221. 5. The exteriors of the Temple in Jerusalem, as well, represented the types of good and truth that exist in the Word's literal meaning. The Temple represented heaven and the church just as the tabernacle did, although the Temple meant the heaven where the spiritual angels are, while the tabernacle meant the heaven where the heavenly angels are. Spiritual angels have wisdom because of the Word. Heavenly angels have love because of the Word.

The Lord himself teaches in John that in its highest meaning the Temple at Jerusalem stood for the Lord's divine-human manifestation:

"Break this temple in pieces and I will raise it in three days. " He was speaking of the temple of his body. (John 2:19, 21)

When something means the Lord it also means the Word, because he is the Word.

Since the interiors of the Temple represented the inner parts of heaven and the church, and the inner parts of the Word as well, its exteriors in turn represented and meant the outer parts of heaven and the church, and the outer parts of the Word as well, which belong to its literal meaning. We read of the exteriors of the Temple that they were built of whole, uncut stone, with cedar on the inside face; all the walls were carved on the inside with angel guardians, palm trees, and open flowers; and the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 29-30). All these details stand for the outer parts of the Word, which are holy aspects of its literal meaning.

618. Regeneration Is Not Possible without the Truths That Shape Faith and Are Joined with Goodwill

We are regenerated by three things: the Lord, faith, and goodwill. These three would lie hidden like extremely valuable gems buried underground if divine truths from the Word did not open them to view. In fact, they do lie hidden for people who deny that we can cooperate with the Lord, even though such people read the Word a hundred or a thousand times and those things stand forth in clear light there.

Take the Lord, for example. Do any who are convinced of the faith of today regard with open eyes the statements in the Word that the Lord and the Father are one, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that the will of the Father is that we believe in the Son, not to mention countless other similar teachings about the Lord that occur in both testaments? The reason for this is that they do not have truths, and are therefore not in a light in which they could see things of this kind. Even if they were given such light, their false beliefs would extinguish it. Then they would pass over teachings like this as if the words had been erased or deleted, or as if they were covered gutters that people step on and cross over. The purpose of these analogies is to make it known that without truths we do not see this teaching about the Lord, even though it is a key component of our regeneration.

[2] What of faith? Without truths, faith cannot even exist. Faith and truth are one with each other. The goodness within faith constitutes its soul, so to speak, and truths constitute its body. Therefore saying that we believe or have faith and yet knowing no truths related to faith is like extracting the soul from a body and then trying to have a conversation with that soul, even though it is invisible. All the truths that constitute faith's body emit light; they shine on the face of faith and make it visible.

A similar thing is true of goodwill. It emits heat. The light of truth joins together with this heat, just as heat and light join together during springtime in this world and the two of them bring animals and plants on earth into a reproductive state again.

[3] The same thing happens with spiritual heat and light. They join together within us, when we are focused both on truths that relate to faith and on good actions that relate to goodwill. As indicated above in the chapter on faith, each truth that relates to faith gives off a light that shines, and each good action that relates to goodwill gives off a heat that lights a fire within us. The point is also made there that spiritual light is essentially intelligence, and spiritual heat is essentially love; the Lord alone combines these two in us as he is regenerating us. As the Lord says, "The words that I speak are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). "Believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light" (John 12:36, 46).

The Lord is the sun of the spiritual world. All spiritual heat and light come from that sun. That light enlightens us; that heat kindles a fire within us. Through both of them working together in us, the Lord brings us to life and regenerates us.