Sermon: Man's Free Will by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Genesis 1: 26; 2: 7-9, 16, 17; 3:1-5 ? Revelation 2:7; 22: 1,2
True Christian Religion 465:1
Lessons: Genesis 1: 26; 2: 7-9, 16, 17; 3:1-5 ? Revelation 2:7; 22: 1,2
True Christian Religion 465:1
Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there He put man whom He had formed. And out of the ground Jehovah God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2: 8,9).
We find in the Word of the Divine Human in the book The True Christian Religion that questions were asked in the spiritual world: What is meant by the tree of life? What is meant by the tree of knowledge of good and evil? And, what does the eating of them mean? We recognize them as the trees mentioned in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. We are told in The True Christian Religion that trees signify men. It is not too difficult to see this from the Word in both the Old and New Testaments where a tree or trees often are used to represent a man or men. Example: Psalm 1:2,3, where it is said, "Blessed is he whose delight is in the law. 'He shall be like a tree planted by the river of water that brings forth his fruit in his season." And what Christian today does not know that John the Baptist, when he prophesized saying, "Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3: 9,10), that he is speaking of man? Again, we can read where Jesus, Himself, said, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit" (Matt. 12:33). Anyone may see that He is not referring to trees, but to man. From these we can also understand the tree's fruit as a man's life.
If a man has received God's qualities, His love and wisdom, His charity and truth, or good and truth, then is not his life within him from God? Would not then the 'tree of life' signify man living from God, for are not such things called fruit - the good of life, which we are to eat of? And coming from God then is not such life eternal? To show that this is true, we read in Revelation 2:7 "To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." And, after the consummation of the first Christian Church, which became a Church in name only, it is said of the New Christian Church that descends now to earth that "In the middle of the street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life" (Rev. 22:2).
Yet, we see that there was also a tree of 'the knowledge of good and evil'. So, the question is asked, 'Why is there a tree from which man should not eat of in the garden?' Why is man to be seen as such a tree, which produces evils along with truths? For what purpose is man represented in his creation by this tree? Let us see the answer. Had not God made man in an image of Himself and in His likeness? "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'" (Gen. 1: 26). I think we would agree that today man is not an image of God, though he is be in a likeness of Him. We read in Genesis 3:22 after man had eaten of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' where it is said, "Behold, the man has become like Us, to know good and evil." Then, later he is called the likeness, but not the image of God. "He made him in the likeness of God" (Gen. 5:1). So, after he fell from grace, man could be seen, made in God's likeness, as having His love and wisdom within, though he was not in an image of Him. It was in an image that he is a recipient of God, that is, of His love and wisdom. So, you can see that, as a man becomes a recipient of God's love and wisdom that he then becomes made in an image of Him.
What we, here, can understand by these two trees planted in the Garden of Eden is that God gave man free will. He could choose not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, we know that he chose to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and, thus, the tree of life was closed off from him; he chose death, not life. However, because he chose death, does man still have free will? Let us see, by choosing to know what is good and evil, man feels that he loves from himself and is wise from himself, that he wills good and understands truth as from himself. This is, but, an appearance. Yet, as we have shown, he does none of these things from himself, but only from God, who gives him life. So, it is that as an appearance that love and wisdom, or goodness and truth is his and he thinks are his own that causes him to be a man, for we learn that men can become united with God and so live for ever. He is a man because he is able to will good and to understand truth as from himself, but yet know and believe that good and truth are from God.
Jehovah, of course, would not have planted two trees in a garden, one of them being a stumbling block to man. Is it Divine justice that Adam and Eve are cursed for eating a certain tree in the garden and that curse now rest upon every man? The question has been asked by some, 'Why did not Jehovah withhold Adam from eating when He was present and saw that he would eat from the tree? Or, why did He not cast the serpent down before it persuaded him? Can we not see that the story written in Genesis has within it spiritual things that have remained hidden until now?
No, God would not do these things because that would have taken away a man's free will. Man is a man and not a beast because he has free will. Thus, we may understand that the two trees mentioned in Genesis represent man's free will in spiritual things, for he can chose life or death. Now, everyone is left to his own will. He can choose to resist the hereditary inclination to evil or he can choose to yield to that hereditary inclination.
