186. More on regeneration. We are regenerated by means of the truths that belong to religious faith and through living by them: 1904, 2046, 9088, 9959, 10028. This is the meaning of the Lord's words "Unless you have been born of water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5); "water" means the truth that belongs to religious faith and "the spirit" means a life in accord with that truth: 10240. Water in the Word means the truth that belongs to religious faith: 2702, 3058, 5668, 8568, 10238. Spiritual purification, which is purification from evil and falsity, is effected by means of the truths that belong to religious faith: 2799, 5954, 7044, 7918, 9088, 10229, 10237. When we are being regenerated, truths are sown and rooted in doing good so that they become part of our life: 880, 2189, 2675, 2697. What truths must be like before they can be rooted in doing good: 8725. In the process of regeneration, truth is introduced and joined to doing good, and likewise doing good is introduced and joined to truth: 5365, 8516. How that mutual introduction and joining takes place: 3155, 10067. Truth becomes rooted in doing good when we come to will it, because it then becomes something that we love: 10367.
[2] There are two states we go through when we are being regenerated: the first is when we are being led to do what is good by means of truth, and the second is when we act on the basis of what is good and see what is true from what is good: 7992, 7993, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8772, 9227, 9230, 9274, 9509, 10057, 10060, 10076. What our state is like when truth is in first place for us and goodness is second: 3610. We can see from this that when we are being regenerated we look toward goodness from the perspective of truth, but when we have been regenerated, we look toward truth from the perspective of goodness: 6247. So there is a kind of reversal in which our state is turned upside down: 6507.
[3] It is important to know, though, how things really stand: while we are being regenerated, truth is only apparently but not actually in first place and goodness in second place; but when we have been regenerated goodness is actually and observably in first place and truth in second place: 3324, 3325, 3330, 3336, 3494, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4243, 4244, 4247, 4337, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 4977, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6273, 8516, 10110. This means that goodness comes both first and last in our regeneration: 9337. Because truth seems to come first and goodness seems to come second when we are being regenerated (or when we are becoming a form of the church, which amounts to the same thing), this appearance led to a difference of opinion among the ancients as to which was the firstborn of the church, the truth that belongs to religious faith or the good actions that come from caring: 367, 2435. The good actions that come from caring are the firstborn of the church in actual fact, while the truth that belongs to religious faith is only apparently so: 3325, 3494, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 8042, 8080. "Firstborn" in the Word means what comes first in the church and has preference and higher rank: 3325. That is why the Lord is called "the firstborn"-because all the good that comes from love and caring and faith exists within him and originates from him: 3325.
[4] Once we are in the later state (looking at truth from the perspective of goodness) we should not turn back to the earlier state (looking at goodness from the perspective of truth), and why that is the case: 2454, 3650-3655, 5895, 5897, 7857, 7923, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 9274, 10184 (which include discussion of the Lord's words "Those who are in the field then 1
should not go back to get their outer garments" [Matthew 24:18] and "Those who are in the field then should not turn back. Remember Lot's wife" [Luke 17:31-32], showing that this is what those sayings mean).
[5] A description of the way the process of our regeneration unfolds: 1555, 2343, 2490, 2657, 2979, 3057, 3286, 3310, 3316, 3332, 3470, 3701, 4353, 5122, 5126, 5270, 5280, 5342, 6717, 8772, 8773, 9043, 9103, 10021, 10057, 10367. There are countless mysteries concerning regeneration, because regeneration goes on throughout our entire lifetime: 2679, 3179, 3665, 3690, 3701, 4377, 4551, 4552, 5122, 5126, 5398, 6751, 9103, 9258, 9296, 9297, 9334. Hardly any of these mysteries come into our knowledge or perception: 3179, 9336. This is what is meant by these words of the Lord: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it is coming from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit" (John 3:8). Information about the process of regeneration of those who are part of the spiritual church: 2675, 2678, 2679, 2682. Information about the process of regeneration of those who are part of the heavenly church, and the differences between the two: 5113, 10124.
[6] It is much the same for someone who is being regenerated as it is for a baby who first learns to talk, then to think, later to live rightly, until finally everything flows freely, seemingly on its own: 3203, 3701. So someone who is being regenerated is led by the Lord through stages: the first is like infancy, the next is like childhood, and the one after that is like adulthood: 3665, 3690, 4377, 4378, 4379, 6751. When we are being regenerated by the Lord, at first we are in a state of outward innocence, which is a state like infancy for us. Then step by step we are led through to a state of inward innocence, which is a state of wisdom for us: 9334, 9335, 10021, 10210. The nature and characteristics of the innocence of infancy and the nature and characteristics of the innocence of wisdom: 1616, 2305, 2306, 3494, 4563, 4797, 5608, 9301, 10021. A comparison between our regeneration and the conception and formation of an embryo in the womb: 3570, 4931, 9258. Because of this parallel, references to conception and birth in the Word mean spiritual conception and birth-that is, stages in our regeneration: 613, 1145, 1255, 2020, 2584, 3860, 3868, 4070, 4668, 6239, 10204. Our regeneration is illustrated by the process of germination in the plant kingdom: 5115, 5116. In the spiritual world the stage of our regeneration is represented as a rainbow: 1042, 1043, 1053.
