234. The reason that the Lord from eternity, that is, Jehovah, put on this third degree by the assumption of a Human in the world was because He could enter into this degree only by means of a nature like human nature, thus only by means of conception from His Divine and by birth from a virgin. For in this way He could put off a nature which is in itself dead, although a receptacle of the Divine, and could put on the Divine. This is understood by the Lord's two states in the world, which are called the state of exinanition and the state of glorification, which are treated of in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD.