The Divine needs to connect with what's been created, especially to what is human. Since the Divine Itself is, in its essence, beyond human comprehension, we can see and know it from its visible forms which are the Word, Jesus Christ, the created universe, and even the the human mind and body. These and many other things express the Divine Human.

To understand this further, imagine that you are completely paralyzed, to the point that you can’t make a sound or even move your eyes or the muscles of your face. Someone you love walks up to you. Inside, you feel a surge of affection. But how can you show it? You can’t say it, can’t smile, can’t even form an expression in your eyes. It can’t be done; you have no communication at all.

To be expressed, then, love needs a vessel, something capable of communication. That vessel is what Swedenborg calls the “human.”

For us, in the physical world, that “human” is in the form of our physical bodies. Through them we can smile, laugh, speak, hug, kiss, write - and can also strike out, shout in anger and criticize. Our bodies are the vessels that let us share what’s inside with the people around us. Through our bodies we also see, hear and feel the things inside others. They are the mode through which we interact.

But imagine if you could read minds, and could allow your mind to be read by others. You would no longer need your body as a vessel, but the things you shared would still be human; they would be human thoughts, human feelings, human ideas, still distinctly your own and reflective of the kind of person you are. You’d still have a “human,” but it would be your mind instead of your body.

That can give us some idea of what the Lord’s “human” is: it is the vessel through which we can receive His love and His guidance. It’s not something physical, like our human bodies, but is spiritual, as our minds are spiritual. And it puts His love into feelings, images and ideas, just as our minds do.

Put that way, it’s easy to see that the Lord’s humanity has always been, and was indeed an agent of creation: in creating the universe, the Lord used his human to give form to His love, forms that would be separate from Him, forms that He could love. It’s also easy to see that His humanity will always be: He is love itself, and that love will always need a vessel.

The Lord’s “human” also fills another great need. We are finite; the Lord is infinite. We live in a world of dead physical matter; the Lord is life itself. We are born into selfish loves; the Lord loves us infinitely. We live in time and space and can only think in terms of time and space; the Lord is outside of time and space, uncontained and uncontainable. For these and many other reasons the Lord, in His essence, is inconceivable to us; we have no mental tools to form an idea of the infinite. We can, however, think of the Lord as a human, and can thus worship him in the form of His divine human. By relating his love to us, his humanity makes it possible for us to relate to Him.

That leaves one great question: what about Jesus? He was human, but also kind of God, too. How does that relate to the idea of the divine human?

The answer lies in how we receive what the Lord gives us, and how that reception has changed over the millennia.

The Lord’s love is conveyed to us through the divine human in the form of what Swedenborg calls “divine truth,” which is essentially the Lord’s thoughts, His ideas. These thoughts are, of course, all about love, and are filled to overflowing with His love.

The earliest people, those of what Swedenborg calls the “Most Ancient Church,” could receive those thoughts directly, and accept the love in them directly. From this they were pure and innocent to a degree we can barely imagine, with wisdom and insight that sprang from the love they shared.

As people drew away from the Lord, though, their ability to accept the love contained within the divine truth began to degrade. In what Swedenborg calls the “Ancient Church” people received it in the form of love of one another, and accessed it through powerfully symbolic stories and the symbolism of nature. Finally, with the Children of Israel, the love and the truth were almost completely separated, with the Lord’s ideas contained within ritual, but His inspiration to be good operating in a disconnected way. Ultimately those people grew so evil that the desire for good was in danger of being choked off forever.

So the Lord rendered his “human” into physical flesh, born as a child to the virgin Mary. As always, that human was a vessel for the Lord’s love, but it was a vessel that could share divine truth in a tangible way. Swedenborg’s works say that Jesus spent his life stripping away His mortal aspects by battling temptations, and was a form of divine truth when He began His ministry. During His ministry he stripped away his mortal loves, until in the final temptation on the cross he was fully reunited with the divine love that was His soul. In His ministry, then, he shared His deepest ideas, and in His death He shared the love that formed and filled those ideas. It was enough to save humankind forever.

