THE RESURRECTION
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Ezekiel 37:11-14 Matthew 28:1-7
Arcana Coelestia 2405:8
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Ezekiel 37:11-14 Matthew 28:1-7
Arcana Coelestia 2405:8
"Most members of the church at this day believe that every one is to rise again at the last day with his body. This opinion has prevailed because the natural man supposes that it is the body alone that lives. But the truth of the matter is this. Man rises again immediately after death and &…;appears in a body just as in this world. Nevertheless, what he sees and touches is not his external which he carried about in the world, but is the internal which constitutes that very human which is alive."
(Arcana Coelestia 5078:3)
(Arcana Coelestia 5078:3)
The Christians celebrate the Lord's resurrection, which occurred three days after the Lord had celebrated the Passover with His disciples. Though, today, we celebrate Lord's resurrection not the Passover. We call it Easter, though that word is not in the original Greek text of the New Testament or in the Epistles; the word Passover is. Today, we have come to celebrate the Lord's resurrection from the dead. Resurrection means 'a standing up' or 'an arising' and as such the Lord rose from the grave to life.
Now, the Lord had spoken about the resurrection of man from the grave or from death into life eternal. In fact, He said that He was the Resurrection. He, through His resurrection, has made a man's salvation possible, for that is what resurrection signifies in Heaven; it means life eternal. While the Word 'resurrection' is not in the Old Testament, it is taught there that one day the man of the Church would rise up again into a new life, into a spiritual life.
All the prior Churches were waiting for the Lord to come and redeem them, that they might enter Heaven and be there with the Lord forever. The Lord came. He fought and overcame all the evils of mankind. The passion of the Lord was His glorification. The passion of the cross was the last temptation of the Lord. His resurrection from the grave was His final victory over the hells; His glorification was completed. Thus, His Human became united with the Divine. So, He is the Divine Human.
After the Lord's crucifixion, on the third day after, was His resurrection. We read,
Hence, the resurrection is on the third day in the morning. Isn't the arising of the Lord daily, even every moment in those who are in regeneration? Because the glorification of the Lord signifies His resurrection we can be regenerated. Now, what was glorified was the Lord's rational truth, for Divine Truth could not be approached by evils. However, rational truth in the Lord's human could undergo temptations, but not Divine Truth. Rational truths are truths that consist in appearances. In John, this rational truth is revealed as the Son of man. The Lord said, "I Am the Truth". We read, "Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (13:31,32). So, this truth was glorified in the Lord's Human. This glorification - the Human united to the Divine - was completed through His resurrection. As such, the Lord had established a new Church with mankind. The old church had ended. The Church that had been with man on earth was only a representative of the true Church. It had now ended and a new Church from the Lord was to rise up in man and was to become a spiritual Church among men.
We read again from the Word,
"They found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre" (Luke 24:2).
In the literal sense no one sees that a burying-place or sepulchre signifies life or Heaven. They rather think it means death, not life. However, when the Most Ancient Church sinned and fell from grace, death came and along with death hell. Now, if we, like all the prior Churches, who were looking to the Lord's Coming to save them from death and hell, look to being resurrected - arising again - from the hold of death or sin and hell, then doesn't a burying-place mean life or Heaven in that the Lord, who put on a natural of mankind, was resurrected and, thus, was glorified - uniting His Human with the Divine?
Death is a natural - an external - thought or idea that enters into man because of sin. However, when the idea of true-life - spiritual and celestial - a life that is from the Lord comes into man again, then the idea of the grave as death changes into a continuation of life. The burying-place or the sepulchre is perceived as a continuation of life, and so, the resurrection of a good man is to life eternal. We rise again from the grave in our spirits and we are spiritual. The body remains in the grave. It returns to dust from where it came. Moreover, those who are evil do not rise again to true-life; that is, to eternal life that come from the Lord, but they, as it were, descend into a life of hell. Such is an infernal life.
