Because man is reformed by conflicts with the evils of his flesh and by victories over them, the Son of Man says to each of the seven Churches, that He will give gifts “to him that overcometh.”

—­True Christian Religion, n. 610

Without moral struggle no one is regenerated, and many spiritual wrestlings succeed one after another.  For, inasmuch as regeneration has for its end that the life of the old man may die and the new and heavenly life be implanted, there will unfailingly be combat.  The life of the old man resists and is unwilling to be extinguished, and the life of the new man cannot enter, except where the life of the old has been extinguished.  From this it is plain that there is combat, and ardent combat, because for life.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 8403

REPENTANCE AND THE REMISSION OF SINS

He who would be saved, must confess his sins, and do repentance. To confess sins is to know evils, to see them in oneself, to acknowledge them, to make oneself guilty and condemn oneself on account of them.  Done before God, this is to confess sins. To do repentance is to desist from sins after one has thus confessed them and from a humble heart has besought forgiveness, and then to live a new life according to the precepts of charity and faith.

He who merely acknowledges generally that he is a sinner, making himself guilty of all evils, without examining himself,—­that is, without seeing his sins,—­makes a confession but not the confession of repentance.  Inasmuch as he does not know his evils, he lives as before.

One who lives the life of charity and faith does repentance daily.  He reflects upon the evils in him, acknowledges them, guards against them, and beseeches the Lord for help.  For of oneself one continually lapses toward evil; but he is continually raised up by the Lord and led to good.

Repentance of the mouth and not of the life is not repentance.  Nor are sins pardoned on repentance of the mouth, but on repentance of the life.  Sins are constantly pardoned man by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; but still they adhere to man, however he supposes they have been remitted.  Nor are they removed from him save by a life according to the precepts of true faith.  So far as he lives according to these precepts, sins are removed; and so far as they are removed, so far they are remitted.

—­Heavenly Doctrine, nn. 159-165

TEMPTATION AND PRAYER

When a man shuns evils as sins, he flees them because they are contrary to the Lord and to His Divine laws; and then he prays to the Lord for help and for power to resist them—­a power which is never denied when it is asked.  By these two means a man is cleansed of evils.  He cannot be cleansed of evils if he only looks to the Lord and prays; for then, after he has prayed, he believes that he is quite without sins, or that they have been forgiven, by which he understands that they are taken away.  But then he still remains in them; and to remain in them is to increase them.  Nor are evils removed only by shunning them; for then the man looks to himself, and thereby strengthens the origin of evil, which was that he turned himself back from the Lord and turned to himself.