There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who came to visit Jesus by night.
Nicodemus said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we know that you have come from God because no one can do the miracles that you are doing unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered,
“Pay attention to the truth I am going to reveal to you. Unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”
Nicodemus asked,
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
Jesus said,
“Pay attention to the truth I am going to reveal to you. Unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Everything that is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it will blow, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it came from or where it is going. So it is with everyone that is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus asked,
“How can this be?”
Jesus said,
“Aren’t you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things. I am speaking about things that I know and telling you things I have seen, but you will not believe my testimony. If I told you about earthly things and you Don’t believe them, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”
Jesus continued,
“No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended out of heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven.
And just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in the same way so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
For this is the way in which God loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but he sent him so that the world should be saved through him.
He who believes in him is not judged: He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This is the judgment. Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness and avoided the light because what they were doing was evil and wrong.
But the person who approves and lives out the truth will come to the light so that his works may be made known and so that everyone can see that their works are done through God.”
