The Abundant Life - A Spiritual Marriage of Goods and Truths - Part 1
By Rev. Paul Booth
By Rev. Paul Booth
There is something that we all share. It makes us what we are today. It can change us. We can live better lives if we want to. There is something that we all share - life, life that the Lord gives to us. None of us asked to be born. We were all given life. Most people would assume that we are speaking of our natural physical life on earth, but that is not what true life is, although that is a part of it. The point, in fact, is, if that life is what is meant, then we only are as the animals, which all have natural physical life. No, there is something far more to life than just this natural existence. There is spiritual and celestial life, and one day we will all put off this external life of the body that we have here on earth.
Those of us who have religion give credence to a Divine Being - to a God - as creating us and as giving us life. The mysteries how that happened, we usually leave to God and others who loves the study of such things and we are just content being here, living as best we can. Now, you might be beginning to think, here we go talking about God and Creation - talking about the Genesis story of the Bible of how we were created - and think, I've already heard all this, and maybe even think this is just a story for religious minded people. However, E. Swedenborg brings to our attention something that all other religions do not about the story. It is that man had lived, not only a natural existence with a physical body, but man had lived and can live again a spiritual and celestial life, as well while living here on earth. Such a life was in the presence of the Creator. God was with man in all his life - in his natural, spiritual, and celestial life. In truth, God was and is the life of man and without God's life there was and is no life.
We probably have all heard or read what happened to that man who lived then - in the beginning. Suffice it to say that today mankind does not have such a life as depicted in the Genesis story of creation, living in Paradise. In common terms, sin had entered man and his quality of life changed and so, today we do the best we can and live in only the natural state of life. Most of us have worked towards living a descent moral and civil life, a worthwhile existence, and have come to enjoy our life to varying degrees. However, the fact is that there is a tendency to live for and from one's self alone because that sin entered. The problem became that we begin to live as though life is our own, as though we own it, so to speak. In truth, when we think in that way we are rejecting God by rejecting His proceeding Love and, thus, the true and abundant life, the life that God gives to us and wants us to live and enjoy to the fullest. You can see that this has separated us from God and true life. Isn't that what Adam and Eve - those who lived then - did in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they were forbidden to eat of? In time, God's presence was closed off to man having been expelled from Paradise and from experiencing or from living a celestial, or even a spiritual life and must be brought back again or regenerated.
What is that presence, that life that the Divine gives us? Well, when we look at the miracle of birth, we are amazed. In the fetus, we know that the heart is formed and begins beating and many other things happening. The infant breathes his or her first breath and we know that there is 'life'. Here, we are only speaking of the physical life of the natural body with all its senses. Now what is it that gives that life its quality? What 'yardstick' do we use to measure our life by? Isn't it our goodness and our truthfulness? Don't we say that a person is good and truthful or that he is evil and lies?
Now, is the Divine Being, the God that you know good and truthful? Is your God's attributes and qualities love and wisdom? Most of us have such a picture of God. Don't all things created have some connection with God and, thus, with these qualities - with good and consequently with truth? If they are, then do not they exist or live according to Divine Order. In fact, Heaven exists only with those who are in such good and who knows and speak the truth, which has that connection, that relationship, in common with God. We on earth are no longer in the presence of God and in that Divine quality that is that true life. That Divine quality is lacking in us, yet it is there and can be awakened or vivified within us. If all those in Heaven have such a conjunction and a relationship with good and truth (and they have), then all things that have conjunction and connection with evil and falsities are in hell.
It is this lack of the Divine's presence of good and truth in us that causes us to suffer in this life and to want to obtain a better life where we can enjoy and delight in God's presence. Instead, there is a struggle, a combat 'as it were' or a labor while we live here on earth in equilibrium between Heaven and hell. At times, our life may seem good and consequently we live an apparently truthful life. At these times, we are connected with Heaven through our spirit and at least indirectly or mediately with God through unseen angels, though we do not realize it. However, when we live a selfish life and are in falsities, we are in connection and conjoined with hell through our spirit even while here on earth, yet we do not realize this either.
You can see that when we receive and are in life that originates from the Lord, we have connection with good and truth. However, when we accept only what is good and truth according to our loves our life then, 'as it were' originates from ourselves, and the Lord God has been closed off to us 'as it were'. Thus, we have connection with evil and falsity and the tendency to sin. In truth, such a life is called 'death' in the Word. Remember, in the story of Paradise a man could eat of all the trees of the Garden, even of 'the tree of lives' that was in the middle of the Garden. However, if a man ate of 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' he would die. In other words, eating of the 'tree of lives' man lives from God, but eating from 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' or wanting to know good and truth from 'self', man rejects life from God and has since lived from his self. This act ends in the love of self and the man no longer has the love of God, who was his Lord. From this we can understand that "all things in the universe, which are according to Divine order, have relation to good and truth", that is, to the Lord God. All that is in Heaven and in the world have relation to these two qualities. Quite simply, both the Divine's goodness and His truthfulness proceed into all things in the universe. The question we need to ask is 'what is that Divine order that we are to follow'? We have said the state that man is now in is one in which God's presence is not with him. The Divine order is that a man should prepare himself for the reception of God that he might come again into the presence of God. A man needs to prepare himself to become a receptacle and a habitation that God may enter and dwell within as within His temple. God's presence requires that a man live according to His commandments, that is, according to His truths.
