In the church it is indeed known that man must be born again (that is, must be regenerated) in order that he may enter
the kingdom of God; for the Lord has plainly declared this in John
3:3, 5. But what it is to be born again is known only to few, for
the reason that few know what good and evil are, and this because
they do not know what charity toward the neighbor is; if they knew
this, they would also know what good is, and from good what evil is;
for all that is good which comes from genuine charity toward the
neighbor.
But no one can be in this good from himself, because it is the celestial itself which flows in from the Lord.
This celestial flows in continually, but evils and falsities stand
in the way of its being received; and therefore in order that it may
be received it is necessary for man to remove evils, and as far as
he is able falsities also, and thus dispose himself to receive the
influx. When after evils have been removed the man receives the
influx, he at the same time receives a new will and a new
understanding; and from the new will he feels delight in doing good
to the neighbor from no selfish end, and from the new understanding
he perceives delight in learning what is good and true for its own
sake and for the sake of the life. Inasmuch as this new
understanding and new will come into existence through influx from
the Lord, the man who has been regenerated acknowledges and believes
that the good and truth with which he is affected are not from
himself but from the Lord, and also that whatever is from himself,
or of his own, is nothing but evil.
From all this it is plain what it is to be born again, and also what the new will and new understanding are. But the
regeneration through which come the new understanding and the new
will is not accomplished in a moment, but goes on from earliest
infancy even to the close of life, and afterward in the other life
to eternity, and this by Divine means, innumerable and unspeakable;
for man of himself is nothing but evil, which continually exhales as
from a furnace, and continually endeavors to extinguish the nascent
good. The removal of such evil, and the inrooting of good in its
place, cannot be effected short of the whole course of life, and
through Divine means numberless and unspeakable. Of these means
scarcely any are known at the present day, for the reason that man
does not suffer himself to be regenerated, nor does he believe
regeneration to be anything, because he does not believe in a life
after death. The process of regeneration, which includes
indescribable things, makes up the main part of angelic wisdom, and
is of such a nature that it cannot be fully exhausted by any angel
to eternity. Hence it is that this is the chief subject treated of
in the internal sense of the Word.
