are sanctified "through the truth" as He was. And this is what is meant by being washed, cleansed, redeemed, and saved by the blood of Christ; for by His blood, in the spiritual sense, is meant the divine truth of the Word. This is that "blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins"—"the blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin."
When thus we take up our cross and follow the Lord—when we do the truth which we understand by shunning as a sin whatever evil the truth forbids, then truth is brought at-one with goodness in our minds, as the Divine Wisdom was brought at-one with Divine Love in the Lord's assumed humanity. Then our external is brought at-one with our internal, our natural at-one with our spiritual man, our lower at-one with our higher nature, as the Lord's assumed human was brought at-one with the Divine. And so, as the Apostle says, we "receive the at-one-ment through our Lord Jesus Christ." That is, we receive that pure and unselfish love which is forever at-one—forever in marriage union—with the divine truth; and thus our hearts are brought at-one with the only Lord and Saviour.
We thus see that the doctrine of the At-one-ment, as held and taught in the New Church, is one of high practical moment. It involves the entire doctrine of man's regeneration.
