Readings
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he or she cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6)
Readings on Repentance and Remission of Sins
“He who would be saved must confess his sins, and do the work of repentance.” (The New Jerusalem 159)
“To confess sins, is to know evils, to see them in yourself, to acknowledge them, to make yourself guilty, and to condemn yourself on account of them. When this is done before God, it is the confession of sins.” (The New Jerusalem 160)
“To do the work of repentance, is to desist from sins after you have confessed them, and from a humble heart have made supplication for remission, and to live a new life according to the precepts of charity and faith.” (The New Jerusalem 161)
“People who only acknowledge universally that they are a sinner, and make themselves guilty of all evils, and yet do not explore themselves, that is, see their own sins, makes confession, but not the confession of repentance; they, because they do not know their own evils, lives afterwards as they did before.” (The New Jerusalem 162)
“The people who live the life of charity and faith do the work of repentance daily; they reflect upon the evils which are with them, they acknowledge them, they guard against them, they supplicate the Lord for help. For people of themselves continually lapse, but they are continually raised by the Lord, and led to good. Such is the state of they who are in good. But they who are in evil lapse continually, and are also continually elevated by the Lord, but are only withdrawn from falling into the most grievous evils, to which of themselves they tend with all their endeavor.” (The New Jerusalem 163)
“The people who explore themselves that they may do the work of repentance, must explore their thoughts and the intentions of their will, and must there explore what they would do if it were permitted them, that is, if they were not afraid of the laws, and of the loss of reputation, honor, and gain. There the evils of people reside, and the evils which they do in the body are all from thence. They who do not explore the evils of their thought and will, cannot do the work of repentance, for they think and will afterwards as they did before, and yet to will evils is to do them. This is to explore one’s self.” (The New Jerusalem 164)
“Repentance of the mouth and not of the life is not repentance. Sins are not remitted by repentance of the mouth, but by repentance of the life.” (The New Jerusalem 165)
“It is believed that sins are washed away, or are washed off, as filth is by water, when they are remitted; but sins are not washed away, but they are removed; that is, a person is withheld from them when the person is kept in good by the Lord; and when the person is kept in good, it appears as if the person were without them, thus as if they were washed away; and so far as a person is reformed, so far a person is capable of being kept in good.” (The New Jerusalem 166)
“The repentance which takes place in a free state is of avail, but that which takes place in a state of compulsion is of no avail.” (The New Jerusalem 168)
“After a man has explored himself, and acknowledged his sins, and has done the work of repentance, he must remain constant in good even to the end of life.” (The New Jerusalem 169)
Readings on Regeneration
“He who does not receive spiritual life, that is, who is not begotten anew by the Lord, cannot come into heaven.” (The New Jerusalem 173)
“Man is not born of his parents into spiritual life, but into natural life. Spiritual life consists in loving God above all things, and in loving his neighbor as himself, and this according to the precepts of faith, which the Lord has taught in the Word. But natural life consists in loving ourselves and the world more than the neighbor, yea, more than God Himself.” (The New Jerusalem 174)
“Every man is born of his parents into the evils of the love of self and of the world. Every evil, which by habit has acquired as it were a nature, is derived into the offspring.” (The New Jerusalem 175)
“No man can be regenerated unless he knows such things as are of the new life, that is, of spiritual life. The things which are of the new life, or which are of the spiritual life, are truths which are to be believed and goods which are to be done; the former are of faith, the latter of charity.” (The New Jerusalem 177)
“Everyone has an internal level and an external level; the internal is what is called the spiritual level, and the external is what is called the natural level, and each is to be regenerated, that the man may be regenerated. With the person who is not regenerated, the external or natural level rules, and the internal serves; but with the person who is regenerated, the internal or spiritual level rules, and the external serves.” (The New Jerusalem 179)
“The internal level is first regenerated by the Lord, and afterwards the external, and the latter by means of the former.” (The New Jerusalem 181)
“One who is regenerated is, as to his internal level, in heaven, and is an angel there with the angels, among whom one also comes after death; one is then able to live the life of heaven, to love the Lord, to love the neighbor, to understand truth, to relish good, and to perceive the happiness thence derived.” (The New Jerusalem 182)
Readings on Temptation
“Those only who are being regenerated, undergo spiritual temptations.” (The New Jerusalem 187)
“For there are both evil and good spirits with every person; the evil spirits are in your evils, and the good spirits in your goods. When the evil spirits approach they draw forth your evils, while the good spirits, on the contrary, draw forth your goods; whence arise collision and combat, from which the person has interior anxiety, which is temptation.” (The New Jerusalem 188)
“Real repentance is examining oneself, recognizing and acknowledging one’s sins, appealing to the Lord and beginning a new life.” (True Christianity 528)
“These combats are carried on by the truths of faith which are from the Word. From these man must combat against evils and falsities; for if he combats from any other principles, he cannot conquer, because in these alone the Lord is present.” (The New Jerusalem 191)
“The Lord alone combats for man in temptations.” (The New Jerusalem 195)
“Recognition of sin and a person’s self-examination are the beginnings of repentance. ” (True Christianity 525)
“True repentance means not only examining what one does in one’s life, but also what one intends in one’s will to do. The reason why true repentance means not only examining what one does in one’s life, but also what one intends in one’s will to do, is that deeds are the product of the understanding and the will. Thought is what makes people speak and the will is what makes them act, so speech is thought speaking and action is the will acting... People too can repent of the evils they have physically committed, but still think and will evil. This is like cutting down the trunk of a tree that is no good, but leaving its root in the ground; from this the same tree grows up again and spreads itself around. But it is different if the root too is pulled up; and this is what happens in people when they examine at the same time the intentions present in their will, and rid themselves of evils by repentance.” (True Christianity 532)
“The question then is asked: how is one to repent? The answer is, in deed; that is, by examining oneself, recognizing and acknowledging one’s sins, praying to the Lord, and starting a new life. Repentance is impossible without self-examination. But what purpose does self-examination serve, but to enable us to recognize our sins? Or what purpose does their recognition serve, unless we acknowledge their presence in us? Or what purpose would these three actions serve, if not to enable us to confess them before the Lord, to appeal for His help, and from this point on to start a new life, which is the end in view? This is real repentance.” (True Christianity 530)
“Real repentance is easy for those who have repented a number of times, but highly distasteful to those who have not. Real repentance is examining oneself, recognizing one’s sins, making one’s confession before the Lord, and so beginning a new life. ” (True Christianity 561)
“Unless a person is born again and as it were created anew, he or she cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (True Christianity 572)