1. The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

80. Every Single Constituent of the Word Contains a Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and So a Marriage of Goodness and Truth

The idea that every single constituent of the Word contains a marriage of the Lord and the church, and so a marriage of goodness and truth, is something not seen previously, nor could it have been seen, because the Word’s spiritual sense was not disclosed before, and the marriage can only be seen by means of that sense. For lying concealed within the Word’s literal sense are two other senses, a spiritual one and a celestial one. In the spiritual sense expressions in the Word relate mainly to the church, and in the celestial sense, mainly to the Lord. In the spiritual sense they relate also to Divine truth, and in the celestial sense to Divine goodness. Hence the aforesaid marriage in the Word’s literal sense.

But this marriage is not apparent to anyone unless he knows from the Word’s spiritual and celestial senses the symbolic meanings of the words and names. For some words and names refer to goodness, and some to truth, and some encompass both. Without that knowledge, therefore, the aforesaid marriage in every constituent of the Word cannot be seen.

It is for this reason that this arcanum has not been disclosed previously.

78. Furthermore, the Lord is present in a person and conjoined with him through the Word, since the Lord embodies the Word and speaks in it as it were with the person. And because the Lord embodies Divine truth itself, so also does the Word embody it.

It is apparent from this that the Lord is present in a person and at the same time conjoined with him in accordance with his understanding of the Word, for it is in accordance with this that a person possesses truth and a resulting faith, as well as love and a resulting life.

The Lord is indeed present in a person by his reading of the Word, but He is conjoined with the person through his understanding of truth derived from the Word and in accordance with it. And the more conjoined the Lord is with the person, the more the person has the church in him.

The church exists in a person. The church around him is the church in all the other people who have the church in them. This is what the Lord meant when, to the Pharisees asking Him when the kingdom of God was coming, He said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of God there means the Lord and the church formed by Him.