572. Unless We Are Born Again and Created Anew, So to Speak, We Cannot Enter the Kingdom of God

The Lord teaches in John that if we are not born again we cannot enter the kingdom of God: "Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God'" (John 3:3). And again, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you have been born of water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit" (John 3:5-6). The kingdom of God here means both heaven and the church, because the church is the kingdom of God on earth. The same is true in other passages in the Word where the kingdom of God is mentioned; see, for example, Matthew 11:12; 12:28; 21:43; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1, 10; 9:11, 60, 62; 17:21; and elsewhere. To be born of water and the spirit means to be born of truths related to faith and of a life lived by those truths. For truth as the meaning of water, see Revelation Unveiled 50, 614, 615, 685, 932. The fact that spirit means living our lives by divine truths is clear from the Lord's words in John 6:63. Truly, truly means that this is the truth. Because the Lord was truth itself, Scripture frequently says Amen [or Truly]. The Lord himself is called Amen (Revelation 3:14). In the Word, those who are regenerated are referred to as children of God and those born of God; and regeneration is expressed as our having a new heart and a new spirit.

686. It is said in the Word that the Lord God our Redeemer baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire; this means that the Lord regenerates a person by means of the Divine truth of faith and by means of the Divine good of love or of charity, on which see above, 684. Those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, that is, by the Divine truth of faith can in the heavens be told apart from those who have been regenerated by fire, that is, by the Divine good of love. Those who have been regenerated by the Divine truth of faith go around in heaven dressed in clothing of white linen, and are called spiritual angels. Those who have been regenerated by the Divine good of love go around in purple clothing, and are called celestial angels. It is those who go dressed in white clothing who are meant in these passages:

They follow the Lamb dressed in white and clean fine linen, Revelation 19:14.

They will walk with me in white, Revelation 3:4; also Revelation 7:14.

The angels in the Lord's tomb were seen in white, shining garments (Matthew 28:3; Luke 24:4). They were of the spiritual type, for fine linen means the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19:8, where this is explicitly stated). For clothes in the Word meaning truths, and white clothes and fine linen meaning Divine truths, see Apocalypse Revealed (397), where this was shown.

The reason why those who have also been regenerated by means of the Divine good of love wear purple clothing is that purple is the colour of love, a colour derived from the fire and redness of the sun; fire means love (see Apocalypse Revealed 468, 725). It is because clothes mean truths that the man among the invited guests who was not wearing a wedding garment was thrown out and cast into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-13).