Reading from the Word again,
Our bodies remain in the grave unlike the Lord's which rose. Such gross, natural, material of our natural body is no longer of use to us in the Spiritual Word, for we are then raised as to our spirit and we have then a spiritual body in which we can see and can touch. This is the very human of man that is alive. So our doctrine is not that man is raised up again with a natural body, and we do not say that we wait for the Lord to come again, that we are then resurrected from the grave.
We learn this from the Word,
Is not God infinite and we and angels finite? Did not God create us that our internal will not die? Can we not believe in God, and also love God, and thus be conjoined with Him by faith and love? And, when we are conjoined with God we live forever. Everyone is born with this internal. It is our soul and spirit. Our external is the means by which the things of faith and love are effected in us and such things belong to our internal. As a result, if our external has been accommodated to perform uses in the next life - the spiritual life, - then it lives on, but if our external only performs uses for this life, it dies, not having been accommodated to the spiritual world. Then, when we are regenerated there is a continuation of life, by which is meant our resurrection.
We are not waiting for the 'Last Judgement' in order to live again. We do not believe that life is in the things sensed in the natural body. Life perpetually is from influx from the Lord. Life proceeds from the Divine Human, who is the glorified Lord. The glorification now proceeds as good united with truth. Good and truth regenerates a man as he receives and acknowledges them in his heart.
Because of the Lord's resurrection, we are resurrected, that is we are regenerated from a life of sin, if we have become the recipients of good and truth and if we acknowledge the Lord's Good and Truth through love and faith, for these things remain forever in Heaven. Again, we are told in the Word that,
"He is risen from the dead" (Matthew 28: ) and,
By the Lord being crucified signifies the destruction of the evil in the Church that was then on earth. Hadn't that Church, then on earth, denied that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that His Humanity was divine? In these words" He was crucified:" and "He is risen" we understand the Lord had overcome all evil with Him leaving not even His body in the grave and, as a result, a new Church was to rise in those who believe and acknowledge, who now receive from Him good and truth into their spirit, that which is called a person's intellectual part. The Lord is the resurrection and the life. May we receive a new life from Him and be raised up into spiritual life that is conjoined to Heaven and to the Lord that our life is everlasting.
Amen.
Now, the Lord had spoken about the resurrection of man from the grave or from death into life eternal. In fact, He said that He was the Resurrection. He, through His resurrection, has made a man's salvation possible, for that is what resurrection signifies in Heaven; it means life eternal. While the Word 'resurrection' is not in the Old Testament, it is taught there that one day the man of the Church would rise up again into a new life, into a spiritual life.
All the prior Churches were waiting for the Lord to come and redeem them, that they might enter Heaven and be there with the Lord forever. The Lord came. He fought and overcame all the evils of mankind. The passion of the Lord was His glorification. The passion of the cross was the last temptation of the Lord. His resurrection from the grave was His final victory over the hells; His glorification was completed. Thus, His Human became united with the Divine. So, He is the Divine Human.
After the Lord's crucifixion, on the third day after, was His resurrection. We read,
- "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn&…;." (Matthew 28:1) and,
"And very early in the morning, the first day of the week&…;." (Mark 16:2) again, in Luke, "Very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre" (24:4).
Hence, the resurrection is on the third day in the morning. Isn't the arising of the Lord daily, even every moment in those who are in regeneration? Because the glorification of the Lord signifies His resurrection we can be regenerated. Now, what was glorified was the Lord's rational truth, for Divine Truth could not be approached by evils. However, rational truth in the Lord's human could undergo temptations, but not Divine Truth. Rational truths are truths that consist in appearances. In John, this rational truth is revealed as the Son of man. The Lord said, "I Am the Truth". We read, "Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (13:31,32). So, this truth was glorified in the Lord's Human. This glorification - the Human united to the Divine - was completed through His resurrection. As such, the Lord had established a new Church with mankind. The old church had ended. The Church that had been with man on earth was only a representative of the true Church. It had now ended and a new Church from the Lord was to rise up in man and was to become a spiritual Church among men.
We read again from the Word,
- "In the end of the Sabbath&…;.came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre" (Matthew 28:1). And,
"They found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre" (Luke 24:2).