In doing this the Lord also changed His relationship with us. He gave us deeper truths about how to be loving, and taught us that love is more important than ritual. He also opened for us the idea that the Bible is full of deeper and richer meanings: that it is itself a form of divine truth. With these tools we now have the ability to use the Lord’s ideas as a key to accept His love. By knowing what’s right, knowing what the Lord teaches, we can compel ourselves to act in loving ways even if we don’t feel the love, and the Lord will use that to reform us so that we come to actually love what is good.

So the Divine Human is still a vessel for the Lord’s love, as it has always been. It’s a vessel that has adapted according to our needs and the paths the Lord can use to draw us toward heaven.

(Препратки: Apocalypse Explained 26, 151; Apocalypse Revealed 613; Arcana Coelestia 2716, 3061 [2-3], 4180 [5-6], 4687 [2-3], 4724 [2-4], 4735 [2-3], 6280 [1-6], 6804 [4], 6831, 7211, 9303, 10067 [3], 10267, 10356; Divine Love and Wisdom 14-17-18-22, 52, 285; Heaven and Hell 80, 101; On the Athanasian Creed 27, 62, 209)

151. These things saith the Son of man, signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, from which is that essential of the church. This is evident from the signification of "the Son of man," as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and in respect to Divine truth, since Divine truth proceeds from Him (See above, n. 63); also as being that from which is that essential of the church, namely, the opening of the internal or spiritual man, and the conjunction thereof with the external, since everything of the church with man is from the Lord's Divine Human. For everything of love and faith, which two constitute the church, proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human, and not immediately from the Divine Itself; for what proceeds immediately from His Divine Itself, does not fall into any thought and affection of man, nor consequently into faith and love, because it is far above them. This can be seen from the fact that man is not able to think of the Divine Itself apart from the human form, except as he thinks of nature, as it were, in things least. Thought that is not determined to a certain figure is diffused in every direction, and what is diffused is dissipated. This has been given me to know most especially from those in the other life who are from the Christian world, who have thought only of the Father, and not of the Lord, that they make nature in its minutest parts their God, and finally fall away from all idea of God, consequently from the idea and faith in anything of heaven and the church.

[2] It is otherwise with those who have thought of God under the human form; these have all their ideas determined to the Divine, nor do their thoughts, like the thoughts of those mentioned before, wander in every direction. And as the Divine under the Human form, is the Lord's Divine Human, therefore the Lord bends and determines their thoughts and affections to Himself. This, because it is the primary truth of the church, unceasingly flows in out of heaven with man; consequently it is, as it were, implanted in everyone to think of the Divine under the human form, and thus to see His Divine inwardly in himself, with the exception of such as have extinguished in themselves this implanted thought (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 82). From this the reason can also be seen, why all men, whatsoever after death, when they become spirits, turn themselves to their own loves, and thus why those who have worshiped the Divine under the human form turn themselves to the Lord, who appears to them as a sun above the heavens. But those who have not worshiped the Divine under the human form, turn themselves to the loves of their natural man, all of which have reference to the loves of self and the world, thus turning backwards from the Lord; and turning oneself backwards from the Lord is turning towards hell. (That all in the spiritual world turn themselves to their own loves, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-145, 151, 153, 255, 272, 510, 548, 552, 561).

[3] All who lived in ancient times and worshiped the Divine saw the Divine in thought under the human form, and hardly anyone thought of an invisible Divine; and the Divine under the human form was even then the Divine Human. But as this Divine Human was the Divine of the Lord in the heavens and passing through the heavens, when at length heaven became enfeebled, because men, of whom heaven is made up, from internal successively became external and thus natural, therefore it pleased the Divine Itself to put on a human, and to glorify it, or make it Divine, that thus from Himself He might affect all, both those who are in the spiritual world and those who are in the natural world, and might save those who acknowledge and worship His Divine in the Human.

