572. I. Unless a person is born again and as it were created anew, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Unless a person is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God; this is what the Lord teaches in John, where this passage occurs:

Jesus said to Nicodemus, Amen, amen ¹ , I say to you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And again, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a person is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit, John 3:3, 5-6.

The kingdom of God means both heaven and the church, for the kingdom of God on earth is the church. It is the same in other places where the kingdom of God is named; as Matthew 11:11; 12:28; 21:43; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1, 10; 9:11, 60, 62; 17:21, and elsewhere. To be born by water and the spirit means by the truths of faith and by living by them. For water meaning truths, see Apocalypse Revealed 50, 614-615, 685, 932. Spirit means living by Divine truths, as is plain from the Lord's words in John (John 6:63). Amen, amen means that it is the truth; and because the Lord was the truth itself, that is why He said it so often. He is also called the Amen (Revelation 3:14). Those who are regenerated are called in the Word sons of God and born of God; regeneration is described by a new heart and a new spirit.

Notes de bas de page:

685. 16: 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying. This symbolizes the Word's Divine truth.

The angel of the waters symbolizes nothing else but the Word's Divine truth, because waters symbolize truths (no. 50). And an angel symbolizes the Divinity emanating from the Lord (nos. 415, 631, 633) and also the truth flowing from Him (no. 170).