“In Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Divine bodily.” - Colossians 2:6, 9
Kempton New Church

December
3

“His Work is Before Him”

Behold, Jehovah has made it be heard to the edge of the land; Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy Salvation comes! Behold, His reward is with° Him, and His work before Him. And they shall call them the people of holiness, the redeemed of Jehovah. (Isaiah 62:11–12)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them dominate over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26–27)

Man is indeed born of his parents as a man, but he does not become a man until he is reborn of the Lord. Spiritual and heavenly life is that which makes a man, for this distinguishes him from brute animals. (Arcana Cœlestia 3860)

For there can be nothing good in and from itself, but only from God; so there can be nothing just, nothing truly honest or truly human in itself and from itself, but only from God, and only when the Divine is in it. (Apocalypse Explained 948:4) It is by his being born again or regenerated that man becomes man, and is wholly distinguished from the brutes; for he then becomes a son and heir of the Lord’s kingdom. (Arcana Cœlestia 5160)

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