In the literal sense no one sees that a burying-place or sepulchre signifies life or Heaven. They rather think it means death, not life. However, when the Most Ancient Church sinned and fell from grace, death came and along with death hell. Now, if we, like all the prior Churches, who were looking to the Lord's Coming to save them from death and hell, look to being resurrected - arising again - from the hold of death or sin and hell, then doesn't a burying-place mean life or Heaven in that the Lord, who put on a natural of mankind, was resurrected and, thus, was glorified - uniting His Human with the Divine?
Death is a natural - an external - thought or idea that enters into man because of sin. However, when the idea of true-life - spiritual and celestial - a life that is from the Lord comes into man again, then the idea of the grave as death changes into a continuation of life. The burying-place or the sepulchre is perceived as a continuation of life, and so, the resurrection of a good man is to life eternal. We rise again from the grave in our spirits and we are spiritual. The body remains in the grave. It returns to dust from where it came. Moreover, those who are evil do not rise again to true-life; that is, to eternal life that come from the Lord, but they, as it were, descend into a life of hell. Such is an infernal life.
Reading from the Word again,
- "The angel answered and said to the women&…;. I know ye seek Jesus, He is not here; for He is risen as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:5,6), and,
"They saw a young man&…;. And he saith unto them, be not affrighted, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen. He is not here: Behold the place where they laid Him" (Mark 16:5,6), and again, "He is not here, but is risen" (Luke 24:6).
- "Behold My hands and feet, that is I Myself: feel Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see Me have" (Luke 24:39).
Our bodies remain in the grave unlike the Lord's which rose. Such gross, natural, material of our natural body is no longer of use to us in the Spiritual Word, for we are then raised as to our spirit and we have then a spiritual body in which we can see and can touch. This is the very human of man that is alive. So our doctrine is not that man is raised up again with a natural body, and we do not say that we wait for the Lord to come again, that we are then resurrected from the grave.
We learn this from the Word,
- "Men after death - who are called spirits, and, if they have lived in good, angels - marvel exceedingly that a member of the Church should believe that he will not see eternal life until the last day when the world shall perish and that he will then be clothed again with cast off dust." (AC 5078:5).
Is not God infinite and we and angels finite? Did not God create us that our internal will not die? Can we not believe in God, and also love God, and thus be conjoined with Him by faith and love? And, when we are conjoined with God we live forever. Everyone is born with this internal. It is our soul and spirit. Our external is the means by which the things of faith and love are effected in us and such things belong to our internal. As a result, if our external has been accommodated to perform uses in the next life - the spiritual life, - then it lives on, but if our external only performs uses for this life, it dies, not having been accommodated to the spiritual world. Then, when we are regenerated there is a continuation of life, by which is meant our resurrection.
We are not waiting for the 'Last Judgement' in order to live again. We do not believe that life is in the things sensed in the natural body. Life perpetually is from influx from the Lord. Life proceeds from the Divine Human, who is the glorified Lord. The glorification now proceeds as good united with truth. Good and truth regenerates a man as he receives and acknowledges them in his heart.
Because of the Lord's resurrection, we are resurrected, that is we are regenerated from a life of sin, if we have become the recipients of good and truth and if we acknowledge the Lord's Good and Truth through love and faith, for these things remain forever in Heaven. Again, we are told in the Word that,
"He is risen from the dead" (Matthew 28: ) and,
- "Jesus of Nazareth (or the Divine Good), which was crucified: He is risen" (Mark 16:)
By the Lord being crucified signifies the destruction of the evil in the Church that was then on earth. Hadn't that Church, then on earth, denied that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that His Humanity was divine? In these words" He was crucified:" and "He is risen" we understand the Lord had overcome all evil with Him leaving not even His body in the grave and, as a result, a new Church was to rise in those who believe and acknowledge, who now receive from Him good and truth into their spirit, that which is called a person's intellectual part. The Lord is the resurrection and the life. May we receive a new life from Him and be raised up into spiritual life that is conjoined to Heaven and to the Lord that our life is everlasting.
Amen.
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