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.

685. These and the foregoing remarks enable us to see that the three purposes of baptism combine into one, just as do the first cause, the intermediate or efficient cause, and the last cause or the effect, which is the real end in view for the sake of which the others exist. The first purpose is for a person to be named a Christian; the second is what follows from this, so that he may get to know and acknowledge the Lord, the Redeemer, Regenerator and Saviour; the third is so that he may be regenerated by the Lord, and when this happens, he is redeemed and saved. Since these three purposes follow one succeeding the other and combine in the last, so that angels think of them together as one, then when baptism is performed, read about in the Word or mentioned, the angels present understand not baptism, but regeneration. So these words of the Lord:

He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned, Mark 16:16.

are understood by the angels in heaven as meaning that the person who acknowledges the Lord and is regenerated is saved.

[2] This too is the reason why baptism is called by the Christian churches on earth the washing of regeneration. The Christian ought therefore to know that one who does not believe in the Lord cannot be regenerated, despite being baptised. Baptism without faith in the Lord is of no avail; see above in this chapter, 673. Every Christian ought to be fully aware that baptism involves purification from evils and so regeneration, for when he is baptised as an infant, the priest makes the sign of the cross with his finger on his forehead and chest as a token of the Lord, and then turning to the godparents asks whether he renounces the devil and all his works, and whether he accepts the faith. To which the godparents answer in place of the child: 'Yes, indeed.' The renouncing of the devil, that is, of the evils which come from hell, and faith in the Lord, bring about regeneration.