2854. Because thou hast hearkened to My voice. That this signifies by the union of the Lord's Human Essence with His Divine Essence, is evident from all that precedes, of which this is the conclusion. To "hearken to the voice" signifies that He underwent the utmost of temptation, and thus united His Human Essence to His Divine Essence. That the Lord united His Human to His Divine and His Divine to His Human by continual temptations and victories, may be seen above (n. 1737, 1813); and that by this union He saved the human race (n. 1676 at the end, 1990, 2016, 2025). From this the human race has all its salvation. It is the common opinion that the Father sent the Son to suffer the hardest things even to the death of the cross; and thus that by looking upon the passion and merit of the Son, He has mercy upon the human race. But everyone can know that Jehovah does not have mercy by any looking upon the Son, for He is mercy itself; but that the arcanum of the Lord's coming into the world is that He united in Himself the Divine to the Human and the Human to the Divine; which could not be done except through the most grievous things of temptations; and thus that by that union it became possible for salvation to reach the human race, in which no celestial and spiritual, or even natural good, any longer remained; and it is this union which saves those who are in the faith of charity. It is the Lord Himself who shows the mercy.