[4] This is clearly stated in many passages in the Old Testament Prophets, as well as in the Evangelists; of these I will cite only the following in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And that Light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. It was the true Light, which lighteth every man coming into the world. He was in the world, but the world acknowledged Him not. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory (John 1:1-14).

It is plainly evident that the Lord in respect to the Human is here meant by "the Word," for it is said, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." It is also evident that the Lord made His Human to be Divine, for it is said, "the Word was with God and God was the Word, and this became flesh," that is, a man. And since all Divine truth proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human, and this is His Divine in the heavens, therefore by "the Word" is also signified Divine truth; and thence He is said to be "the Light which lighted every man coming into the world." Moreover, "light" is Divine truth; and because men from being internal became so external or natural as no longer to acknowledge Divine truth or the Lord, therefore it is said that "the darkness apprehended not the light," and that "the world acknowledged Him not." (That the Word is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human and Divine truth proceeding therefrom, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 263, 304. That "light" is Divine truth, and "darkness" the falsities in which those are who are not in the light, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 126-140, 275.)

[5] That they who acknowledge the Lord and worship Him from love and faith, and are not in the love of self and the love of the world, are regenerated and saved, is also taught in these words in John:

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be children of God, even to them that believe in His name; which were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12, 13).

Here "of bloods" means such as destroy love and charity. "The will of the flesh" is every evil from the love of self and love of the world, also man's will-proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil; "the will of man" is falsity thence that comes from that will-proprium. That those who are not in these loves receive the Lord and are regenerated and saved, is meant by its being said that those who "believe in His name become children of God," and are "born of God."

(That to "believe in the Lord's name" is to acknowledge His Divine Human and to receive love and faith from Him, see above. n. 102, 135.

That "bloods" are the things that destroy love and charity, see Arcana Coelestia 4735, 5476, 9127; that "flesh" is man's will-proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil, n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 4328, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10732; and that man's proprium is the love of self and the love of the world, n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660.

That "man" [vir] is the intellectual, and therefore truth or falsity, since the intellectual is of the one or the other, see n. 3134, 3309, 9007.

Thus "the will of man" [viri] is the intelligence-proprium, which, when it exists from the will-proprium [which in itself is nothing but evil], is nothing but falsity, for where evil is in the will there is falsity in the understanding.

That to be "born of God" is to be regenerated by the Lord, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 173-184.

Moreover, that all in the universe, from influx out of heaven and from revelation, worship the Divine in the human form, see Earths in the Universe 98, 121, 141, 154, 158, 159, 169; likewise all angels of the higher heavens, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 78-86.)

[6] From this it can now be seen that everything of the church, thus also everything of heaven with men, is from the Lord's Divine Human. For this reason "the Son of man," who is the Divine Human, is described in the first chapter of Revelation by various representatives; and from that description the introductory sentences to each of the churches are taken (as may be seen above, n. 113, and what is said to this church in particular treats of this chief essential of the church, namely, the conjunction of the internal and external, or the regeneration of the man of the church; for it is said to the angel of this church, "These things saith the Son of God, that hath His eyes as a flame of fire."

10067. 'And sprinkle it over Aaron and over his garments' means a reciprocal uniting of Divine Good and Divine Truth within the Lord's Divine Human in the higher heavens. This is clear from the representation of 'Aaron' as the Lord in respect of Divine Good, dealt with in 9806, which is the Lord's Divine Good in the celestial kingdom, dealt with in 9946, or what amounts to the same thing, in the higher heavens; from the meaning of Aaron's 'garments' as a representative sign of the Lord's spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to His celestial kingdom, dealt with in 9814; and from the meaning of 'sprinkling over them' as uniting. For what was sprinkled or poured out over someone represented a uniting, as also previously with the blood sprinkled over the altar round about, 10064.

