Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part II
The Divine Nativity

III. THE NATIVITY

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." (Luke 2: 9-12.)

Each of the four Gospels opens with different yet interrelated accounts of the Nativity.  By the spiritual sense their concordance is revealed.

Matthew begins with the generation of Jesus Christ, from Abraham to Joseph. This "generation," in its sequence, represents the Divine passing down through the heavens to conception and birth in the world. In this descent Joseph was the ultimate link. It was imperative that a man bearing that name should be betrothed to Mary. At the completion of this lineal record, Joseph so stood in relation to Mary; but immediately the representation of the Divine in the heavens was taken on by the angel who appears to Joseph in a dream, giving assurance that the one to be born of Mary was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that the power of salvation would reside in Him, in fulfillment of the prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God With Us."

Of Joseph it is recorded that "he took unto him his wife," but that "he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son"; this, of Joseph the man. In compliance with the angel's command, he called the one so born, Jesus. This account in Matthew of the Divine descent to conception and birth is paralleled in the first chapter of John by the Word which became flesh-even the Word which, in the beginning was with God, and was God.

The Divine Nativity in its ascending series is given in Mark and Luke. Mark gives no account of the virgin birth. Instead, his opening chapter tells of the Lord's baptism. This sacred ceremony was, however, significant of the rebirth of the Lord into His essential Divinity. Therefore, on the occasion, the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him, and a voice was heard from heaven saying, "Thou art my beloved Son."

The doctrine is clear that the Lord was not only conceived by the Divine descending through the heavens, but also that by His ascent He was reborn into unity with the Father.

His purely Divine rebirth was representatively recorded in the third chapter of Luke. Like Matthew, Luke also gives the parental lineage of Joseph, but he speaks of Jesus as the "supposed" (or presumed) son of Joseph, which is significant of the fact that the heavenly Joseph, or the heavens, was the medium of the Divine descent to conception, but here in Luke the medium of the Lord's ascension through heaven is also pictured. While the Matthew lineage goes down from Abraham to Joseph, that of Luke passes up from Joseph to God. We note that in Luke the ascending lineage of Jesus Christ from Joseph to God follows immediately after the Lord's baptism, and in fulfillment thereof. Yet, unlike Mark, Luke records the virgin birth, even in greater detail than Matthew. He begins with the account of John the Baptist, who was born of Zacharias and Elisabeth,-born to be a prophet of the Most High. Then follows the account of the coming of the angel to Mary and the Annunciation; of the meeting between Mary and Elisabeth; of Mary's salutation; and of the going of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where the Child was born and laid in a manger, because there was no room in the inn. This last was given in forecast of the rejection of the Lord by His own people.

Lowly indeed was this manger; yet it was not chosen because of its humility. Its service was significant of the after growth of the Lord and His rational development as His Divinity was successively opened.

Following the account of the Child's placement in the manger, Luke tells of the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. This story of the shepherds is in striking contrast with the corresponding account in Matthew, which tells of the birth of the Lord in Bethlehem, followed by the story of the Wise Men and the Star. Matthew's account of the Wise Men is a clear sequence of his record concerning the descending generation of Jesus Christ; for that the Lord should be born into the world was known of old. It was a part of the ancient wisdom, still lingering in the East, which enabled the Wise Men from Syria to see and follow the Star to Jerusalem, and from thence to Bethlehem.

The Matthew record covers a broader region. It tells not only of the Wise Men from the East, but also of the carrying of the Child down into Egypt, and the return thence to Nazareth, in avoidance of Judea; while in Luke there is no departure from Israel. Luke's record is, that the Child, soon after birth, was carried to Jerusalem, and there presented to the Lord in the temple, where He was recognized and confessed by Simeon and Anna the prophetess.

In place of the Matthew account of the coming of the Wise Men, we have in Luke the story of the shepherds of Israel. The difference is striking and of spiritual import. The Wise Men from the East, because of their ancient wisdom, were enabled to follow the Star. They could see the guiding light, while the nearby shepherds watched their flock by night. Unlike the East there was darkness over Judea. The untutored shepherds were Israel's remnant. Their minds were veiled in ignorance; yet of mercy a light was at the time given to them. The glory of the Lord shone round about them, and the angel of the Lord told them of the birth of the Savior, and gave them a sign by which they should know Him. The angel said, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

Two notable things are here recorded, both having reference to the state of the Lord at birth. First, that He was born in the "city of David," and second, that He might be known to the shepherds by the sign given them. The Lord's state at birth, signified by Bethlehem, and by the sign, was most arcane. It was not like that of any other man ever born, and this because the Divine was in Him from conception; that is, His soul was Divine. Only His infantile body was taken from the virgin mother. This was as the body of other men. Yet even His body differed from that of other men, since it was formed interiorly from His soul. His body and blood were vivified by the immediate presence of His soul. He was, as to His body, like other men only in that He was born of woman. Being so born, He drew from her blood the inheritance of her race, with all its involvements. The result of this, His Divine conception and virgin birth, was that He was like, yet unlike, other men.