The New Church has brought forth a new doctrine. That doctrine teaches that man is a recipient of life; life is not inherent in him from creation and is not propagated then by descent. The man's inherent tendency to evil is spread only because man lives in the natural world and his natural senses are opened while the spiritual senses remain closed. So, all that is known to him of life is only an appearance. Even life its self appears to be his. However, to prove that man is a form receptive of life let us look to the Word. First, are not all created things themselves finite? And, that we are created from finite things? We read in Genesis, "Jehovah God created man, dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives (or life)" (2: 7). In fact it is known that 'Adam' means the soil of the earth. We see that these are natural and material things. Second, let us examine the spirit of man. Aren't they also made of finite things? Isn't a man's spirit the receptacle of the life his mind? These are the spiritual substances that make man's spirit. And, in fact, if these spiritual substances are not present with natural or material substance man does not grow at all. How could he be a form of the Infinite that is able to vivify if he does not have a natural and a spiritual?
It is insane to believe that God could transfer His life to man. That He could make him God or as gods. Yet, we see that Eve was persuaded that this was possible, for the serpent said. "In the day you eat of the fruit of this tree", "Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God (or gods)" (Gen. 3:5). Thus, today, the doctrine is taught in the Old Christian Churches that God has transfused and transferred Himself into man. As one sees that as man develops after he had rejected God's love man became wicked. We can read this in Genesis 6:5, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." After this was the end of that Most Ancient Church, the Adamic Church, for we see then that there was a new Church raised up and that this was called the Noahacian Church. We read, "And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen. 6: 8).
In the New Church we are told to raise our reasoning above sensual things of the body. When we do that, can we not see that life is not createable? Or that life is the inmost activity of love and wisdom and that these are God's and are of Him and in Him? Life, then, must be a living force. It only stands to reason, then, that for life to be with man, love and wisdom must be with him. And, even those Christian Churches that teach man has a life of his own do not deny that all the good of love and the truth of wisdom are God's not man's. Next, let us see that man receives these from God and that when he does, he is said to be born of God, that is, he becomes regenerated. Thus, we are nothing but an organized form adapted to receive both natural heat and light from the natural world and spiritual heat and light from the spiritual world. These two - the heat and light of the spiritual world and the natural world - correspond to each other, for heat signifies love and light truth. Finally, let us ask ourselves, can God's love and wisdom enter us? If we deny this then we are not conjoined with God and He does not make His abode and temple with us as the Word of God teaches and these are, then, nothing but empty phrases.
We have been speaking of man's free will. We have shown that God made man with a free will and that even after his fall, man still had the ability to choose God, that is, to choose good and truth. What is this free will's nature and where does it come from? From what we have just spoken we learn that it comes from the spiritual world and the Lord keeps man's mind - his spirit - there. Doesn't man's mind live after death in this spiritual world; his mind is his spirit. However, because, while he lives in this natural world, he does not know that his spirit is in association with similar spirits in the spiritual world. You can see that the two - a man's natural and his spirit - correspond. Are we concerned that when we pass into the next world that we will be not able to understand? No, our spirit already understands spiritually. However, while we live in the natural world, we are interiorly spiritual and exteriorly natural. We communicate with spirits by our interiors, but on earth with men by our exteriors. It is in this way that our thoughts are opened though choosing to follow truth. We are not limited, as are the beasts that cannot become born again of the Lord and that are only capable of appetite and pleasure.
We have spoken of a spiritual world. We know that the Word of God speaks of both a Heaven and a hell. They are both in the spiritual world and are not in the natural world, though they do have the appearance of being in space. We may have also read in the Word of a great intervening region between Heaven and hell. "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us" (Luke 16: 26). Thus, it is that the spiritual world includes both, Heaven, hell, and the world of spirits. Now, while we are in this world, our spirits are 'as it were' held in this region in the spiritual world, that is, our spirit lives in the world of spirits. Our spirit lives there though our natural lives here. And, here, in this world, we go through temptations and while we may be persuaded to choose certain natural or material things in order to survive, we are still left in freedom to have and enjoy free will in spiritual things. We can choose good and the truth or we may chose evil and falsity. Our choice determines which spirits associate with us, either good spirits or evil spirits. Yet it is, our love that what unites us either with angels or devils when we depart this natural world. Then, after a while, our spirit divests its self of externals, which are not in accord with our internals, and our abode is then either in Heaven or in hell, for then it is that the Lord makes His abode, His temple within us.
