Conversation with Nicodemus

3:1 Now a certain man, a Pharisee1 named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council,2 3:2 came to Jesus3 at night4 and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs5 that you do unless God is with him.” 3:3 Jesus replied,6 “I tell you the solemn truth,7 unless a person is born from above,8 he cannot see the kingdom of God.”9 3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?”10

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth,11 unless a person is born of water and spirit,12 he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh,13 and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 3:7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all14 be born from above.’15 3:8 The wind16 blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”17

3:9 Nicodemus replied,18 “How can these things be?”19 3:10 Jesus answered,20 “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?21 3:11 I tell you the solemn truth,22 we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but23 you people24 do not accept our testimony.25 3:12 If I have told you people26 about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?27 3:13 No one28 has ascended29 into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.30 3:14 Just as31 Moses lifted up the serpent32 in the wilderness,33 so must the Son of Man be lifted up,34 3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”35

3:16 For this is the way36 God loved the world: He gave his one and only37 Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish38 but have eternal life.39 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,40 but that the world should be saved through him. 3:18 The one who believes in him is not condemned.41 The one who does not believe has been condemned42 already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only43 Son of God. 3:19 Now this is the basis for judging:44 that the light has come into the world and people45 loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 3:21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.46