John 3

1There was a Pharisee. His name was Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews.

2Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night and said to Jesus: Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miracles that you do unless they have God’s help.

3Jesus answered Nicodemus: I tell you this is true: Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.

4Nicodemus asked Jesus: But how can a person be born again when he is old? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?

5Jesus said to Nicodemus: I tell you this is true: A person must be born from water and from the Spirit. He cannot enter God’s Kingdom

6Humans can only give birth to human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

7Do not be surprised when I say you must be born again.

8The wind blows where it wants to blow. You can hear and see the wind blow, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes. It is the same with someone who is born of the Spirit of God.’

9Nicodemus asked Jesus: How can this happen?

10Jesus said: Nicodemus, you are a teacher of the Israelites, and you don't understand these things?

11I tell you this and it is true: We talk about what we know. We tell about what we have seen. But you people don't accept what we tell you

12If I told you about something that has happened on earth, and you do not believe it. So, I'm sure you will not believe me if I tell you about heavenly things!

13No person has ever gone up to heaven. Only I, the Son of man, have done that, and I also came down from heaven.

14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, the Son of Man must be lifted up in the same way.

15Everyone who believes in Jesus, the Son of Man, will not be destroyed but have eternal life.

16Yes, God loved the world so much that God gave God's one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in the Son would not be destroyed but have eternal life.

17God did not send God's Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through the Son.

18People who believe in God's Son, Jesus, are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged guilty, because they have not believed in God's only Son.

19People are judged guilty by this fact: The light has come into this world, but people loved the darkness, not the light, for their works were evil.

20People who do bad things do not love the light. They do not come into the light for fear that their sinful ways will be seen and rebuked.

21People who live by the truth come to the light. Then the light will show that whatever they have done was done through God.

22After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the area of Judea. There Jesus spent time with his disciples and people were baptized.

23John was also baptizing people in a town called Aenon near Salim, because there was a lot of water there. The people came to John and he baptized them.

24This was before John was put in jail.

25Then a debate started between John's disciples and a certain Jew about purification.

26They went to John and told him: Teacher, the Man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, the Man, Jesus, you told us about, is now baptizing people and all the people are going to Him.

27John replied, A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.

28You yourselves heard me say, I am not the Christ. I am only the one God sent to prepare the way for him.

29At a wedding it is the bridegroom who gets the bride. The bridegroom's friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at Jesus' success.

30Jesus must become more important, and I must become unimportant.

31Jesus came from heaven, and Jesus is more important than everyone. Someone who comes from the world belongs to the world, and that person talks about things of the world. Someone who comes from heaven is more important than anyone on earth.

32Jesus talks about the things that Jesus has seen and heard, but people do not accept what Jesus says.

33Anyone who believes what Jesus says identifies themselves with God's truth.

34God sent Jesus to tell people what God says. God gave the Spirit to Jesus without limit.

35The Father, God, loves the Son, Jesus, and has given him power over everything.

36Anyone who believes in the Son, Jesus, has eternal life. But anyone who does not believe in the Son, Jesus, will not have life. They cannot get away from God's anger.