17. Something will now be said regarding what is meant by taking away sins. By taking away sins is meant the same as by redeeming man and saving him; for the Lord came into the world that man might be saved. Without His Coming, no mortal could have been reformed and regenerated, and thus saved: but this became possible after the Lord had taken away all power from the devil, that is, from hell, and had glorified His Human, that is, had united it to the Divine of His Father. If these things had not been done, no man could have received any Divine truth that would remain with him, and still less, any Divine good; for the devil, who prior to this had superior power, would have plucked them out of his heart. [2] From these considerations it is manifest that the Lord did not take away sins by the passion of the cross; but that He takes them away, that is, removes them, with those who believe on Him by living according to His commandments. This the Lord also teaches in Matthew:
Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets.... Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of the heavens: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens. Matt. v 17, 19.
[3] Every one may see from reason alone, if he be in any enlightenment, that sins cannot be taken away from a man, except by actual repentance; and this consists in the man seeing his sins, imploring help from the Lord and desisting from them. To see, believe and teach otherwise, is not from the Word, nor is it from sound reason, but from lust and a depraved will, which constitute man's proprium,* by which his intelligence is bemused. * The Latin word proprium means "what is one's own". Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving "what is of the self".