Those of us who have religion give credence to a Divine Being - to a God - as creating us and as giving us life. The mysteries how that happened, we usually leave to God and others who loves the study of such things and we are just content being here, living as best we can. Now, you might be beginning to think, here we go talking about God and Creation - talking about the Genesis story of the Bible of how we were created - and think, I've already heard all this, and maybe even think this is just a story for religious minded people. However, E. Swedenborg brings to our attention something that all other religions do not about the story. It is that man had lived, not only a natural existence with a physical body, but man had lived and can live again a spiritual and celestial life, as well while living here on earth. Such a life was in the presence of the Creator. God was with man in all his life - in his natural, spiritual, and celestial life. In truth, God was and is the life of man and without God's life there was and is no life.
We probably have all heard or read what happened to that man who lived then - in the beginning. Suffice it to say that today mankind does not have such a life as depicted in the Genesis story of creation, living in Paradise. In common terms, sin had entered man and his quality of life changed and so, today we do the best we can and live in only the natural state of life. Most of us have worked towards living a descent moral and civil life, a worthwhile existence, and have come to enjoy our life to varying degrees. However, the fact is that there is a tendency to live for and from one's self alone because that sin entered. The problem became that we begin to live as though life is our own, as though we own it, so to speak. In truth, when we think in that way we are rejecting God by rejecting His proceeding Love and, thus, the true and abundant life, the life that God gives to us and wants us to live and enjoy to the fullest. You can see that this has separated us from God and true life. Isn't that what Adam and Eve - those who lived then - did in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they were forbidden to eat of? In time, God's presence was closed off to man having been expelled from Paradise and from experiencing or from living a celestial, or even a spiritual life and must be brought back again or regenerated.
What is that presence, that life that the Divine gives us? Well, when we look at the miracle of birth, we are amazed. In the fetus, we know that the heart is formed and begins beating and many other things happening. The infant breathes his or her first breath and we know that there is 'life'. Here, we are only speaking of the physical life of the natural body with all its senses. Now what is it that gives that life its quality? What 'yardstick' do we use to measure our life by? Isn't it our goodness and our truthfulness? Don't we say that a person is good and truthful or that he is evil and lies?
Now, is the Divine Being, the God that you know good and truthful? Is your God's attributes and qualities love and wisdom? Most of us have such a picture of God. Don't all things created have some connection with God and, thus, with these qualities - with good and consequently with truth? If they are, then do not they exist or live according to Divine Order. In fact, Heaven exists only with those who are in such good and who knows and speak the truth, which has that connection, that relationship, in common with God. We on earth are no longer in the presence of God and in that Divine quality that is that true life. That Divine quality is lacking in us, yet it is there and can be awakened or vivified within us. If all those in Heaven have such a conjunction and a relationship with good and truth (and they have), then all things that have conjunction and connection with evil and falsities are in hell.
It is this lack of the Divine's presence of good and truth in us that causes us to suffer in this life and to want to obtain a better life where we can enjoy and delight in God's presence. Instead, there is a struggle, a combat 'as it were' or a labor while we live here on earth in equilibrium between Heaven and hell. At times, our life may seem good and consequently we live an apparently truthful life. At these times, we are connected with Heaven through our spirit and at least indirectly or mediately with God through unseen angels, though we do not realize it. However, when we live a selfish life and are in falsities, we are in connection and conjoined with hell through our spirit even while here on earth, yet we do not realize this either.
You can see that when we receive and are in life that originates from the Lord, we have connection with good and truth. However, when we accept only what is good and truth according to our loves our life then, 'as it were' originates from ourselves, and the Lord God has been closed off to us 'as it were'. Thus, we have connection with evil and falsity and the tendency to sin. In truth, such a life is called 'death' in the Word. Remember, in the story of Paradise a man could eat of all the trees of the Garden, even of 'the tree of lives' that was in the middle of the Garden. However, if a man ate of 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' he would die. In other words, eating of the 'tree of lives' man lives from God, but eating from 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' or wanting to know good and truth from 'self', man rejects life from God and has since lived from his self. This act ends in the love of self and the man no longer has the love of God, who was his Lord. From this we can understand that "all things in the universe, which are according to Divine order, have relation to good and truth", that is, to the Lord God. All that is in Heaven and in the world have relation to these two qualities. Quite simply, both the Divine's goodness and His truthfulness proceed into all things in the universe. The question we need to ask is 'what is that Divine order that we are to follow'? We have said the state that man is now in is one in which God's presence is not with him. The Divine order is that a man should prepare himself for the reception of God that he might come again into the presence of God. A man needs to prepare himself to become a receptacle and a habitation that God may enter and dwell within as within His temple. God's presence requires that a man live according to His commandments, that is, according to His truths.