601. VIII. When a person is regenerated, he acquires a new will and a new understanding.

The present-day church is aware that, when a person is regenerated, he is renewed or becomes a new person; this is evident both from the Word and from reason. These passages from the Word prove this:

Make yourself a new heart and a new spirit; why will you die, o house of Israel? Ezekiel 18:31.

I will give you a new heart and a new spirit in your midst, and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh; and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in your midst, Ezekiel 36:26-27.

From now on we know no one according to the flesh; so if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

A new heart in these passages means a new will, a new spirit means a new understanding. For heart in the Word stands for the will, and spirit, when linked with the heart, for the understanding.

The argument from reason is: when a person is regenerated he has a new will and a new understanding because these two faculties are what make him a human being, and it is these which are regenerated. Everyone, therefore, is such as he is in these two respects. If his will is evil, he is evil, and the more so if his understanding favours evil; and the reverse is true, if his will is good. It is only religion which renews and regenerates a person. Religion is allotted the highest place in the human mind, and sees below it the social matters which concern the world. Religion too climbs up through these as the pure sap rises in a tree to its top, and from that lofty position it has a view of natural matters, just as someone on a tower or a mountain has a view of the plains beneath.

145. In the Word too 'name' means the essential nature of a real thing, and 'seeing and calling by name' knowing characters, as in Isaiah,

I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoarded riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Jehovah, the one calling you by name, the God of Israel. For the sake of My servant Jacob, and of Israel My chosen, and I have called you by name, I have surnamed you, but you do not know Me. Isaiah 45:3-4.

Here 'calling by name' and 'surnaming' mean knowing his character beforehand. In the same prophet,

You will be called by a new name which the mouth of Jehovah will declare. Isaiah 62:2.

This stands for his becoming a different person, as is clear from what precedes and what follows these words. In the same prophet,

O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are Mine. Isaiah 43:1.

This stands for knowing character. Again in the same prophet,

Lift up your eyes on high and see; who created these? He who brings out their host by number; He will call them all by name. Isaiah 40:26.

This stands for His knowing them all. In Revelation,

You have a few names in Sardis, who have not soiled their garments. He who conquers will be clad in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:4-5.

Elsewhere in the same book,

Whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb. Revelation 13:8.

In these places 'names' is in no way used to mean names but people's characters. Nor in heaven do they know anyone's name, only his character.