[7] Both the inner or spiritual self and the outer or earthly self need to be regenerated, and the one is regenerated by means of the other: 3868, 3870, 3872, 3876, 3877, 3882. The inner self is regenerated before the outer because the inner is in heaven's light and the outer is in this world's light: 3321, 3325, 3469, 3493, 4353, 8748, 9325. The outer or earthly self is regenerated by means of the inner or spiritual self: 3286, 3288, 3321. We are not regenerated until our outer or earthly self has been regenerated: 8742-8747, 9043, 9046, 9061, 9325, 9334. If our earthly self is not being regenerated, our spiritual self is closed off (6299) and is in effect blind to the truths and the good actions that are related to faith and love (3493, 3969, 4353, 4588). When the earthly self has been regenerated the whole person has been regenerated: 7442, 7443. This is the meaning of the washing of the disciples' feet and by these words of the Lord: "Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed to be completely clean" (John 13:10): 10243. Washing in the Word means spiritual washing, which is purification from evils and falsities (3147, 10237, 10241), and feet mean the attributes of our earthly self (2162, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952), so "washing our feet" means purifying our earthly self (3147, 10241).
[8] How the earthly self is regenerated: 3502, 3508, 3509, 3518, 3573, 3576, 3579, 3616, 3762, 3786, 5373, 5647, 5650, 5651, 5660. The nature of the earthly self when it has been regenerated and its nature when it has not been regenerated: 8744, 8745. The less our earthly self fights with our spiritual self, the more regenerated we are: 3286. When we have been regenerated, our earthly self perceives the spiritual things that are flowing in: 5651.
[9] Our sensory level, which is the lowest level of our earthly self, is not regenerated nowadays, but instead we are raised above it: 7442. When we are being regenerated we are actually lifted up from the sensory level into the light of heaven: 6183, 6454. The nature and characteristics of sense-oriented people may be seen in the references assembled in §50 above.
[10] We are regenerated by means of an inflow into whatever knowledge we have about goodness and truth: 4096, 4097, 4364. When we are being regenerated we are led by means of intermediate forms of goodness and truth into genuine forms of them, after which the intermediate forms are left behind and the genuine ones take their place: 3665, 3690, 3686, 3974, 4063, 4067, 4145. This then brings our truths and our desires to do good into a completely different arrangement: 4250, 4251, 9931, 10303. They are arranged according to our goals (4104); therefore they are arranged according to the use to which we wish to put our spiritual life (9297). When we are being regenerated we undergo many different states, but are steadily being led deeper into heaven and therefore closer to the Lord: 6645. Those who have been regenerated are patterned after heaven: 8512. Their inner reaches are opened into heaven: 8512, 8513. Through regeneration we come into angelic intelligence, but this lies hidden in our deeper levels as long as we are living in this world. It is opened up in the other life, however, and then we have the same kind of wisdom as angels have: 2494, 8747. The state of enlightenment that is given to those who are being regenerated: 2699, 2701, 2704. Through regeneration we are given a new faculty of understanding: 2657. How goodness becomes more fruitful and truth multiplies in people who are being regenerated: 984. When goodness takes charge in those who have been regenerated, the truths that come forth around it form little stars, so to speak, and each of these generates more starlike truths around itself, without end: 5912. In a person who has been regenerated, the truths that come from goodness are arranged in a pattern so that the genuine truths connected with that goodness are in the center; these are like parents to the next group of truths; and still other truths are placed farther away according to the degree of kinship or family ties, extending all the way to the outermost areas, where it is dark: 3128, 4551, 4552, 5134, 5270. In people who have been regenerated, truths that come from goodness are arranged in the form of heaven: 3316, 3470, 3584, 4302, 5704, 5709, 6028, 6690, 9931, 10303. In the book Heaven and Hell, see also the chapters "Heaven's Form, Which Determines How People Associate and Communicate There" (§§200-212) and "The Wisdom of Heaven's Angels" (§§265-275).
[11] In people who have been regenerated there is a correspondence between the spiritual and the earthly contents of their minds: 2850. In people who have been regenerated the whole hierarchy of their lives has been completely inverted: 3332, 5159, 8995. In their spirits, those who have been regenerated are completely new people: 3212. Those who have been through regeneration may seem outwardly like those who have not, but they are not like them inwardly: 5159. Regeneration is the only way we can gain spiritual goodness-which is intending and doing good because we are moved by a love for goodness: 4538. Whatever emotion instilled a given truth in us before has the power to evoke that truth again: 5893. The more our truths are disconnected from their origin in our self-focused life, the more they can be joined to goodness and receive spiritual life: 3607, 3610. Our truths have life to the extent that the evils stemming from our love for ourselves and for the world are put aside: 3610.
[12] When we are being regenerated, the first desire we feel for truth is not pure, but over time that desire is gradually purified: 3089, 8413. When we are being regenerated, the evil and false things in us are put aside slowly, not quickly: 9334, 9335. The evil and false things that have become part of us still continue to exist and are only put aside by our regeneration: 865, 868, 887, 929, 1581, 2406, 4564, 8206, 8393, 9014, 9333-9336, 9445, 9447, 9448, 9451-9454, 9938, 10057. There is no way we can be so completely regenerated that we are declared perfect: 894, 5122, 6648. Evil spirits do not dare attack someone who has been regenerated: 1695. People in the church who believe in justification know very little about regeneration: 5398.
[13] We need freedom in order to be regenerated: 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031, 8700. Through regeneration we are brought into heavenly freedom: 2874, 2875, 2882, 2892. No joining of goodness and truth takes place under coercion, so no regeneration does either: 2875, 2881, 4031, 8700. For more on our freedom in regard to regeneration, see the teachings given in the chapter on freedom above [§§141-149].
[14] When we are being regenerated, we must of necessity undergo spiritual crises (3696, 8403) because such crises happen for the sake of joining goodness and truth together in us and also joining our inner and outer selves together (4248, 4572, 5773).
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