[2] The reason why the Lord's Divine Human in the heavens is what is meant is that the subject here and in what comes immediately after is the Lord's Divine [Being] in the heavens and His union with the angels there, so that the subject is the second state of the glorification of the Lord's Human, see 10057. So it is that here 'Aaron' represents the Lord in respect of Divine Good in the celestial kingdom and 'his garments' Divine Truth in the spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to the celestial kingdom; thus the Lord in respect of both in the higher heavens is represented. The reason why the Divine Human is what this Divine Good and Divine Truth come from is that nothing Divine is acknowledged and worshipped in the heavens other than the Lord's Divine Human; for the Divine [Being] which the Lord called His Father was the Divinity within Himself. The truth that in the heavens nothing Divine is acknowledged and worshipped other than the Lord's Divine Human becomes clear from the Lord's words recorded many times in the Gospels, such as the following,

All things have been delivered to Me by the Father. Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22.

The Father has given all things into the hand of the Son. John 3:34-35.

The Father has given the Son power over all flesh. John 17:2.

Without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.

Father, all Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine. John 17:10.

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matthew 28:18.

Jesus said to Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19.

[3] The truth of all this is also evident from the consideration that no one can be joined through faith and love to the Divine [Being] Himself without the Divine Human; for it is impossible to form in the mind any idea of the Divine [Being] Himself, called the Father, because He is incomprehensible, and that of which it is impossible to have any mental picture forms no part of a person's belief nor thus of what he loves. Yet the most important of all the elements of worship is believing in God and loving Him above all else. That the Divine [Being] Himself, or the Father, is incomprehensible is also the Lord's teaching, in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

In the same gospel,

You have never heard the Father's voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.

[4] And that the Divine [Being] Himself, or the Father, is comprehensible within the Lord through His Divine Human is likewise His teaching, in John,

He who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. John 12:45.

In the same gospel,

If you know Me you know My Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. He who sees Me sees the Father. John 14:6-11.

And in Matthew,

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22.

The reason why it is also said that no one knows the Son except the Father is that 'the Son' is used to mean Divine Truth and 'the Father' Divine Good, each being within the Lord; and one cannot be known except from the other. That is why the Lord first says that all things have been delivered to Him by the Father, and afterwards that the Father is known to him to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. For the meaning of 'the Son' as Divine Truth and of 'the Father' as Divine Good, each of which are the Lord's, see 2803, 2813, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897, 9807.

From all this it is now evident that the Divine [Being] in the heavens is the Lord's Divine Human.

[5] Next it must be stated what was represented by the blood of the second lamb being sprinkled over the altar round about, and by some of the blood and some of the anointing oil being sprinkled over Aaron and over his garments. From what has been stated and shown above in 10064-10067 it is evident that the uniting of Divine Truth to Divine Good and of Divine Good to Divine Truth within the Lord's Divine Human were meant. But the arcanum that lies hidden within this has not yet been disclosed. The arcanum is that the uniting of Divine Good and Divine Truth, thus of the Divine [Being] Himself, called the Father, and Divine Truth or the Son, was reciprocal. The uniting of Divine Truth to Divine Good is meant by the sprinkling of the blood over the altar, 10064. These when they have been united are meant by the blood on the altar, some of which was to be taken, 10065, and by the anointing oil, which means Divine Good, 10066. Consequently the reciprocal uniting of Divine Truth and Divine Good within the Lord's Divine Human is meant by the sprinkling of that blood together with the anointing oil over Aaron and over his garments, as shown earlier on in this paragraph 10067.

[6] That the uniting was reciprocal is absolutely clear from the Lord's words in the following places: In John,

I and the Father ¹ are one. Even though ² you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father. John 10:30, 38.

In the same gospel,

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. John 14:6-11.

In the same gospel,

Jesus said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. All Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine. John 17:1, 10.

In the same gospel,

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And God will glorify Him in Himself. John 13:31-32.

