It is relatively well known that “Jesus” means “Savior” and “Christ” means “the anointed,” but there are spiritual meanings that extend well beyond these natural meanings.
Swedenborg tells us that “Jesus” represents the Lord’s divine goodness, his perfect desire for all good to come to us. “Christ” represents the Lord’s divine truth, the perfect thoughts and ideas that flow from his goodness to give it form and to lead us to be good and loving ourselves. It’s interesting to keep those ideas in mind as we read the New Testament and consider the focus of each passage. Why would some refer to Jesus and some to Christ?
And what about times when they are used together? The answer lies in the fact that the Lord’s humanity is a combination of his heart (his love) and his mind (his wisdom), just as our humanity is. This difference is that our hearts and minds can be at odds — we can want something while knowing it is wrong — but the Lord’s never are. His love is love itself, the origin of all love and all life; his wisdom is wisdom itself, the origin of all form and function, and they are perfectly united as an unwavering whole.
So when the two names are used together as “Jesus Christ,” they represent the Lord’s humanity, which Swedenborg calls the Divine Human — a humanity which lived within Jesus, and a humanity with has formed reality from eternity and will continue to eternity.
Passages from Swedenborg:
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3004
- Very deep arcana lie concealed within the internal sense, which up to now have not come to anyone’s knowledge. This becomes clear from what has been stated and shown up to this point, and from what will be shown in the Lord’s Divine Mercy in what follows. It becomes absolutely clear from the internal sense of our Lord’s two names JESUS CHRIST. When these are mentioned few have any other notion than that they are proper names which are little different from, though more sacred than, the names of any other human being. Better educated people know, it is true, that Jesus means Saviour, and Christ the Anointed, from which they conceive some more interior notion. But this is not the same as the things which the angels in heaven perceive from those names. They perceive things more Divine still, that is to say, when Jesus is mentioned by someone reading the Word they perceive Divine Good, and when Christ is mentioned, Divine Truth. And when both are mentioned together they perceive the Divine marriage of good to truth, and of truth to good. Thus they perceive everything Divine within the heavenly marriage, which is heaven. What the heavenly marriage is, see 2173, 2803.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3005
- The fact that JESUS in the internal sense is Divine Good and CHRIST Divine Truth may be seen from many places in the Word. The reason why Jesus is Divine Good is that it means Safety, Salvation, and Saviour. And as it means these it means Divine Good, for it is from Divine Good, which is the manifestation of the Lord’s love and mercy, and so through the reception of that Good, that all salvation springs. The reason why Christ is Divine Truth is that it means Messiah, Anointed, and King. That Messiah, Anointed, or King is Divine Truth will be clear from what follows.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 26
- Even they who pierced Him. This symbolically means that even those will see Him who are caught up in falsities in the church.
To “pierce Jesus Christ” means nothing else than to destroy His Divine truth in the Word. This also is meant by the report that one of the soldiers pierced His side, and blood and water came out (John 19:34). Blood and water are spiritual and natural Divine truth, thus the Word in its spiritual and natural senses; and to pierce the Lord’s side is to destroy both by falsities, as the Jews did also. For everything connected with the Lord’s suffering represented the state of the Jewish Church in relation to the Word�-�on which subject, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 15�17.
To pierce Him means, symbolically, to destroy the Word by falsities because it is said of Jesus Christ, who is shortly called the Son of Man, and “the Son of Man” means the Lord in relation to the Word. Therefore to pierce the Son of Man is to do it to the Word.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 6
- Who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. (1:2) This symbolically means, who from the heart and so in a state of light receive Divine truth from the Word and acknowledge the Lord’s humanity to be Divine.
John is said to have borne witness to the Word of God, but because John means all people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, as said just above in no. 5, therefore all these are meant in the spiritual sense. The angels, who are concerned with the spiritual sense of the Word, never know the name of any person mentioned in the Word, but only what the person represents and so symbolizes, which in the case of John is goodness of life or goodness in act, and consequently all people as a whole who possess that goodness. These bear witness, which is to say, they see, acknowledge, and accept from the heart in a state of light, and confess the truths of the Word, especially this truth there, that the Lord’s humanity is Divine, as can be seen from the copious passages cited from the Word in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.
Jesus Christ and the Lamb in the book of Revelation mean the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, and God means the Lord in respect to the Divine itself from which springs all else.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 846
- I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God. This symbolically means, who had been rejected by those caught up in falsities hatched out of their own intelligence, because they worshiped the Lord and lived in accordance with the truths in His Word.
The souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony ofJesus and for the Word of God mean people after death, who are then called spirits, people clothed in a spiritual body, who were hidden away by the Lord in the lower earth until the evil had been removed by the Last Judgment. They are said to have been beheaded because they were rejected by people caught up in falsities hatched out of their own intelligence, who are all those caught up in evils and so in falsities, or in falsities and as a result of these in evils, and yet in outward appearances are worshipers of God.
That an axe symbolizes such falsity will be seen in the following number. The testimony of Jesus and the Word of God symbolize an acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divinity in His humanity, the same as these words earlier:
(John) bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ…. (Revelation 1:2)
(Michael and his angels) overcame (the dragon) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…. (Revelation 12:11)
(The dragon) went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17)
I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus…. …the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)
That these declarations symbolize an acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divinity in His humanity and a life in accordance with the truths in His Word, especially the Ten Commandments, may be seen in the earlier explanations of those verses.
These souls are the same ones of whom the following is said above:
…I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, who are holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then white robes were given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until the number of both their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was complete. (Revelation 6:9-11)
These verses may be seen explained in nos. 325�329.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 960
- 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! This symbolizes the Lord, who presented the visions in the book of Revelation and has now laid the book open, testifying to the gospel that He is coming as a bridegroom and husband in His Divine humanity which He assumed in the world and glorified, and that the church longs for Him as His bride and wife.
The Lord says before this, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches” (verse 16 in this chapter), which symbolizes a testification by the Lord before the whole Christian world of the truth that the Lord alone has presented the visions described in this book, and that their meaning is now disclosed (see no. 953 above). It is apparent from this that He who testifies to these things, saying, symbolizes the Lord testifying, who has presented the visions in the book of Revelation and has now laid the book open. He is testifying to the gospel stated because He here announces His coming, His kingdom, and His spiritual marriage with the church; for the verse says, “‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” and the gospel symbolizes the Lord’s coming to His kingdom. See nos. 478, 553, 626, 664. It includes here His coming to a spiritual marriage with the church, because this New Church is called His bride and wife, and the Lord its bridegroom and husband (see chapters 19:7-9, 21:2, 9, 10, and 22:17). And here, at the end of the book, the Lord speaks and the church speaks, like a bridegroom and bride. The Lord says, “Surely I am coming quickly. Amen.” And the church says, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” These are the words of a betrothal looking to a spiritual marriage.
That the Lord will come in His Divine humanity which He assumed in the world and glorified is clear from the fact that He calls Himself Jesus and says that He is the Root and the Offspring of David (verse 16), while the church here says, “Come, Lord Jesus!” See nos. 953 and 954 above.
Athanasian Creed (Worcester) n. 132
- The Divine truth is the Christ; the proceeding Divine good is Jesus; the Divine Human is the Son of God; the proceeding Divine which is the Word is the Son of Man.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 24
- The heavenly kingdom is also called the Lord’s priestly kingdom-in the Word, “his dwelling”; and the spiritual kingdom is called his royal kingdom-in the Word, “his throne.” The Lord in the world was called “Jesus” because of his heavenly divine nature, and “the Christ” because of his spiritual divine nature.