The Three R’s Of Salvation
Repentance, Reformation and Regeneration
By the Rev. Dave Sonmor

Readings

Psalm 139

O Lord, You have searched me, and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.  You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain unto it. 

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night.” Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and the light are alike to You.

For You formed my inward parts: You weaved me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You; For I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are Your works; And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You. When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You…. Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

Revelation 21:1-7

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth passed away; and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And he said, Write: for these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

Sermon

In the Book of Revelation 21.5, the Lord said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” We, in the New Church understand that the process of renewal is happening now, and has been occurring since 1757. Some denominations expect the change to be instantaneous, and it is simpler for them, because all they have to do is say they believe in Jesus and then sit and wait and hope for the best, when the time comes. For us it is more complicated, because, if we believe the change is an ongoing process it is difficult to see any newness and we are in danger of becoming pessimistic and may begin to doubt the veracity of our belief. One advantage for us, though, is that we can knowingly be active participants in the building of the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Now the thought of being an active participant in such a grand event might lead some of us to think that the task is too big for us to play an active role in it. However, that is only if we think we are going to be a major contributor or influence, or architect or builder. No, our roles, though small, can be very real and meaningful, even though they are not critical to the over all process. We might say, “Well I can play a role in the development of a new earth, but can do nothing about the new heaven. I can be environmentally aware and careful not to pollute the atmosphere, and do my bit to clean things up in my own yard. I can also help to build a new social environment by being a better person who is helpful to others and contributes to public programs with money and volunteer effort. But how could I possibly be involved in the development of a new heaven when I am stuck to the earth?”

If we limit our thinking to just the physical aspects of the New Earth and the social order here, then we cannot see the connection between the New Heaven and the New Earth and our subsequent place in both of them. One thing we need to understand in order to see the whole picture, is that the natural world and its inhabitants does not cause things to occur in the spiritual world, but rather is affected by the spiritual world. It is a matter of cause and effect. The heavens, being the cause and the earth the effect. We must also keep in mind that we human beings are both natural and spiritual at the same time, and as such have a connection with the spiritual world at all times even though we are not consciously aware of it. We are thus in a position to allow the goodness and truth of the heavens and the evil and falsity of the hells to influence us in our thinking and behavior. This is where our role, in the process, lies. It begins with us opening ourselves to the influence of the Lord. This then brings me to the main theme of my sermon, which is, Repentance, Reformation and Regeneration, which I understand to be the keys to our role in the whole process of salvation.

According to the Writings of the New Church, repentance is the Work that we must do, which makes it possible for the Lord to take over our life and do the work of reforming and regenerating us. In the Arcana Coelestia nn.9014, Swedenborg wrote, “It is believed by many within the church that the forgiveness of sins is the wiping out and washing away thereof, as of filth by water; and that after forgiveness they go on their way clean and pure. Such an opinion prevails especially with those who ascribe everything of salvation to faith alone. But be it known that the case with the forgiveness of sins is quite different. The Lord forgives everyone their sins, because He is mercy itself. Nevertheless they are not thereby forgiven unless the person performs serious repentance, and desists from evils, and afterward lives a life of faith and charity, and this even to the end of their life. When this is done, the person receives from the Lord spiritual life, which is called new life.”

In order to confess our sins and do the work of repentance we must first recognize the evils in our self and acknowledge them as such rather than just sloughing them off and saying, “Oh well! That wasn’t so bad. Nobody got hurt.” And then forgetting about it. No, we must hold ourselves accountable for the sins we commit and consciously cease to be involved in them any further. In order to truly confess our sins we must use the standards the Lord established in the Ten Commandments and by the examples He set with the actions of His life as set forth in the Gospels. We should not just arbitrarily set our own standards or choose only a few of the commandments to obey. Also we should deal with specific evils and not some broad generalized concept of evil. Our confession must be more than just a verbal admission of guilt and a promise to try to do better. It must involve a sincere commitment to cease doing, the evils we identify, for the rest of our life.

Over the centuries of Christianity we have tried many ways to do confession. The Catholic Church was correct in establishing the practice of having people attend confession regularly and identifying specific sins they had committed. However, the penance for being involved often had nothing to do with the sin itself but rather was to do a certain number of works for the church which consisted in ritualistic activities, such as saying so many “Hail Mary’s” or “Our Father’s” attending mass, or giving something like money or labor to the church. None of these were bad things but they ought to be done from a desire by the doer and not as a form of punishment. The Protestant Church has always had a tendency to suggest that all that is needed for confession is for the individual is to admit that they are a sinner without worrying about specific details. They then simply need to avow that they believe in Jesus as being their Lord and Savior. Then all is forgiven, as Jesus died for our sins. This puts no responsibility on the individual to stop committing sins, as they haven’t even recognized or acknowledged what sins they have been involved with and so will continue to do them with the belief that they have been saved and so need not worry about it.

