John 3

1There was a man from among the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a leader of the Jews.

2He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know you have come from God as a teacher, because no one could perform these signs you are doing unless God were with him.”

3Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I tell you, unless someone is born from above, they cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person be born when he is already old? Surely he cannot go back into his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I tell you, if someone is not born of water and the Spirit, that person cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6Anything born of the flesh is flesh, and anything born of the Spirit is spirit.

7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You people must be born from above.’

8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

9Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things happen?”

10Jesus answered him, “You, the teacher of Israel, do not know these things?

11Truly, truly I tell you, we talk about what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, yet you people do not accept our testimony.

12If you do not believe when I have told you about earthly things, how will you believe when I tell you about heavenly things?

13And no one has gone up into heaven but the one who came down out of heaven, the Son of Man.

14As Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

15so that all who believe may have eternal life in him.

16For God loved the world in this way: he gave his Son, the one and only, so that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have eternal life.

17For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world would be saved.

18The person who believes in him does not come under condemnation, but the person who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not put his faith in the name of the one and only Son of God.

19Now the judgment is this: the light has come into the world, yet people loved the darkness more than the light, since what they did was evil.

20For all who practice wickedness hate the light and do not come to it, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

21But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be shown to have been done in God.”

22After these things Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea, and he stayed there with them for a time and baptized.

23John too was baptizing, at Aenon near Salim, since there was a lot of water there, and people kept arriving and being baptized.

24For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

25Then some of John’s disciples got into a dispute with a Jew about purification.

26They went to John and told him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified about—see, he is baptizing, and everybody is going to him.”

27John answered, “No one can receive anything at all unless it has been given to him from heaven.

28You yourselves are witnesses for me that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of him.’

29The bridegroom is the one who has the bride. The bridegroom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has now been made full.

30He must grow greater, but I must grow smaller.

31The one coming from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and it is from the earth that he speaks. The one coming from heaven is above all.

32He bears witness to the things he has seen and heard, yet nobody accepts his testimony.

33Anyone who has accepted his testimony has put his seal on this: God is true.

34For the one God has sent speaks the words of God, since he does not give the Spirit in measured amounts.

35The Father loves the Son, and he has placed all things in his hand.

36The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who disobeys the Son will not see life; rather, God’s wrath remains upon him.”