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Preached on 11-28-99

THE LORD THE SAVIOR

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"And Abraham came near and said, 'Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?'" (Gen. 18:23)

TWO CITIES WERE TO BE DESTROYED. Because the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah had grown to intolerable heights, Jehovah was to visit them, and judge them. Abraham, when he learnt what was to happen, was in anguish. In one of these cities, in the city of Sodom, lived his nephew Lot. Lot's father Haran had died in Ur of the Chaldees, and Abraham had taken Lot with him into the land of Canaan. Lot had then settled in Sodom, in a city that was now facing destruction.

And so Abraham pleaded with Jehovah: "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" He interceded with Jehovah, seeking and receiving from Him a promise that He would not allow even a few good people, whether they be fifty or five, to perish with the evil.

In this intercession of Abraham on behalf of Lot we see a picture of human love. Abraham did everything he could to save his nephew Lot. So too, there is a similar intercession in all love (AC 8573:2). When we love somebody, we wish him well, and do all we can to make him happy and to rescue him from harm. And yet more than human love is involved in Abraham's intercession for Lot. This incident in the Word contains a treatment of the Divine love itself. In the internal sense, the life of Abraham deals with part of the Lord's life on earth.

This life was a life of pure love. From a desire to save the whole human race from utter destruction, the Lord was born into the world, and during His life here, this love burned within Him as His soul. But though the Lord had come to save people from the forces of evil, all around Him He saw a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, the love of self, and the falsity this love produces. He saw a host of men and women who had allowed themselves to become totally dedicated to the love of evil. And when He looked upon those who had inclinations towards charity, He saw that even they were infested with this evil. Even those who desired to do what was good had to fight against almost overwhelming selfish tendencies towards evil.

The Lord wanted to save all who were willing to be saved. Where there was any good, or any possibility of good, He burned with the desire to rescue His creatures from the forces of hell. But when He saw the spiritual condition of the men and women of that time, He grieved. Even those in good were fast being overwhelmed by evil. And from infinite love and mercy He was struck with sorrow, indeed was horrified, by the thought of these people going to hell. If there was any possibility for people to be led to freely accept His love, He had to keep a way open for their salvation. As Abraham was horrified at the thought of his nephew dying along with the wicked, so too, the Lord was struck with grief and horror as He contemplated the possibility that evil might bring about the destruction of the good, and He pleaded that this might not be. "Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You!" (Gen. 18:25).

We need to realize that the Lord really did experience horror, and from this horror actually did plead that those He loved might not perish. While the Lord was on earth, His Divine soul was at first present in a merely human body. Though He Himself was pure, the body He inhabited was tainted with hereditary evil from the mother through whom He was born. He was thus intimately aware of the horror of evil, for it pressed upon Him through this body. He Himself felt the burden which afflicted those He had created. What is more, while present within this impure body, His vision was obscured. He did not see clearly how He might save the men of this world. Insofar as He was in the maternal human, He doubted whether they could be saved, and, faced with this doubt, He experienced unspeakable horror. And so He pleaded with His Father that there be a way in which He might save them. Because He was present in a human body, He not only experienced doubt and horror. He also felt distant from His Father, that is, from His own soul. He prayed that those He loved might be saved from harm.

The Lord had no concern for Himself. Abraham's intercession for Lot occurs just after Jehovah has prophesied that Isaac would be born. Isaac represented the Divine rational, and the prophecy of his birth represents an awareness by the Lord that He would cast off what was merely human and put on what was Divine (cf. AC 2138). The Lord's concern was thus not for Himself, but for others. The agony He felt was the agony of love, of Divine love for the human race. But, as Abraham received a promise from Jehovah that the good would not perish, so the Lord Himself received then assurance from within. There was a way all men who wanted to be saved could be saved, in spite of the burden of hereditary evil, and no matter how little their good might be.

This the Lord foresaw, and later accomplished, by conquering the hells and glorifying His Human. In this way He took on power, power to hold the hells in subjection, and power to uplift the minds of people on earth. His struggles and temptations over, He then had the power to save all who wished to be saved.

But in another way this struggle continues. It is as it were relived in the lifetime of every man and woman. As the spiritual Sodom of selfishness ruled the world when the Lord came, so too it rules at first in the world of every human mind. Everybody has within himself evil tendencies which have the potential of bringing him to spiritual destruction. Having fought for the human race as a whole, and having taken on Divine power, the Lord now uses this power to fight against evils in individual people. If someone is willing to be led to heaven, the Lord knows the way in which this can be accomplished.

That the Lord has the power to save us is one of the primary truths of revelation, and it is at the very center of our faith (Cf. TCR 344). Yet this principle of faith is often doubted. It is a common thing for someone, trying to live the life of religion, to come to doubt whether the Lord can ever save him. He questions whether the Lord can ever save such a miserable sinner as himself. He has committed and come to love many evil things. He knows himself well, and realizes that he is enslaved by secret evil desires, and can see no way in which he might attain a heavenly state before he dies. As the Lord in the maternal human doubted whether the human race could be saved, so the individual man or woman of today can come to doubt the possibility of his or her own salvation.

