John 3

CHAPTER 3

You Must Be Born Again

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named ^aNicodemus, a ^bruler of the Jews;

²this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “^aRabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these ^1bsigns that You do unless ^cGod is with him.”

³Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one ^ais born ¹again he cannot see ^bthe kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus ^*said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of ^awater and the Spirit he cannot enter into ^bthe kingdom of God.

⁶“^aThat which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born ¹again.’

⁸“^aThe wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you ^athe teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

¹¹“Truly, truly, I say to you, ^awe speak of what we know and ^bbear witness of what we have seen, and ^cyou do not accept our witness.

¹²“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³“^aAnd no one has ascended into heaven, but ^bHe who descended from heaven, ^cthe Son of Man.

¹⁴“And as ^aMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must ^bthe Son of Man ^cbe lifted up;

¹⁵so that whoever believes will ^ain Him have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God ¹so ^aloved the world, that He ^bgave His ^2conly begotten Son, that whoever ^dbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷“For God ^adid not send the Son into the world ^bto judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

¹⁸“^aHe 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 ^bthe ¹only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹“And this is the judgment, that ^athe Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for ^btheir deeds were evil.

²⁰“^aFor everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed.

²¹“But he who ^apractices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.”

John the Baptist’s Last Witness

²²After these things Jesus and His ^adisciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and ^bbaptizing.

²³And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—

²⁴for ^aJohn had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵Therefore there arose a debate between John’s disciples and a Jew about ^apurification.

²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “^aRabbi, He who was with you ^bbeyond the Jordan, to whom you ^chave borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”

²⁷John answered and said, “^aA man can receive nothing unless it ^bhas been given him from heaven.

²⁸“You yourselves ¹are my witnesses that I said, ‘^aI am not the ²Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’

²⁹“He who has the bride is ^athe bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this ^bjoy of mine has been made full.

³⁰“He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹“^aHe who comes from above is above all, ^bhe who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. ^cHe who comes from heaven is above all.

³²“What He has seen and heard, of that He ^abears witness; and ^bno one receives His witness.

³³“He who has received His witness ^ahas set his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴“For He whom God has ^asent speaks the words of God; ^1bfor He gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵“^aThe Father loves the Son and ^bhas given all things into His hand.

³⁶“He who ^abelieves in the Son has eternal life; but he who ^bdoes not ¹obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”