Hence the teaching that He was born a spiritual-celestial man. While in this He was highly born, above all men, yet He was born into the ignorance of infancy. Being at birth neither rational nor merely natural, His state was intermediate between the two, called spiritual-celestial. One quotation will suffice: "The Lord was born a spiritual-celestial man, . . . for this is intermediate between the rational or internal man and the natural or external man; thus below it was the natural, and above it the rational. He who cannot apprehend these things cannot possibly by any revelation comprehend why the Lord was born in Bethlehem." (A.C. 4594.)

Because of this, His unique state at birth, He was born in Bethlehem. The angel said to the shepherds, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." The city of David was Bethlehem, and Bethlehem was originally called Ephratah.  Ephratah was ordained from the beginning to be the place of the Lord's birth, and it signified the spiritual-celestial. Not elsewhere could the Lord be born.

"I will not come into the tabernacle of my house. . . . nor give sleep to mine eyes. . . . until I find a place for the Lord. . . . Lo, we heard of Him in Ephratah; we found Him in the fields of the forest." (Psalm 132: 3, 4, 5.)

"Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, it is little thou be among the thousands of Juda; out of thee one cometh forth unto me who shall be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity." (Matthew 2: 6.)

Because David was born in Bethlehem, and was there anointed king, that place, in the time of our Lord, was called "the city of David." (Luke 2: 4, 11. John 7: 42.) Its prior significance from the beginning was, however, retained until its primitive meaning was fulfilled. As a spiritual-celestial man at birth, the Lord was born, as noted above, into a state intermediate between the rational and the natural. The quality of this state, though most arcane, may now come to view in some degree from the sign given the shepherds, by which they were to know Him, namely, that they would find the babe "wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

While the Divine conception and virgin birth surpassed all miracles, yet the sign of it here given was not, in itself, a miracle. His being wrapped in swaddling clothes was customary, and His lying in a manger a fact. Every miracle recorded in the Word was indeed a sign, but every sign was not a miracle; yet the meaning of this sign was beyond all miracles, since it signified the profound qualification of the state of the babe of Bethlehem. This qualification is called in the Writings" spiritual-celestial," and its sign was a testification to the shepherds that they might believe that the babe of Bethlehem was to be the Savior of the world.

The manger in which He was placed signifies truth from the Word, now become flesh. And the horses there fed signify the understanding of the Word. The Child was placed in a manger because there was no room in the inn. An inn is a place where men lodge and are supplied with food; in this case the men of Israel. Eating signifies instruction, and, in the highest sense, instruction in Divine things. But because the Jews were then in falsities through adulterations of the Word, the Israelitish inn, as such, was an impossible place for the Lord to be born. Because of this it is said, "there was no room in the inn."

The Lord "might have been born," we are told, "in a palace, and laid in a bed adorned with precious stones," but if born in a Jewish inn, He would have been environed by those who were not in the doctrine of truth, and this would have broken the heavenly representation. But this representation was provided for by His exclusion from the inn and His placement in a manger. He was born, therefore, not among the Jews, but in a refuge significant of the lowly who could receive Him.

This was one part of the sign. The other was that He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. This sign is even more revealing as to the Lord's state at birth. Swaddling clothes signify the primary truths of innocence, and also the truths of Divine Love. Into these the Lord was interiorly born because of His Divine soul, and by virtue of His spiritual-celestial accommodation. He was born into the primary truths of innocence because He descended into the world as the Truth-or the Truths of Divine Love in innocency. Yet, by His so descending, He did not separate the Divine Love. Since in Him at birth there was an inmost union of Divine Truth with Divine Love, therefore throughout His life in the world this prevailed increasingly from inmosts to outmosts. This progressive union was His true Divine Nativity. It was His ascending rebirth into God.

When this came to pass, He was no longer a spiritual-celestial man as at first, but a purely Divine Man and Only God. He was born spiritual-celestial by virtue of His transit through heaven to conception. By His ascending glorification this spiritual-celestial was put off, even as the heavens were put aside by His ascent through and above the heavens. In so doing He became more one with the Divine above the heavens than was the case with the former Divine in the heavens. In this we may perceive the distinction between the Divine descending to conception and birth, and the Divine in its ascent to unity with God.

Since by virtue of His descent through the heavens He was born a spiritual-celestial man, His Divine thus humanized is said to be the only Human in which the Divine could be. It was therefore His Heavenly Human which mediated between His supreme Divinity and the human taken from the mother. But as to this human from the mother He was born, like other men, into a state of entire ignorance, so that He must of need advance in the acquirement of knowledge, to the end that He might attain, through successive Divine rebirths, entire unity with God. The intent, therefore, was that He might come into the world, and go therefrom, by the way of men. Therefore He followed in the way of man's birth and regeneration, and this to the end that, by humanizing His Divine, He might take to Himself the finality of power to enable those who otherwise could not be saved.