So, we learn that our free will in this natural world is from a spiritual equilibrium in which we are held. Heaven and its angels 'as it were' pull us toward Heaven while hell and its evil spirits pulls us toward hell. If we turn toward the one and not the other and then move, we forcibly pull the other. In fact, it is the same with our natural bodies, we can only move when we choose in what the direction we will to go. So, it is with our spirits, we can only move when we choose in what direction we decide - to follow the Lord or to follow our self. If this was not so, then we would be like beasts, carried along by our natural senses, at the prompting of appetite and pleasure. Thus, when man receives spiritual things of the Church and orders his free will to choose good and truth, he is lead by the Lord away from lusts and evil pleasures, and the innate desire for them. In this, we see what the eating the fruit of the tree of life signifies. It is appropriation of good and truth, of life from the Lord. While eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is appropriating falsities and truths, which bring death not life and man soon, acquires affection for self and evil and hates good and God. You can see the Lord moving us, that is, in our spirit from a spiritual society whose thoughts and affection are for evil to one that is for good in our turning to Him, desiring His love and, doing His truth. There our spirits are introduced into a state of Heavenly freedom and when we come into the world of spirits we then are lead into Heaven.
Amen.
If a man has received God's qualities, His love and wisdom, His charity and truth, or good and truth, then is not his life within him from God? Would not then the 'tree of life' signify man living from God, for are not such things called fruit - the good of life, which we are to eat of? And coming from God then is not such life eternal? To show that this is true, we read in Revelation 2:7 "To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." And, after the consummation of the first Christian Church, which became a Church in name only, it is said of the New Christian Church that descends now to earth that "In the middle of the street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life" (Rev. 22:2).
Yet, we see that there was also a tree of 'the knowledge of good and evil'. So, the question is asked, 'Why is there a tree from which man should not eat of in the garden?' Why is man to be seen as such a tree, which produces evils along with truths? For what purpose is man represented in his creation by this tree? Let us see the answer. Had not God made man in an image of Himself and in His likeness? "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'" (Gen. 1: 26). I think we would agree that today man is not an image of God, though he is be in a likeness of Him. We read in Genesis 3:22 after man had eaten of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' where it is said, "Behold, the man has become like Us, to know good and evil." Then, later he is called the likeness, but not the image of God. "He made him in the likeness of God" (Gen. 5:1). So, after he fell from grace, man could be seen, made in God's likeness, as having His love and wisdom within, though he was not in an image of Him. It was in an image that he is a recipient of God, that is, of His love and wisdom. So, you can see that, as a man becomes a recipient of God's love and wisdom that he then becomes made in an image of Him.
What we, here, can understand by these two trees planted in the Garden of Eden is that God gave man free will. He could choose not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, we know that he chose to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and, thus, the tree of life was closed off from him; he chose death, not life. However, because he chose death, does man still have free will? Let us see, by choosing to know what is good and evil, man feels that he loves from himself and is wise from himself, that he wills good and understands truth as from himself. This is, but, an appearance. Yet, as we have shown, he does none of these things from himself, but only from God, who gives him life. So, it is that as an appearance that love and wisdom, or goodness and truth is his and he thinks are his own that causes him to be a man, for we learn that men can become united with God and so live for ever. He is a man because he is able to will good and to understand truth as from himself, but yet know and believe that good and truth are from God.
Jehovah, of course, would not have planted two trees in a garden, one of them being a stumbling block to man. Is it Divine justice that Adam and Eve are cursed for eating a certain tree in the garden and that curse now rest upon every man? The question has been asked by some, 'Why did not Jehovah withhold Adam from eating when He was present and saw that he would eat from the tree? Or, why did He not cast the serpent down before it persuaded him? Can we not see that the story written in Genesis has within it spiritual things that have remained hidden until now?
No, God would not do these things because that would have taken away a man's free will. Man is a man and not a beast because he has free will. Thus, we may understand that the two trees mentioned in Genesis represent man's free will in spiritual things, for he can chose life or death. Now, everyone is left to his own will. He can choose to resist the hereditary inclination to evil or he can choose to yield to that hereditary inclination.
The New Church has brought forth a new doctrine. That doctrine teaches that man is a recipient of life; life is not inherent in him from creation and is not propagated then by descent. The man's inherent tendency to evil is spread only because man lives in the natural world and his natural senses are opened while the spiritual senses remain closed. So, all that is known to him of life is only an appearance. Even life its self appears to be his. However, to prove that man is a form receptive of life let us look to the Word. First, are not all created things themselves finite? And, that we are created from finite things? We read in Genesis, "Jehovah God created man, dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives (or life)" (2: 7). In fact it is known that 'Adam' means the soil of the earth. We see that these are natural and material things. Second, let us examine the spirit of man. Aren't they also made of finite things? Isn't a man's spirit the receptacle of the life his mind? These are the spiritual substances that make man's spirit. And, in fact, if these spiritual substances are not present with natural or material substance man does not grow at all. How could he be a form of the Infinite that is able to vivify if he does not have a natural and a spiritual?