One can see from this that the New Church way of dealing with repentance is the hardest way, as the individual must take responsibility for their own behavior and must do something about it. There is no “quick fix” or “easy way out”. It is only when we repent in this manner that we open our spirit willingly so that the Lord can enter in and take over our life. But we Swedenborgians are not the only ones to understand repentance in this way. So let’s not feel smug about it. Dr. Larry Crabb, in his book “Inside Out” speaks of this process as “exposing wrong directions” He writes, “Doing good things does not automatically turn us into good people. Spending hours in Bible study, witnessing regularly, avoiding worldly amusements, and generously giving time and money to the Lord’s work are godly things to do, but they are not sufficient in themselves to provide deep change.”

Swedenborg wrote in True Christian Religion: “The Lord teaches in many passages that a person cannot do good which is essentially good until evil has been removed.” In the Gospels Jesus spoke of this to the people. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, clean first the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside too may be clean also.” (Matthew 23:25-26)

In saying this, the Lord spoke in similes and comparisons, which are at the same time correspondences. Cup stands for the truth of the Word, as cup implies wine and wine stands for truth, which is associated to our thoughts and discernment. Dish, implies food, and food stands for good, which is associated with our will and intention. Therefore cleaning the inside of the cup and dish means purifying the interior parts of the mind, the seats of will and thought, by means of the Word. Swedenborg wrote further about this: “Who does not see that before a person can do good that is good, they must be cleansed from their evils? Does not a cup have to be cleansed? And if it is not cleansed, does not the wine get a taste from its uncleanness? And does not a dish have to be cleansed before food is put on it? For if the inside of the dish is all unclean, will not the food excite aversion? How can anything pure inflow from heaven into a person, when they are wholly impure and unclean? Must not the impure and unclean things be removed first? If you let your bedroom get filled with excreta, would not the whole house have an offensive smell? Could anyone go into it? Would not anyone going in say, "I can't," and would he not turn away from the house, saying, "It's only fit for swine"? Consequently, before the Lord can inflow with good, evil must be removed; for influx before that is dangerous, as the good is turned into evil and increases it. The first thing, therefore, is to remove evil, and afterwards to inflow with good, and bring it into operation by means of the person. Anyone attempting to do good from the Lord, before evil has been removed by repentance, or without shunning evils as sins, is attempting what is impossible, and such things as may make him worse, inasmuch as, in the case of a wicked man, the good is turned into evil, and in that way it is profaned. That evil must be removed first, is clearly evident from the precepts of the Decalogue. Who is loving a person, when he wants to kill him, or hates him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he commits adultery with someone else's wife? Who is loving the neighbour, when he defrauds him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he slanders him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he covets what belongs to him? Those evils, therefore, must first be removed; and in the measure that they are being removed, to that extent the neighbour is being loved. But people ask whether love towards the neighbour should be first, or whether shunning those evils should be first. Everyone can see that shunning those evils should be first, inasmuch as a man is born into evil. Is it not necessary then for him to repent?”

Paul speaks of these things in this way, "Love works no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law" Romans 13:10

While we are engaged in the ongoing work of repentance and bringing about external changes, the Lord, who knows our spiritual states, is undertaking our reformation and regeneration.

Reformation is a process in which our interests and focus changes from being centered on our natural life to our spiritual life. As the Lord re-forms this focus internally, our natural attitudes and behavior are affected. Reformation is brought about by means of truths, which become part of our faith, which, in turn enables us to look towards charity. In this first stage we look from our natural being to our spiritual being and desire to be spiritual.

The final stage, regeneration, is the stage, in which we become spiritual-natural. It is formed by the kinds of good which make up charity, and from them we enter into the truths of faith. To put this in other terms, the first state is one of thought on the part of our understanding, but the second is one of love on the part of our will. When this state begins and develops, a mental change takes place; for there is a turning-point, following which the love of the will flows into the understanding, and drives and guides it to think in harmony and in keeping with its love. So therefore as far as the good of love then plays the leading role, and the truths of faith take second place, to that extent we are a spiritual person and a new creature. Then charity inspires our actions, faith our speech; we feel the good of charity and perceive the truth of faith. Then we are in the Lord and in a state of peace, and so we are regenerated.

Anyone who has begun the state of reformation while in the world can after death be brought into the state of regeneration. But anyone who has not entered upon reformation while in the world cannot be brought into the next stage, after death, and so cannot be regenerated… These two states can be compared with the state of a silk-worm, when it draws silk thread out of itself and wraps itself in it; and after its hard labour is over, it flies out into the air, and feeds, not as formerly on leaves, but on the juices in flowers. (True Christian Religion # 571)

Reformation and Regeneration are complex spiritual processes of which we are not mentally conscious. We are not aware of the inner changes taking place except that we, or others around us, may notice many outward changes in our attitudes and behavior.