New Christian Bible Study

Commentary

 

The Lord as Redeemer

By New Christian Bible Study Staff
Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, aerial view

Part of the Christian message is the concept of redemption. What does it mean, to say that the Lord redeemed people?

Here are the key concepts about redemption in New Christian thought, as excerpted from Swedenborg's works (written in the 1700s):

"Jehovah God came down and took upon Himself a human form, in order to redeem and save mankind.

Christian churches today believe that God the Creator of the universe fathered a Son from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself human form to redeem and save mankind. But this is an error and collapses of its own accord, so long as the mind concentrates on the oneness of God, and the reason looks upon as fiction or worse the idea that the one God fathered a Son from eternity, and also that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is severally God, is one God. This fiction is utterly exploded, like a meteorite in the atmosphere, when it is shown from the Word that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man and also was the Redeemer." (True Christian Religion 82)

"In the process of taking on a human manifestation, God followed his own divine design.... Now, because God came down, and because he is the design..., there was no other way for him to become an actual human being than to be conceived, to be carried in the womb, to be born, to be brought up, and to acquire more and more knowledge so as to become intelligent and wise. Therefore in his human manifestation he was an infant like any infant, a child like any child, and so on with just one difference: he completed the process more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than the rest of us do." (True Christian Religion 89)

"There is a belief that the Lord in his human manifestation not only was but still is the Son of Mary. This is a blunder, though, on the part of the Christian world. It is true that he was the Son of Mary; it is not true that he still is. As the Lord carried out the acts of redemption, he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a human nature from his Father. This is how it came about that the Lord's human nature is divine and that in him God is human and a human is God.' (True Christian Religion 102)

"Suffering on the cross was the final trial the Lord underwent as the greatest prophet. It was a means of glorifying his human nature, that is, of uniting that nature to his Father's divine nature. It was not redemption. There are two things for which the Lord came into the world and through which he saved people and angels: redemption, and the glorification of his human aspect. These two things are distinct from each other, but they become one in contributing to salvation.

In the preceding points we have shown what redemption was: battling the hells, gaining control over them, and then restructuring the heavens. Glorification, however, was the uniting of the Lord's human nature with the divine nature of his Father. This process occurred in successive stages and was completed by the suffering on the cross." (True Christian Religion 126)

"Redemption consisted in the conquest of the hells, the ordering of the heavens and the establishment of a new church, because without them no one could have been saved. This is their proper order: the hells had first to be conquered, before a new heaven of angels could be formed, and this had to be formed before a new church could be established on earth. For people in the world are so linked with the angels in heaven and the spirits in hell, that in the interiors of their minds they are identified with one party or the other." (True Christian Religion 115)

"Without that redemption no man could have been saved, nor could the angels have continued in a state of integrity. It shall be told first what redemption is. To redeem means to liberate from damnation, to deliver from eternal death, to rescue from hell, and to release from the hand of the devil the captive and the bound. This the Lord did by subjugating the hells and establishing a new heaven." (True Christian Religion 118)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #82

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82. (i) JEHOVAH GOD CAME DOWN AND TOOK UPON HIMSELF HUMAN FORM, IN ORDER TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND.

Christian churches today believe that God the Creator of the universe fathered a Son from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself human form to redeem and save mankind. But this is an error and collapses of its own accord, so long as the mind concentrates on the oneness of God, and the reason looks upon as fiction or worse the idea that the one God fathered a Son from eternity, and also that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is severally God, is one God. This fiction is utterly exploded, like a meteorite in the atmosphere, when it is shown from the Word that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man and also was the Redeemer.

[2] The first point, that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man, is established by these passages:

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, who shall be called God with us, Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23.

A boy is born for us, a son is given to us, on whose shoulder the dominion shall be; and his name shall be called Wonderful, God, Hero, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6-7.

On that day it will be said, Behold, He is our God, whom we have awaited to free us. He is Jehovah, whom we have awaited. Let us exult and rejoice in His salvation, Isaiah 25:9.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a path for our God; and all flesh shall see it together, Isaiah 40:3, 5.

Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength, and His arm shall bear dominion for Him. Behold, His recompense comes with Him; He will tend His flock like a shepherd, Isaiah 40:10-11.

Jehovah said, Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion; behold, I come to dwell in your midst; then shall many nations cleave to Jehovah on that day, Zechariah 2:10-11.

I Jehovah have called you in righteousness, and I will give you to be a covenant with the people. I am Jehovah, this is my name; my glory I shall not give to another, Isaiah 42:1, 6-8.

Behold, the days will come when I will raise up for David a righteous shoot, who will reign as king and do judgment and righteousness upon earth; and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

There are also the passages where the Lord's coming is called 'the day of Jehovah', as Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22; Ezekiel 31:15; Joel 1:15; 2:1-2, 11, 29, 31; 3:1, 14, 18; Amos 5:13, 18, 20; Zephaniah 1:7-18; Zechariah 14:1, 4-21; and elsewhere.

[3] It is openly stated in Luke that Jehovah Himself came down and took upon Himself human form.

Mary said to the angel, How shall this happen, since I have no knowledge of a man? The angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so that the holy thing that is born of you will be called the Son of God, Luke 1:34-35.

And in Matthew the angel said in a dream to Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, that that which was born of her was of the Holy Spirit; and Joseph did not know her until she had borne a son, and he called His name Jesus, Matthew 1:20, 25. The Holy Spirit means the Divine which proceeds from Jehovah God, as will be seen in Chapter 3 of this book. Everyone knows that a child gets its soul and life from the father, its body from the mother. 1 So how could it be more openly stated that the Lord's soul and life were from Jehovah God, and because the Divine cannot be divided, that the Father's Divine itself was His soul and life? That is why the Lord so many times called Jehovah God His Father, and Jehovah God called Him His Son. Can anything more ridiculous be said than the idea that our Lord's soul was from His mother Mary? Yet such is the dream of both Roman Catholics and Protestants today, and they have not woken up to what is said in the Word.

Footnotes:

1. Reading ex matre 'from the mother' for ex anima 'from the soul', apparently a repetition from the preceding clause, cf. 92[1]; 103[1].

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 32

Study

   

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

2 Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house.

3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;

5 and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he shall be there until I visit him, says Yahweh: though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper?

6 Jeremiah said, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

7 Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to Buy it.

8 So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Yahweh, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of Yahweh.

9 I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

10 I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.

11 So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;

12 and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

13 I commanded Baruch before them, saying,

14 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.

15 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.

16 Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

17 Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,

18 who show loving kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, Yahweh of Armies is his name;

19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

20 who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among [other] men; and made yourself a name, as in this day;

21 and brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;

22 and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

23 and they came in, and possessed it, but they didn't obey your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them.

24 Behold, the mounds, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it.

25 You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, Buy the field for money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26 Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying,

27 Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?

28 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

29 and the Chaldeans, who fight against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh.

31 For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

33 They have turned to me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

35 They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech; which I didn't command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

36 Now therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:

37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:

38 and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

40 and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

42 For thus says Yahweh: Like as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

43 Fields shall be bought in this land, about which you say, It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: for I will cause their captivity to return, says Yahweh.

   

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