Revelations of Divine Love · 36 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack
Chapter XXVII
Often I wondered why by the great foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not hindered: for then, methought, all should have been well." "Sin is behovable—[playeth a needful part]—; but all shall be well" After this the Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had to Him afore. And I saw that nothing letted me but sin. And so I looked, generally, upon us all, and methought: If sin had not been, we should all have been clean and like to our Lord, as He made us. And thus, in my folly, afore this time often I wondered why by the great foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not letted: for then, methought, all should have been well. This stirring [of mind] was much to be forsaken, but nevertheless mourning and sorrow I made therefor, without reason and discretion. But Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me, answered by this word and said: It behoved that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. In this naked word sin , our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that is not good , and the shameful despite and the utter noughting that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; (for we be all partly noughted, and we shall be noughted following our Master, Jesus, till we be full purged, that is to say, till we be fully noughted of our deadly flesh and of all our inward affections which are not very good;) and the beholding of this, with all pains that ever were or ever shall be,—and with all these I understand the Passion of Christ for most pain, and overpassing. All this was shewed in a touch and quickly passed over into comfort: for our good Lord would not that the soul were affeared of this terrible sight. But I saw not sin : for I believe it hath no manner of substance nor no part of being, nor could it be known but by the pain it is cause of. And thus pain, it is something, as to my sight, for a time; for it purgeth, and maketh us to know ourselves and to ask mercy. For the Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and so is His blessed will. And for the tender love that our good Lord hath to all that shall be saved, He comforteth readily and sweetly, signifying thus: It is sooth that sin is cause of all this pain; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner [of] thing shall be well. These words were said full tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me nor to any that shall be saved. Then were it a great unkindness to blame or wonder on God for my sin, since He blameth not me for sin. And in these words I saw a marvellous high mystery hid in God, which mystery He shall openly make known to us in Heaven: in which knowing we shall verily see the cause why He suffered sin to come. In which sight we shall endlessly joy in our Lord God.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The repeated assurance that 'all shall be well' and 'all manner of thing shall be well' expresses a doctrine of universal restoration where every defect is ultimately healed.
The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.
The visionary's 'longing' for God and the emphasis on God's 'tender love' and the soul's response of devotion characterize a path of loving surrender.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage centrally argues that sin was permitted by the 'great foreseeing wisdom of God' and that all things are ordered toward a final good.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The text explicitly states that sin 'hath no manner of substance nor no part of being' and is known only by the pain it causes, aligning perfectly with the doctrine of evil as a lack of good.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The visionary receives direct revelation ('Jesus... informed me') about the nature of sin and God's plan, which she could not have known through reason alone.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
The passage depicts God as a personal, responsive reality who speaks directly to the visionary, answers her questions, and acts with 'tender love' and comfort.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The visionary laments that 'nothing letted me but sin,' acknowledging the barrier between the soul and God caused by the fall.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The text describes the process of being 'noughted' of the flesh and affections to become 'clean and like to our Lord,' indicating a transformative participation in the divine nature.