234.
The Lord from eternity or Jehovah put on in addition this third degree by assuming a humanity in the world for the reason that He could not enter into this degree except by means of a nature like people's
human nature, thus only by conception from His Divinity and being born of a virgin. For in this way He could put off a nature which in itself is lifeless, even though a receptacle of the Divine,
and put on a Divine one. This is meant by the Lord's two states in the world, called the state of exinanition* and the state of glorification,** which we took up in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
Regarding the Lord. * A term employed in 17th, 18th, and 19th century theology to mean the action or process of emptying out the self, used especially of the Christ, with reference to Philippians
2:7, 8. ** A term employed in 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th century theology to mean the exaltation of the Christ to the glory of God.