Saving Faith
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 3: 1-21;
Apocalypse Explained 349 § 12
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 3: 1-21;
Apocalypse Explained 349 § 12
believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believes on Him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God" (John 3: 16, 18).
These words are probably some of the most quoted in the New Testament. They are often used by Christians to relate to a person's heart; they appeal to the emotions. It is 'as if' God is standing with His arms out stretched and calling, wanting to save. These words are an effort of the Lord in trying to explain to Nicodemus, who was a 'ruler of the Jews', probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council, how to understand what He was telling him about being born again. Yet, we see clearly that he did not understand and was in darkness, that is, he did not understand the spiritual things Jesus was telling him. In fact, Nicodemus came to the Lord in darkness. Probably because he feared his colleagues, but darkness in the Word in the internal sense signifies being without genuine truth which in the spiritual sense.
Now, let us not, in any pride, think we are more educated, thus, thinking because we have and know the Word of the New Testament, that we know what the term to 'be born again' means. In fact, unless one knows what correspondences of 'water' and 'spirit' in the spiritual world and in Heaven are with the natural world, he will only know what he has been taught, which is either what his pastor teaches or what someone has written about this subject. In this case about what 'being born of water and of the spirit' means. Everyone should know what being born is, and with a little knowledge of what being saved means, should understand that being born again refers to one's regeneration or salvation and thus, refers to the spiritual birth, not the natural.
However, there is also another problem that is even more serious then not knowing this. Few know what it is to be born again and that it because few know what good and truth are. To show this, some have said that by the Lord is saying being born of water that He meant a person's birth into this world a natural birth thinking because an infant, while in the womb, is within water. Yet, isn't that the same as Nicodemus reasoned and was his understanding? ". . .can (a man) enter the second time into his mothers womb, and be born?" (John 3: 4). And, when we look at the symbol of baptism, don't we see water representing spiritual faith, for is not water seen in the Word as the Truth? And is not spirit, then, meant the celestial of one's faith? Spiritual faith is of truth. Celestial faith is of good. Don't we have the truths of faith when the Word enters us? And, don't we have a life according to the Word when we act from the good of that life that comes from those truths?
From this, we need to understand that we must receive spiritual life if we are to enter Heaven, that is, if we are to receive eternal life, which is salvation. And, what that entails is not just that we know the truth, but it is that we live the truth. And, this requires that the good of life to be conjoined with the truth of doctrine. Now, 'water' we have seen signifies the truth of doctrine and 'spirit' we learned is the good of life. Spirit, of course, often, in the Word, refers to life or to living, as for instance, when God breathed into man the breath or the spirit of life and he became a living soul. One should understand that it is the truth of faith that aids in one's reformation and regeneration and is not one's baptism with water, which is only a symbol of our spiritual cleansing from falsities. Also, it is the good of love that cleanses one's heart from evils. The heart referring to one's will and desire.
Finally, to clear up what the Lord was telling Nicodemus, let us begin to understand what being born of flesh and spirit means. The Lord said to him, "being born of flesh is flesh and being born of spirit is spirit" (v.6). By being born of flesh denotes a person's own self; it is his proprium. This, of course, was man's desire in turning from Jehovah and is seen in the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In our 'self' or proprium there is no spiritual life; we are only vessels in which the Lord's life can come into when we are fit vessels, that is, when falsities and evils have been removed, that is, repented of and shunned. Doesn't the Word teach us, "It is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing." And "The words I speak unto you are spirit and life" (john 6: 63). So, we can know that by Divine Truth there comes life, that is, there comes to us spiritual life and that life resides within us in our bodies in goods and truths - those Divine qualities..
In the course of the Lord's conversation with Nicodemus, He tells him, and us, that "no man has ascended up to Heaven but that he came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in Heaven" (John 3: 13). Immediately we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we know that He has descended from God to earth in the human of man. However, what does 'no man ascended up, but that he came down' mean to us other then that it was the Lord? If we know what is meant by the 'Son of Man', we can, also, know that that truth applies to us in our salvation. In the case of the Lord it means His glorification, His making His Human Divine. Now, we know that the Lord had said that He is the Truth manifested that has descended. Isn't the Lord that Truth which is called the Son of Man? And, so, He as truth descends. And, hasn't He said that He ascends, which means to return to Heaven and the Father? Thus, what is signified by these words is that Divine Truth must descend into man in order for man to ascend into Heaven. For, it is truth that ascends even as the Lord has first descended as Truth and then ascended united with Good, - His glorification - which we, now, know is that Divine Esse.