From these places it becomes clear that the Divine Good of Divine Love, which is the Father, has been united to Divine Truth, which is the Son, in a reciprocal manner within the Lord, and that consequently His Human is Divine Good. The like is also meant when the Lord says that He came from the Father, and has come into the world, and is going to the Father, John 16:27-29; that all things which are the Father's are His, John 16:15; and that the Father and He are one, John 10:30.

[7] But a better way to understand these matters may lie in considering the reciprocal joining together of goodness and truth with a person who is being regenerated by the Lord, for, as has been stated previously, the Lord regenerates people just as He glorified His Human, 10057. When the Lord regenerates a person He instills truth that will become the truth of faith in the understanding part of the person's mind and good that will become the good of love in the will part of it. There He joins the two together, and when they have been joined together the truth of faith derives its life from the good of love, and the good of love receives the specific quality of its life from the truth of faith. This joining together is accomplished in a reciprocal or mutual manner by good; it is called the heavenly marriage and constitutes heaven with the person. The Lord dwells in this heaven as that which is His, for all the good of love springs from Him, as does all the joining of truth to good. The Lord cannot dwell in anything that is the person's own, because that is evil.

[8] This mutual joining together is what is meant by the Lord's words in John,

On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:20.

And in the same gospel,

All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them ... that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You, and they may be one in Us. John 17:10, 21-22.

A mutual joining together is described in these words, yet they should not be taken to mean that a person joins himself to the Lord. Rather the Lord joins to Himself the person who abandons evils; for the abandonment of evils is left to the person's own responsibility, and when he abandons them the reciprocal joining together of the truth belonging to faith and the good belonging to love is effected by the Lord, and not at all by that person. For as is well known in the Church, a person left to himself cannot do anything good, and so left to himself cannot receive any truth in his good. This too the Lord affirms in John,

Abide in Me, and I in you. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you cannot do anything. John 15:4-5.

[9] Light may be cast on this mutual joining together by a person's understanding and will when joined together. His understanding is composed of truths and his will is composed of forms of good; the truths belong to the faith present in him and the forms of good to the love there. The person takes in the truths by hearing about them with his ears or reading about them with his eyes and stores them away in his memory. Those truths have to do either with circumstances involving public duties or with those involving private conduct; and they are called known facts. The person's love, which belongs to his will, employs the understanding to look at the facts stored away there and to choose from them those that are in accord with that love. It then draws and joins to itself those that are chosen, and uses them day by day to strengthen itself. The truths made living in this manner by love constitute the understanding part of the person's mind, while the actual forms of good belonging to his love constitute the will part of it. Those forms of the good of love are also like a fire burning there, while the truths which have been made living by the love and reside in the parts round about are like the light radiated from that fire. Gradually as the truths are kindled by that fire the desire is kindled in them for a mutual or reciprocal joining together. This leads to a mutual joining together that is everlasting.

[10] From all this it is clear that the good belonging to love is what effects the joining together and not the truth belonging to faith, except insofar as it has any of the good of love within it. Whether you say love or good it amounts to the same thing, for all good comes from love, and whatever comes from love is called good. Also whether you say love or the will, this too amounts to the same thing, for what a person loves, that he wills.

[11] It should be recognized that the things which have to do with circumstances involving public duties and private conduct, spoken of just above, join themselves together in the external man, whereas those which have to do with spiritual circumstances, spoken of previously, join themselves together in the internal man, and after that in the external man by way of the internal. For those that have to do with spiritual circumstances, namely those which are truths of faith and forms of the good of love to the Lord, and have regard to eternal life, link up with the heavens and open up the internal man. The extent to which this is opened, and the essential nature of that opening, is determined by the truths of faith - how many are received, and in what way they are received, within the good of love to the Lord and towards the neighbour, these loves being derived from the Lord. From this it is evident that thought remains on a merely external level in the case of those who fail to absorb the things which have to do with spiritual circumstances, and that it rises no higher than the level of the senses in the case of those who refuse to believe in their existence, however intelligent these people seem to be in what they say.

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