From the viewpoint of the person involved, this fear is not unrealistic. A person has to face the fact that evil can lead him to an eternal home in hell. But this does not mean that in his present situation the way to heaven is closed. In fact, he needs to know that the way to heaven does lie open, and that the Lord has the power to lead him along this path.

Such assurance is found in Jehovah's replies to Abraham, when Abraham pleaded for Lot's safety. These replies represent, first of all, the assurance the Lord received while He was in the world: an assurance that the human race could be saved. But they are also a promise for us, showing us that we can be saved, however low we may have fallen. Abraham's pleading, and Jehovah's promises, can help us when we are in despair about our own salvation.

Abraham asks Jehovah six questions which at first glance might seem repetitive. He asks whether the city will be destroyed if there are fifty righteous men in it. He is assured that it will not. He asks whether the city will be destroyed if there are only forty-five men in it. The answer is the same. He asks similar questions in regard to forty, thirty, twenty and ten. In each case he is promised that the righteous will not be destroyed along with the evil.

The reason all of these numbers are mentioned is that by them are represented various human states. Internally the questions concern whether or not salvation is possible in these states.

Fifty represents fullness. As seven represents what is full and holy, so too does fifty, following after the product of seven and seven. It was every fifty days that the Israelitish church celebrated the festival of seven sabbaths; and every fiftieth year it celebrated the Jubilee, the festival which came every seven periods of seven years. By fifty remaining in the city is meant a fullness of good in the truths within a man. This is the state of the person who loves and lives the truths he knows. He lives the life of religion to the best of his knowledge. It might seem as if such a person obviously merits salvation. But he does not. Whatever truths a person knows are very few, and if he has a love for these truths it is not to his credit, for such a love is mercifully given to him by the Lord alone. Someone who has cooperated with the Lord by living according to religious truths will be saved, indeed. But still this is only possible because the Lord's love and mercy has lifted him up into heavenly life.

This love and mercy goes forth not only to those in good, but to those in lower states as well. Suppose, for example, a person does not always love living according to the truth, but nevertheless tries to do so, and, in general, succeeds. Will he be saved? The answer is yes. His state is represented by forty-five in the city. Five signifies a little, and if a person lives, in general, according to the truth he knows, he only lacks a little, and is close to the full state of fifty. He can be saved.

But suppose a person has no real delight in obeying the Lord. He has indeed made himself live according to the commandments as much as possible, but it has been a bitter struggle. His temptations have been great, and he does not feel peace in doing good, but still longs to commit evils of every kind. Though he might see his state as far from angelic, he can be saved. If he has faithfully patterned his life after the Lord's teachings, and humbly acknowledged that his heart is full of evil desires, then in such dedication and humility he can receive love from the Lord: love and enjoyment in living according to the truth. Such a person's state is represented by forty: the number of temptation. Forty years was the period the Israelites were to wander in the wilderness. It was for forty days that the Lord was tempted by the devil. Those who have been faithful during temptation and despite temptation, can be saved, and brought to a real enjoyment of heavenly life.

There is tremendous power in resisting evils as sins against God. In fact there is power even if only a few evils are resisted. This state is represented by thirty. As five represents a little, and six represents combat or work, as in the six days of work before a Sabbath, so thirty, their product, stands for someone who is only fighting to a small degree against his evils. But he also may be saved, for to resist evils as sins even in a small way begins to break the influence of the hells.

But what of someone who has shown no real concern for the things of religion? He has not tried to perfect his life; he has shown no real resistance to his evil desires. Even for such a man the way to heaven is not closed, for within his mind the Lord has stored up remains. All, in infancy, and also in the later years of childhood, experience states of innocence, of kindness and charity. These give each person an inclination to turn to the Lord later in life, learn His truth, and live it. This inclination is stored up within a person by the Lord, and protected. By virtue of this, everyone has the potential of responding to the Lord's love, and being saved.

When this inclination moves someone to do what is good or kind, then, even though he might not have begun to fight against his evils, this good nevertheless forms a beginning, which can later encourage him to fight his evils and enter into real heavenly life. The state of such a person is represented by twenty. Ten signifies remains, and twenty signifies these remains in a higher degree -- that is, not simply remains, but the good which these remains can produce.

But even where someone scarcely allows himself to be moved to act charitably and kindly, nevertheless these remains are still within him, preserving within him the possibility of his later turning to what is good. Even in this lowest of human states there is still hope in remains, signified by ten: "Then he said, 'Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?' And He said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten."

No matter how low the state of a person, the Lord stands ready to save him from the forces of evil. It is true that evil will condemn him. It is true that to remain in evil brings eternal damnation. But it is not true that we are destined to remain in evil. For every person there is a path to heaven, and he may walk along it if he wishes. We must remember that the Lord loves us. From this love He came into the world. It burned within Him as He fought for our salvation and conquered, taking to Himself the power to touch all human states, however low they might be. And now, from this love, and with this power, He comes to all of us, wherever we might stand along the path of regeneration, indeed even if we are on the path to hell. As He was born into the world so long ago, so today He comes to each one of us: as the Savior of the human race.

Amen.

Lessons: Gen. 18:1-15; Gen. 18:16-33; AC 8573:2