One understands, here, that it is not anything of this world that enters into the mind of a man that leads him into salvation, that is, that enters into his will and understanding. However, what is spiritual does enter and what is spiritual is Divine and what is Divine is influx from God. Therefore, Divine influx, which is the Good and Truth enter the person. However, we cannot see Divine things - those goods and truths - anymore that one can see the wind and know where it comes from and where it goes, but we can see its effect.
As we continue with today's sermon, we come to verse 14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Here, we have the serpent, which in Genesis was seen as the subtlest beast of the field and, which beguiled the woman, which serpent represents the sensuousness of man, in which he trusts and, we have the brazen serpent on the pole made by Moses which represents Lord as to His External Sensuous. We can see that the Lord was here signified by the brazen serpent that Moses made and set upon a pole for the Israelites, so that they should look upon when they were bitten by a serpent that they might live an not die. This represents that one's faith in the Lord brings him eternal life.
Here, then, is a good reason for us to know what the internal sense of the Word is, for in the literal sense it is difficult to understand how it is that the Lord is symbolized as a brass serpent. Many statements like this in the Word are not understood by our natural understanding and are usually passed over or skimmed without any comment and remains a mystery. Now, you can go back to the Old Testament and read about this, but there, too, you will be unable to understand why such things was done without knowing the internal sense, without knowing what correspondences are. The only thing you may come up with is that God performed miracles in a time when His people - the Israelitish Church - was dying, so He had compassion on them.
From an internal sense the serpent signifies the ultimate of life in man. It represents a man's external sensual nature, which is the man's natural state and in which a man is now born into. In the Lord's coming to earth and in His putting on the human of mankind, didn't He also have a Sensual as man does, though His Sensual is Divine and man's is not?
The Israelitish Church was a representative Church, so, all things of worship were representative, even the Lord. That is what all the things used in their worship of Jehovah represented. You can begin to understand, then why, though bitten and dying, upon hearing that they could live if they looked upon a brass serpent that Moses made and set on a pole, that is, if they believed on Jehovah, that He was to come in the flesh, that they would live. For it is that a serpent signified the Lord's Sensual and Natural. His Natural Divine is what saves them, not any brass serpent hung on a pole. It was another reminder that the Lord would one day come into the world and would save them. We can see in the book of Genesis where a serpent is mentioned concerning the Lord's coming in relation to a man's salvation. "And I will put enmity between you (that is the serpent) and the woman, (that is the Church) and between your seed (that is the falsities of mankind's sensuous nature) and her seed (the truths); it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel" (3: 15). This, of course, is a prediction of the Lord's coming and man's redemption. You can understand that man had fallen from the celestial and spiritual states into the natural state and into the sensual of life, which the serpent signifies; he had 'as it was' fallen from grace.
The signification is that if they believed in the Divine Human of the Lord, that they should have eternal life. Now, in the Church following the Israelitish and Jewish Church - the Christian Church - all representatives have been removed. The Lord, having been glorified had made His Human Divine, thus He became the Divine Human. This Human actually was raised up upon a cross for all to look upon and be saved, that is, if they truly believed Him. The question is, as Christians, when we look at the cross and see the Lord, what do we believe about Him? When an Israelite believed that Jehovah would save him from dying, if he looked at the serpent, that was a miracle that saved him from a snake's bite. Are Christians, today, looking for a miracle from the Lord in order that they be saved and enter Heaven?
Everyone who looks at the Lord does so according to the elevation if his or her understanding. Thus, it is that the first Christian Church had still looked for miracles, just as the Israelitish and Jewish Church did, but their miracle was that they should gain spiritual life. They looked to the Lord on the cross that He saves them by His own Power, for their belief is that He died in their stead, in their place and removed their sins and that they need only believe that he saves them, while the Israelites looked to a representative of that power, which was to come as the Divine Human. Both did not understand how the Lord saves them, for that truth remained hidden within the literal sense of the Word. They do not recognize God as that Divine Human just a we do not recognize it as long as we are still living in the state of the old Christian Churches
Yet, today, there is a rational sense that is offered that when one looks to the Lord, that is, the Word and Truth the Divine Rational is seen. Such a person becomes spiritual and is of the New Church, and has a true Christian religion. It is the looking at either the brass serpent or the Lord on the cross that saves us? First, we know that by to look means to believe and in the case of the Israelitish Church to believe that they would not physically die, if they believed that Jehovah was their God and the truth that He would come one day on earth. The fact that they did not die from snakebite was not because by looking at the brass serpent, that they were saves, but from their belief in Jehovah that they could be saved. It was not the saving of the natural, but of the spiritual that is signified. It's just that they were sensual people and would have turned away from Jehovah to worshipping idols and to sacrifices, if He had not performed miracles. So, it is our love to the Lord and towards the neighbor, and our faith in Him that saves us, not their looking at a brass serpent or our looking on the Lord upon the cross.
