucified. But the state of glorification is also the state of union. He was in that state when He was transfigured before His three disciples, and also when He wrought miracles, and whenever He said that the Father and He are one, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, and that all things of the Father are His.

The truth of the matter is that the Lord allowed temptations into Himself in order that He might cast out from Himself everything that was merely human, doing so until nothing except what was Divine was left.

Before His coming into the world, the Lord was indeed present with the people of the church, but mediately through heaven. Since His coming into the world He is present with them immediately, for in the world He put on the Divine Natural, in which He is present with people.

The Lord glorified His Human, and thereby became the Savior, Redeemer, Reformer, and Regenerator to eternity.

The Work of Redemption

The work of redemption was a combat against the hells, a subjugation of the hells, and a restoration of order in the heavens.

That the Lord’s passion of the cross was not redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the Father, from which He came forth, and into which He returned.

These two things, redemption and the passion of the cross, must be seen to be distinct. Otherwise the human mind, like a vessel, strikes upon sand-banks or rocks and is lost, with pilot, captain, and crew together; that is, it errs in all things pertaining to salvation by the Lord…. But although redemption and the passion of the cross are two distinct things, yet in reference to salvation they make one. For it was by union with His Father, which was completed through the passion of the cross, that the Lord became the Redeemer to eternity.

The Redeemer and Savior of the world is no other than the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and this is what is called the Son. Moreover redemption and salvation are an attribute proper to His Human, which is called merit and righteousness. For it was His Human that endured temptations and the passion of the cross. Therefore it was by means of His Human that He effected redemption and salvation.

“To redeem” means to deliver from evils and to free from falsities, and also to deliver and free from hell.

Without redemption no person could have been saved, nor could any angel have continued in his state of happiness. The Lord redeemed not only men but angels as well. This redemption could not have been effected except by God Incarnate. The passion of the cross was the final temptation which He as the greatest Prophet endured, and by means of which also He might truly subjugate the hells and glorify His Human. Thus it was a means of redemption, but was not redemption.

After redemption the Lord bestowed peace upon those who believed on Him, for He said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). Likewise He gives a person a sense of peace after temptation to feel peace, that is, gladness of mind and consolation. From all this it is clear that the Lord is the Redeemer forever.

How the Lord Redeems and Regenerates People

When He was in the world the Lord fought against all the hells and completely subdued them, as a result of which also He became Righteousness. By doing that He has rescued from damnation those who receive Divine Good and Truth from Him. If the Lord had not done so no person could have been saved, for the hells are unceasingly present with a person, exercising control over him to the extent that the Lord does not shift them away. And He shifts them away to the extent that the person refrains from evils.

In the temptations of people the Lord works an individual redemption, just as He did a total redemption when in the world. By conflicts and temptations in the world the Lord glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine. It is likewise with a person individually. When he is in temptations, the Lord fights for him, conquers the evil spirits who assail him, and after temptation glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual. After His universal redemption the Lord brought everything in heaven and hell into a state of order. He does much the same with a person after temptation, for He brings into a state of order everything of heaven and the world that are in him.

The Lord regenerates a person in the same manner in which He glorified His Human.

The Lord’s glorification advanced from truth to the good of truth, and finally to good. A similar process also takes place when the Lord regenerates a person. When the Lord makes a person new He first of all supplies him with the truths of faith, for without the truths of faith he does not know who the Lord is, what heaven is, or what hell is. Once a person has been supplied with the truths of faith he is then gradually led by the Lord to will the truth, and from willing it to putting it into practice. When at length the person takes delight in willing good and so putting it into practice he is regenerate. It is no longer truth leading him to will and do what is good, but good moving him to will and put truth into practice.