New Church (Swedenborgian) teachings about the meaning of the Crucifixion.

New Church (Swedenborgian) teachings about the meaning of the Crucifixion.

Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
Luke 24.46


Direct teachings from the Bible about why He was crucified are not easy to interpret:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3.14

He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53

The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Mark 10


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The Atonement

Certain sayings, of Paul especially, have been interpreted into a doctrine that is known as the "Vicarious Atonement," or "Justification by Faith."

For if the blood of bulls and goats sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Romans 9.13

We conclude that a man is justified by faith alone, without the works of the law.
Romans 3.28

The primary Christian interpretation of these passages is known as the Vicarious Atonement, or Justification by Faith. Swedenborg's statement of this doctrine is as follows:

God the Father, in His anger with the human race (over the sin of Adam and Eve) not only drove it away from Him, but actually placed it under the ban of universal damnation, thus excommunicating it. But because He is gracious, He persuaded or impelled His own Son to come down and take upon Himself the sentence of damnation, so as to appease His Father's anger. It is only in this way that He is able to look upon man with any favor. This was accomplished by means of the Son, in order to take upon Himself the damnation of the human race, by allowing Himself to be crucified as accursed in the sight of God.

The Father was satisfied when this had been done, and through His love for His Son revoked the damnation, but only for those for whom the Son interceded. Thus He became in perpetuity the Mediator.
True Christian Religion 132

According to New Church (Swedenborgian) teachings this is a mistaken interpretation. It divides God, and it attributes qualities to Him, and to His justice, not consistent with Scripture:

It is a fundamental error on the part of the church to believe that the passion on the cross was the real act of redemption. For God is mercy itself, since He is love itself, and these qualities are His essence. It is therefore a contradiction to say that mercy itself or good itself could look upon the human race in anger, pass a sentence of damnation on him, and still remain what He is in His Divine essence.
True Christian Religion 132


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New Church (Swedenborgian) Teaching about the Crucifixion

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human. The passion of the cross was the last combat by which He fully conquered the hells, and fully glorified His Human.
Doctrine of the Lord, paragraph 12

Subjugating the Hells

He took away the power of the hells by engaging them in combat as they attached themselves to the human nature that He had from the mother. As He conquered them, He took away their power:

The Lord willed to undergo death and to rise again the third day to the end that He might put off everything human that He had from the mother and might put on the Divine Human. For everything human that the Lord took on from the mother He rejected from Himself by temptations, and finally by death.
Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 899.14; Lord, paragraph 35

The Lord's love - a most ardent love - was for the salvation of the human race. It was therefore a total affection for good and affection for truth in the highest degree. The hells attacked these loves, employing the most malicious forms of guile and venom. But the Lord nevertheless conquered them all by His own power.
Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 1820

His combats took the form of intense spiritual suffering, much as a person suffers whose loved ones are threatened by a serious crisis.

The description of the Lord's suffering is brief in the Gospels, but in the Prophets, and especially in the Psalms, it is extensive.
Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 9937

"Lord how they have increased who trouble Me! Many are they who rise up against Me."
Psalm 3.1

"I am...like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You remember no more. You have laid Me in the lowest pit, in the depths."
Psalm 88.5,6



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Glorifying His Human

Glorifying His Human" means that He gradually made the human in Himself Divine, uniting Himself with the Father. He did this by fulfilling the Scriptures. The Lord when in the world fulfilled all things of the Word, and thereby became the Word.
True Christian Religion, paragraph 261

For one who thinks and speaks nothing but truth becomes that truth; and one who wills and does nothing but good becomes that good.
True Christian Religion, paragraph 263

Every citizen is united to his king by obedience to his commands, and still more if he suffers death for him, as happens in conflicts in time of war. And the Lord says: 'I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.'
True Christian Religion, paragraph 131

'He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows. 'By bearing iniquities nothing else is meant than enduring grievous temptations; and His allowing the people to do with Him as they had done with the Word, and to treat Him in the same manner, because He was the Word. The prophets were also treated in a similar way.
Doctrine of The Lord, paragraph 15

The prophet by these signs bore the iniquities of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah. But he did not take them away and so atone for them; he only represented them and pointed them out...The same is therefore understood concerning the Lord, where it is said, 'He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.'
True Christian Religion, paragraph 130





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A Ransom for Many

The Lord, being love itself, or the essence and life of the love of all in the heavens, wills to give to the human race all things that are His. This is meant by His saying that the Son of man came to give His life a ransom for many.
Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 1419

The Mediator

The reason why He is called Mediator and Intercessor is that 'the Son' is used to mean Divine Truth, and 'the Father' Divine Good, and mediation is done by Divine Truth, through which lies access to Divine Good. Divine Good, being like the fire of the sun, is unapproachable. But Divine Truth, being like the light from the sun, is approachable. It provides a person's inner eye - the eye of faith - with a means and access to Divine Good.
Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 8705

Whoever Believes in Him

"Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." The universal principle of faith on a person's part is that he should believe in the Lord; for by believing in Him there is conjunction with Him and thereby salvation. To believe in the Lord is to have confidence that He saves; and as only those who live rightly can have this confidence, this, too, is meant by believing in Him.
True Christian Religion, paragraph 2