In the case of the first Christian Church, they believed in the Lord's Divine Power, that He could save man unto everlasting life through their belief and faith. However, it became a belief without love. Is it a faith without charity that saves a man? This is asked because a Church's faith is according to their understanding of doctrine. Their doctrine is that they are saved by a belief that the Lord has died in their place and it is their faith in Him that they believe that He saves them. However, in that faith they are taught that charity or good works are not needed, that such acts of charity, of love to the neighbor are only to be seen as their seeking for reward. The result: Their doctrine does not teach charity and faith as saving, but only that faith alone saves.
Nonetheless, it is the Son of God that saves man, for we read that "God sent His own Son". Doesn't all things come from the Divine and, therefore, the Lord's Divine Human is one like soul and body and, so, it is the Lord alone who reigns in man.
It is not a belief in the Lord because He died on the cross that we are saved; rather we are saved because we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. And that in us is the Spirit of the Divine Human - the Holy Spirit. "At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14: 20). Also, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will" (John 15: 7).
You can see that our faith, our belief, is to be in one God the Savior and that He is in the Father and that the Father in Him and are thus one. Then these words, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16) do not mean a belief in two persons - God and His Son, or even in three. It is the only begotten of the Father that is the 'existing' or is the 'proceeding from the Divine Esse' which is in Him as His Soul, which is what He called His Father.
The Word became flesh, that is, the Word became human and was made the Divine Human and He "dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory, which is the Word of the Divine Human; it is the glory of the only begotten of the Father" (Cf., John 1: 14). A person should do good not evil; a person should believe in God an not in idols. A person should have faith in one God, the glorified Divine Human, and should act from that faith in charity. In Matthew 21: 43, we read, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth fruit thereof." In Luke Jesus said, "Why call Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (6: 46).
If our belief is only in our memory, like the truth in the Bible that sets on a shelf, do we see the true meaning of the words? Are the words understood as false interpretations? Or are the words the truths of the Word written on our mind and heart, on our will and understanding, and thus, truly bringing us new life?
Amen.
Now, let us not, in any pride, think we are more educated, thus, thinking because we have and know the Word of the New Testament, that we know what the term to 'be born again' means. In fact, unless one knows what correspondences of 'water' and 'spirit' in the spiritual world and in Heaven are with the natural world, he will only know what he has been taught, which is either what his pastor teaches or what someone has written about this subject. In this case about what 'being born of water and of the spirit' means. Everyone should know what being born is, and with a little knowledge of what being saved means, should understand that being born again refers to one's regeneration or salvation and thus, refers to the spiritual birth, not the natural.
However, there is also another problem that is even more serious then not knowing this. Few know what it is to be born again and that it because few know what good and truth are. To show this, some have said that by the Lord is saying being born of water that He meant a person's birth into this world a natural birth thinking because an infant, while in the womb, is within water. Yet, isn't that the same as Nicodemus reasoned and was his understanding? ". . .can (a man) enter the second time into his mothers womb, and be born?" (John 3: 4). And, when we look at the symbol of baptism, don't we see water representing spiritual faith, for is not water seen in the Word as the Truth? And is not spirit, then, meant the celestial of one's faith? Spiritual faith is of truth. Celestial faith is of good. Don't we have the truths of faith when the Word enters us? And, don't we have a life according to the Word when we act from the good of that life that comes from those truths?
From this, we need to understand that we must receive spiritual life if we are to enter Heaven, that is, if we are to receive eternal life, which is salvation. And, what that entails is not just that we know the truth, but it is that we live the truth. And, this requires that the good of life to be conjoined with the truth of doctrine. Now, 'water' we have seen signifies the truth of doctrine and 'spirit' we learned is the good of life. Spirit, of course, often, in the Word, refers to life or to living, as for instance, when God breathed into man the breath or the spirit of life and he became a living soul. One should understand that it is the truth of faith that aids in one's reformation and regeneration and is not one's baptism with water, which is only a symbol of our spiritual cleansing from falsities. Also, it is the good of love that cleanses one's heart from evils. The heart referring to one's will and desire.
