4837. About regeneration, or rather the new creation
Heaven
In the Word it often speaks of the Lord the Creator, that He created the heavens and the earth [Gen. 1:1] and that He creates new heavens [Isa. 65:17]; and a person is called a new creation [Cor. 2. 5:17]. The case with this is as follows: From heredity and the actual life of a person, a person does not look like a human being in the other life, but like a horrible monster. However, to the degree people take new life from the Lord, they take a human form and finally one of exquisite angelic beauty, which is a likeness of the Lord. This happens as He creates a person anew in a similar pattern and in a similar manner. Consequently, to create is to regenerate. A person who has been regenerated is a new creation.
4837. CONCERNING REGENERATION, OR THE NEW CREATION. HEAVEN.
In the Word, it is often said that the Lord is the Creator, that He created the heavens and earth, also that He creates new ones; and man is said to be a new creature. Since this is the case, man, so far as his hereditary constitution and actual life from himself are concerned, does not appear like a man in the other life, but like a horrible monster. But just as he receives from the Lord a new life, so he receives the human form and, at length, a very beautiful angelic form, which is the likeness of the Lord. Thus it is as if He had created man anew, in similar fashion and in like manner. Hence it is that to create is to regenerate, and that a regenerated man is a new creature.
4837. De regeneratione seu nova creatione
Coelum
In Verbo dicitur saepe Dominus creator, quod creaverit coelos et terram, tum quod creet novos, et homo dicitur nova creatura; cum hoc ita se habet, homo ex haereditario et ex actuali vita ex se, non apparet sicut homo in altera vita, sed sicut monstrum horribile, sed sicut a Domino accipit novam vitam, ita accipit ille humanam formam, et tandem pulcherrimam angelicam, quae est similitudo Domini, hoc fit sicut creaverat hominem e novo, simili ratione et simili modo, inde est quod creare sit regenerare, et quod homo regeneratus sit nova creatura.