91. However, very few can apprehend with the understanding that the acknowledgment of the Lord, and the acknowledgment that all that is good and true is from Him, are what cause a man to be reformed and regenerated. For it may be thought, What does that acknowledgment do, since the Lord is Omnipotent and wills the salvation of all, and consequently that He is able and willing to effect it, if only He is moved to mercy? But such thought is not from the Lord, nor is it from the interior sight of the understanding, that is, from any enlightenment; therefore it will be briefly stated here what is effected by acknowledgment. [2] In the spiritual world where spaces are nothing but appearances, wisdom causes presence and love causes conjunction, each acting in turn. There is an acknowledgment of the Lord from wisdom, and there is an acknowledgment of the Lord from love. Acknowledgment of the Lord from wisdom, which regarded in itself is merely a matter of knowledge, results from doctrine; while acknowledgment of the Lord from love results from a life according to doctrine. This causes conjunction, but the other causes presence. The reason is that those who reject doctrine concerning the Lord remove themselves from Him; while those who reject life but not doctrine are present, yet separated. They are like friends who converse together, but who have no love for one another; and they are like two persons, one of whom speaks to the other as a friend but hates him as an enemy. [3] That this is so is well known from the common idea that he who teaches well and lives well is saved, but not he who teaches well and lives wickedly; and also that he who does not acknowledge God cannot be saved. From these considerations it is clear what the nature of that religion is that merely thinks about the Lord from faith, as it is called, but does not do anything from charity. Therefore the Lord says:
Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them ... is like a man which built an house ... and laid the foundation on a rock. ... But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth. Luke vi 46-49.