Finally, to clear up what the Lord was telling Nicodemus, let us begin to understand what being born of flesh and spirit means. The Lord said to him, "being born of flesh is flesh and being born of spirit is spirit" (v.6). By being born of flesh denotes a person's own self; it is his proprium. This, of course, was man's desire in turning from Jehovah and is seen in the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In our 'self' or proprium there is no spiritual life; we are only vessels in which the Lord's life can come into when we are fit vessels, that is, when falsities and evils have been removed, that is, repented of and shunned. Doesn't the Word teach us, "It is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing." And "The words I speak unto you are spirit and life" (john 6: 63). So, we can know that by Divine Truth there comes life, that is, there comes to us spiritual life and that life resides within us in our bodies in goods and truths - those Divine qualities..
In the course of the Lord's conversation with Nicodemus, He tells him, and us, that "no man has ascended up to Heaven but that he came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in Heaven" (John 3: 13). Immediately we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we know that He has descended from God to earth in the human of man. However, what does 'no man ascended up, but that he came down' mean to us other then that it was the Lord? If we know what is meant by the 'Son of Man', we can, also, know that that truth applies to us in our salvation. In the case of the Lord it means His glorification, His making His Human Divine. Now, we know that the Lord had said that He is the Truth manifested that has descended. Isn't the Lord that Truth which is called the Son of Man? And, so, He as truth descends. And, hasn't He said that He ascends, which means to return to Heaven and the Father? Thus, what is signified by these words is that Divine Truth must descend into man in order for man to ascend into Heaven. For, it is truth that ascends even as the Lord has first descended as Truth and then ascended united with Good, - His glorification - which we, now, know is that Divine Esse.
One understands, here, that it is not anything of this world that enters into the mind of a man that leads him into salvation, that is, that enters into his will and understanding. However, what is spiritual does enter and what is spiritual is Divine and what is Divine is influx from God. Therefore, Divine influx, which is the Good and Truth enter the person. However, we cannot see Divine things - those goods and truths - anymore that one can see the wind and know where it comes from and where it goes, but we can see its effect.
As we continue with today's sermon, we come to verse 14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Here, we have the serpent, which in Genesis was seen as the subtlest beast of the field and, which beguiled the woman, which serpent represents the sensuousness of man, in which he trusts and, we have the brazen serpent on the pole made by Moses which represents Lord as to His External Sensuous. We can see that the Lord was here signified by the brazen serpent that Moses made and set upon a pole for the Israelites, so that they should look upon when they were bitten by a serpent that they might live an not die. This represents that one's faith in the Lord brings him eternal life.
Here, then, is a good reason for us to know what the internal sense of the Word is, for in the literal sense it is difficult to understand how it is that the Lord is symbolized as a brass serpent. Many statements like this in the Word are not understood by our natural understanding and are usually passed over or skimmed without any comment and remains a mystery. Now, you can go back to the Old Testament and read about this, but there, too, you will be unable to understand why such things was done without knowing the internal sense, without knowing what correspondences are. The only thing you may come up with is that God performed miracles in a time when His people - the Israelitish Church - was dying, so He had compassion on them.
From an internal sense the serpent signifies the ultimate of life in man. It represents a man's external sensual nature, which is the man's natural state and in which a man is now born into. In the Lord's coming to earth and in His putting on the human of mankind, didn't He also have a Sensual as man does, though His Sensual is Divine and man's is not?
The Israelitish Church was a representative Church, so, all things of worship were representative, even the Lord. That is what all the things used in their worship of Jehovah represented. You can begin to understand, then why, though bitten and dying, upon hearing that they could live if they looked upon a brass serpent that Moses made and set on a pole, that is, if they believed on Jehovah, that He was to come in the flesh, that they would live. For it is that a serpent signified the Lord's Sensual and Natural. His Natural Divine is what saves them, not any brass serpent hung on a pole. It was another reminder that the Lord would one day come into the world and would save them. We can see in the book of Genesis where a serpent is mentioned concerning the Lord's coming in relation to a man's salvation. "And I will put enmity between you (that is the serpent) and the woman, (that is the Church) and between your seed (that is the falsities of mankind's sensuous nature) and her seed (the truths); it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel" (3: 15). This, of course, is a prediction of the Lord's coming and man's redemption. You can understand that man had fallen from the celestial and spiritual states into the natural state and into the sensual of life, which the serpent signifies; he had 'as it was' fallen from grace.
