874. This describes the first state following temptation in the regeneration of the member of this Church, a state common to all who are being regenerated. It is a state when people imagine that they themselves are the source of the good they do and of the truth they think. And because they are still in the greatest obscurity, the Lord lets them cling to that opinion. But as long as they cling to that opinion which is false, no good deed they do nor any truth they think is the good or truth of faith. For whatever a person carries out from himself cannot be good since it has come from self, an impure and most unclean origin. From that impure and most unclean origin no good can possibly emerge, for the individual is thinking all the time about his own merit and righteousness. Some go even further, and look down on everybody else, as the Lord teaches in Luke 18:9-14. And others' attitudes are different again. People's selfish desires intermingle in such a way that the outside may look good while the inside is filthy. The good therefore that a person does in this state is not the good of faith. And the same applies to the truth he thinks. What he thinks may be the perfect truth; but as long as the proprium is the source of it, though it is in itself the truth of faith, he does not have the good of faith within him. To be the truth of faith all truth must include from the Lord the good of faith. Only then do they become good and truth.

Title: Sin: The Way In and the Way Out

Topic: First Coming

Summary: Scripture says that sin comes first into our desires, then into our thoughts, and finally, if we let it, into our actions. When it hits the level of action, everything changes. The way it leaves us is the same way it came: first from our actions, then from our thoughts, and finally from our desires.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Genesis 3:4-6; 4:7; 6:5; 8:21
Luke 8:1-2
2 Samuel 15
James 4:1
2 Kings 19:27
Revelation 1:13