AC 5398 - A Brief Summary of the Internal Meaning of Genesis 42 and Beyond

AC 5398

In this chapter and in those which follow
about Joseph and the sons of Jacob,
in the internal sense is described
the regeneration of the natural
as to the truths and goods of the church --
that this is not effected by means of memory-knowledges,
but by influx from the Divine.
At the present day
those who are of the church
know so little about regeneration
that it is scarcely anything.
They do not even know
that regeneration goes on
through the whole course of life of one
who is being regenerated,
and that it is continued in the other life;
or that the arcana of regeneration
are so innumerable
that scarcely a ten thousandth part of them
can be known by the angels,
and that those they do know
are what effect their intelligence and wisdom.
The reason why
those who are of the church at this day
know so little about regeneration
is that they talk so much about
remission of sins and about justification,
and believe that sins are remitted in a moment,
and some that they are wiped away
like filth from the body by water,
and that a person is justified by faith alone
or by the confidence of a single moment.
The reason why the people of the church so believe
is that they do not know what sin or evil is.
If they knew this,
they would know that sins can by no means
be wiped away from anyone,
but that when the person is kept in good by the Lord
they are separated or rejected to the sides
so as not to rise up,
and that this cannot be effected
unless evil is continually cast out,
and this by means which are unlimited in number,
and for the most part unutterable.

Those in the other life
who have brought with them the opinion
that a person is justified in a moment by faith,
and wholly cleansed from sins,
are astounded when they see
that regeneration is effected by means unlimited
in number and unutterable,
and they then laugh at and call insane
the ignorance in which they had been in the world
in regard to
the instantaneous remission of sins and justification.
They are sometimes told
that the Lord remits the sins of those
who desire it from the heart;
yet still they are not thereby
separated from the diabolical crew,
to whom they are held fast by the evils
that attend their life,
which they have with them complete.
They then learn by experience
that to be separated from the hells
is to be separated from sins,
and that this cannot be done
except by thousands upon thousands of ways
known to the Lord only,
and this -- if you will believe it --
in a continual succession to eternity.
For a person is so evil
that he cannot to eternity
be fully delivered from even one sin,
but can only by the mercy of the Lord
(if he has received it)
be withheld from sin,
and kept in good.

In what manner therefore
a person receives new life and is regenerated,
is contained in the sanctuary of the Word,
that is, in its internal sense,
chiefly to the end
that when the Word is being read by a person
the angels may thereby be in their happiness of wisdom,
and also be at the same time
in the delight of serving as means.
In this and the following chapters about Joseph's brethren,
the subject treated of in the supreme internal sense
is the glorification of the Lord's natural,
and in the representative sense,
the regeneration of the natural in person by the Lord,
here as to the truths of the church therein.