It is insane to believe that God could transfer His life to man. That He could make him God or as gods. Yet, we see that Eve was persuaded that this was possible, for the serpent said. "In the day you eat of the fruit of this tree", "Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God (or gods)" (Gen. 3:5). Thus, today, the doctrine is taught in the Old Christian Churches that God has transfused and transferred Himself into man. As one sees that as man develops after he had rejected God's love man became wicked. We can read this in Genesis 6:5, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." After this was the end of that Most Ancient Church, the Adamic Church, for we see then that there was a new Church raised up and that this was called the Noahacian Church. We read, "And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen. 6: 8).
In the New Church we are told to raise our reasoning above sensual things of the body. When we do that, can we not see that life is not createable? Or that life is the inmost activity of love and wisdom and that these are God's and are of Him and in Him? Life, then, must be a living force. It only stands to reason, then, that for life to be with man, love and wisdom must be with him. And, even those Christian Churches that teach man has a life of his own do not deny that all the good of love and the truth of wisdom are God's not man's. Next, let us see that man receives these from God and that when he does, he is said to be born of God, that is, he becomes regenerated. Thus, we are nothing but an organized form adapted to receive both natural heat and light from the natural world and spiritual heat and light from the spiritual world. These two - the heat and light of the spiritual world and the natural world - correspond to each other, for heat signifies love and light truth. Finally, let us ask ourselves, can God's love and wisdom enter us? If we deny this then we are not conjoined with God and He does not make His abode and temple with us as the Word of God teaches and these are, then, nothing but empty phrases.
We have been speaking of man's free will. We have shown that God made man with a free will and that even after his fall, man still had the ability to choose God, that is, to choose good and truth. What is this free will's nature and where does it come from? From what we have just spoken we learn that it comes from the spiritual world and the Lord keeps man's mind - his spirit - there. Doesn't man's mind live after death in this spiritual world; his mind is his spirit. However, because, while he lives in this natural world, he does not know that his spirit is in association with similar spirits in the spiritual world. You can see that the two - a man's natural and his spirit - correspond. Are we concerned that when we pass into the next world that we will be not able to understand? No, our spirit already understands spiritually. However, while we live in the natural world, we are interiorly spiritual and exteriorly natural. We communicate with spirits by our interiors, but on earth with men by our exteriors. It is in this way that our thoughts are opened though choosing to follow truth. We are not limited, as are the beasts that cannot become born again of the Lord and that are only capable of appetite and pleasure.
We have spoken of a spiritual world. We know that the Word of God speaks of both a Heaven and a hell. They are both in the spiritual world and are not in the natural world, though they do have the appearance of being in space. We may have also read in the Word of a great intervening region between Heaven and hell. "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us" (Luke 16: 26). Thus, it is that the spiritual world includes both, Heaven, hell, and the world of spirits. Now, while we are in this world, our spirits are 'as it were' held in this region in the spiritual world, that is, our spirit lives in the world of spirits. Our spirit lives there though our natural lives here. And, here, in this world, we go through temptations and while we may be persuaded to choose certain natural or material things in order to survive, we are still left in freedom to have and enjoy free will in spiritual things. We can choose good and the truth or we may chose evil and falsity. Our choice determines which spirits associate with us, either good spirits or evil spirits. Yet it is, our love that what unites us either with angels or devils when we depart this natural world. Then, after a while, our spirit divests its self of externals, which are not in accord with our internals, and our abode is then either in Heaven or in hell, for then it is that the Lord makes His abode, His temple within us.
So, we learn that our free will in this natural world is from a spiritual equilibrium in which we are held. Heaven and its angels 'as it were' pull us toward Heaven while hell and its evil spirits pulls us toward hell. If we turn toward the one and not the other and then move, we forcibly pull the other. In fact, it is the same with our natural bodies, we can only move when we choose in what the direction we will to go. So, it is with our spirits, we can only move when we choose in what direction we decide - to follow the Lord or to follow our self. If this was not so, then we would be like beasts, carried along by our natural senses, at the prompting of appetite and pleasure. Thus, when man receives spiritual things of the Church and orders his free will to choose good and truth, he is lead by the Lord away from lusts and evil pleasures, and the innate desire for them. In this, we see what the eating the fruit of the tree of life signifies. It is appropriation of good and truth, of life from the Lord. While eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is appropriating falsities and truths, which bring death not life and man soon, acquires affection for self and evil and hates good and God. You can see the Lord moving us, that is, in our spirit from a spiritual society whose thoughts and affection are for evil to one that is for good in our turning to Him, desiring His love and, doing His truth. There our spirits are introduced into a state of Heavenly freedom and when we come into the world of spirits we then are lead into Heaven.
Amen.
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