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ISSN 0969-1049 INCORPORATING THE SWEDENBORG MOVEMENT NEWSLETTER
- Levitas
- WB Yeats and Swedenborg
- Books that might have been
- A town built on a hill
- Keeping the score
- The Big Bang
- Jesus, man or God ? the Easter Question
- Promise of Spring
- Science and truth
- The Millennium
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Jesus, man or God ? - The Easter Question
Geoffrey Cunningham summarises Swedenborg's doctrinal position concerning the incarnation.
'Lo, within a manger lies he who built the starry skies.' Christians may sing this happily at Christmas time, but can they be so sure? especially when it comes to Good Friday when they might be invited to sing: 'O Love Divine, what hast thou done? The immortal God hath died for me. The father's co-eternal son bore all my sins upon the tree.'
We have a problem: was Jesus God, or a son whom God had had beside him throughout eternity?
Luke's gospel makes it clear that Jesus was born to Mary, just like any other child is born, but with the difference that he had no natural father, having been ' conceived of the Holy Spirit'. What is not immediately clear is that Mary, and Mary alone, knew for certain that this was the case. Joseph, her betrothed, believed it to be so in response to the angel's message given to him in a dream. Jesus himself became aware of this as he grew up, at the same time as he began to realise the nature of his mission, but this awareness was to Jesus a matter of faith and not one of certain knowledge.
It was because of Jesus's unique situation, involving him, Swedenborg suggests, in doubt as to his identity and mission, that he was able to be subject to temptations. After all, nothing can tempt God to do what is wrong. And here we get to the crux of what he was doing, this person who was partly man and partly God, during his short earthly life.
Why was this life of temptation combat necessary? To answer this we have to take on board that the human race had fallen from the perfection into which it was first created ; people over thousands of years had used their God-given freedom of choice in spiritual matters to become more greedy, more selfish, more covetous, more lustful. In consequence the hellish regions of the spiritual world had become increasingly more powerful and influential, to the extent that men and women on earth were in danger of losing that very freedom, the ability to choose between living for their fellows and living for themselves. The instances in the gospels of demonic possession illustrate for us this state of affairs. To restore man-kind's spiritual freedom it was necessary for the powers of the hells to be subdued, and for this to be done without their being destroyed. This was only possible by combat with those powers on the spiritual level, in the same way that you and I are empowered to fight our own bad inclinations, namely through resisting temptations.
Jesus, like you and me, inherited tendencies, or inclinations, towards evil and falsity, to being selfish, to wanting praise, to desiring other people's possessions and achievements. This happened to Jesus in the same way as it happens to you and me, through being born as a human being. From the time when, as a growing child, he began to be aware of his divine fatherhood and of his fearful mission in life, Jesus began to be tempted. The record in the gospels of his temptations in the desert illustrate this, although they are only a summary of what was going on within this human/divine person for most of the time. That short gospel account shows us the three kinds of inner trial he was subjected to: (1) to use his divine powers for self-gratification (stones into bread): (2) to prove that he was the promised saviour by a spectacularly miraculous demonstration ('cast yourself down'): and (3) to abandon his mission and go for a purely worldly kingdom (bowing down to the devil). Notice particularly that each of these specific temptations came to Jesus with the words 'IF you are the son of God', and this gives us another useful clue into the mind of our Lord, namely that much of his temptation combat involved terrible doubts as to his divine fatherhood and the reality of his mission to save the world.
The other temptation episode that we can read about is, of course, the passion, the time when Jesus must have been tempted to run away before he was arrested; to use his powers to come down from the cross; to be angry with his friends for deserting him; to feel hatred rather than to show perfectly loving forgiveness towards those who had falsely accused him and those who were tormenting him. The passion story is surely one which shows us a man in an appalling situation, suffering not only the most horrifying physical pain and degradation, but the most gruelling temptation trials imaginable. All this, as Paul rightly puts it, without sin.
Jesus, then, was not God's son from eternity, but a man born to Mary, a man subject to temptation as each of us is, though on a much fiercer scale; and he was God as to his hidden soul through his divine fatherhood. At times he was convinced of his divine origin, for example when he was able to say that he and the father were one; at other times he was afflicted with deep doubts as to his identity and his mission, and he prayed earnestly to his God for support. By overcoming each and every spiritual trial that the powers of darkness could inflict on him he was able to over-come death itself, thereby uniting the human side of his nature with the divine. Jesus and God became one.
Did Jesus die for our sins, then? Did his sufferings 'atone' for them? No: Swedenborg makes it clear that Jesus's life of unremitting temptation combat, of which his death and resurrection were the culmination, ensured that no human being would ever be subjected to spiritual trials beyond his or her power to overcome them. You and I are free to do wrong, and sin brings its own reward; but, thanks to our loving God's life on earth shown to us in Jesus, we are free and able to resist bad impulses and, live in love to him and to our fellows.
For detailed reading see Swedenborg's book 'THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD' or the chapter in 'TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION' on 'The Lord the Redeemer'.
This raises all sorts of profound issues. We would be pleased to hear from anyone wishing to enter into dialogue, but please keep comments short. Ed.
Paul Dean
"A man is not of sound mind unless use be his affection or occupation."
Emanuel Swedenborg
