51. What we have said so far is confirmed by the following passages in the Word:

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; but an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45, cf. Matthew 12:35) In the Word the heart means a person’s will. And because it prompts a person to think and speak, we are told that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. (Matthew 15:11) The heart here, too, means the will.

Jesus said of the woman who washed His feet and anointed them that her sins were forgiven, because she loved much. And after that He said, “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:46-50). This makes it apparent that faith saves when sins have been forgiven, thus when they are no more.

Those people are called children of God and born of God who are not governed by the inherent nature of their will, and so neither by the inherent nature of their intellect. That is, they are people who are not prompted by evil and its accompanying falsity. And they are people who believe in the Lord, as He Himself teaches in John 1:12-13, a passage whose explanation may be seen at the end of no. 17 above.