The signification is that if they believed in the Divine Human of the Lord, that they should have eternal life. Now, in the Church following the Israelitish and Jewish Church - the Christian Church - all representatives have been removed. The Lord, having been glorified had made His Human Divine, thus He became the Divine Human. This Human actually was raised up upon a cross for all to look upon and be saved, that is, if they truly believed Him. The question is, as Christians, when we look at the cross and see the Lord, what do we believe about Him? When an Israelite believed that Jehovah would save him from dying, if he looked at the serpent, that was a miracle that saved him from a snake's bite. Are Christians, today, looking for a miracle from the Lord in order that they be saved and enter Heaven?
Everyone who looks at the Lord does so according to the elevation if his or her understanding. Thus, it is that the first Christian Church had still looked for miracles, just as the Israelitish and Jewish Church did, but their miracle was that they should gain spiritual life. They looked to the Lord on the cross that He saves them by His own Power, for their belief is that He died in their stead, in their place and removed their sins and that they need only believe that he saves them, while the Israelites looked to a representative of that power, which was to come as the Divine Human. Both did not understand how the Lord saves them, for that truth remained hidden within the literal sense of the Word. They do not recognize God as that Divine Human just a we do not recognize it as long as we are still living in the state of the old Christian Churches
Yet, today, there is a rational sense that is offered that when one looks to the Lord, that is, the Word and Truth the Divine Rational is seen. Such a person becomes spiritual and is of the New Church, and has a true Christian religion. It is the looking at either the brass serpent or the Lord on the cross that saves us? First, we know that by to look means to believe and in the case of the Israelitish Church to believe that they would not physically die, if they believed that Jehovah was their God and the truth that He would come one day on earth. The fact that they did not die from snakebite was not because by looking at the brass serpent, that they were saves, but from their belief in Jehovah that they could be saved. It was not the saving of the natural, but of the spiritual that is signified. It's just that they were sensual people and would have turned away from Jehovah to worshipping idols and to sacrifices, if He had not performed miracles. So, it is our love to the Lord and towards the neighbor, and our faith in Him that saves us, not their looking at a brass serpent or our looking on the Lord upon the cross.
In the case of the first Christian Church, they believed in the Lord's Divine Power, that He could save man unto everlasting life through their belief and faith. However, it became a belief without love. Is it a faith without charity that saves a man? This is asked because a Church's faith is according to their understanding of doctrine. Their doctrine is that they are saved by a belief that the Lord has died in their place and it is their faith in Him that they believe that He saves them. However, in that faith they are taught that charity or good works are not needed, that such acts of charity, of love to the neighbor are only to be seen as their seeking for reward. The result: Their doctrine does not teach charity and faith as saving, but only that faith alone saves.
Nonetheless, it is the Son of God that saves man, for we read that "God sent His own Son". Doesn't all things come from the Divine and, therefore, the Lord's Divine Human is one like soul and body and, so, it is the Lord alone who reigns in man.
It is not a belief in the Lord because He died on the cross that we are saved; rather we are saved because we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. And that in us is the Spirit of the Divine Human - the Holy Spirit. "At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14: 20). Also, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will" (John 15: 7).
You can see that our faith, our belief, is to be in one God the Savior and that He is in the Father and that the Father in Him and are thus one. Then these words, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16) do not mean a belief in two persons - God and His Son, or even in three. It is the only begotten of the Father that is the 'existing' or is the 'proceeding from the Divine Esse' which is in Him as His Soul, which is what He called His Father.
The Word became flesh, that is, the Word became human and was made the Divine Human and He "dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory, which is the Word of the Divine Human; it is the glory of the only begotten of the Father" (Cf., John 1: 14). A person should do good not evil; a person should believe in God an not in idols. A person should have faith in one God, the glorified Divine Human, and should act from that faith in charity. In Matthew 21: 43, we read, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth fruit thereof." In Luke Jesus said, "Why call Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (6: 46).
If our belief is only in our memory, like the truth in the Bible that sets on a shelf, do we see the true meaning of the words? Are the words understood as false interpretations? Or are the words the truths of the Word written on our mind and heart, on our will and understanding, and thus, truly bringing us new life?
Amen.
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