John 3

²Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. He said: 'Teacher, we know that God sent You — no one could do the miracles You do unless God is with them.'

³Jesus said to him: 'I tell you the truth — unless a person is born again, they cannot even see the kingdom of God.'

⁴Nicodemus was confused. He asked: 'How can someone be born when they are old? How can they go back into their mother's womb and be born again?'

⁵Jesus answered: 'I tell you truly — unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God.'

⁶What is born from a human body is human — physical. But what is born from God's Spirit is spiritual — eternal.

⁷Jesus said: 'Don't be so surprised that I told you — you must be born again.'

⁸Jesus said: 'The wind blows where it wants to. You can hear it, but you cannot see where it comes from or where it goes. It is the same with everyone born of the Spirit.'

⁹Nicodemus asked: 'How is any of this possible?'

¹⁰Jesus said: 'You are a teacher in Israel — and you do not understand these things?'

¹¹Jesus said: 'I tell you truly — we speak about what we know and testify to what we have seen. But you people do not accept our testimony.'

¹²Jesus said: 'If you do not believe Me when I talk about things you can see and understand — how will you ever believe Me when I talk about heavenly things?'

¹³Jesus said: 'No one has ever gone up to heaven except the One who came down from heaven — the Son of Man, who is in heaven.'

¹⁴Jesus said: 'Just as Moses lifted up a bronze snake in the wilderness for the people to look at and be saved, I must also be lifted up.'

¹⁵So that everyone who believes in Him will not die — but will have eternal life.

¹⁶God loves every person in the world SO much that He gave His only Son, Jesus. Anyone who believes in Jesus will not perish but will live forever with God.

¹⁷God did not send Jesus into the world to judge and condemn people — He sent Jesus so that the whole world could be saved through Him.

¹⁸Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is already condemned, because they have not trusted in the name of God's only Son.

¹⁹This is the problem: light has come into the world — but people chose to stay in the darkness because they loved their evil deeds and did not want them exposed.

²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light and stays away from it — because they are afraid their evil actions will be exposed.

²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes toward the light gladly — so that it can be seen clearly that what they do is done in God.

²²After this, Jesus and His disciples went to the Judean countryside. He spent time there with them, and they were baptising people.

²³John the Baptist was also still baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People kept coming to him and being baptised.

²⁴This was happening before John had been put in prison.

²⁵Some of John's disciples got into a debate with Jewish people about purification — ceremonial washing.

²⁶John's disciples came to him concerned: 'Teacher! The man You testified about — on the other side of the Jordan — He is also baptising now, and everyone is going to Him!'

²⁷John answered: 'A person cannot receive anything unless it has been given to them from heaven.'

²⁸John said: 'You yourselves heard me say — I am not the Christ. I am only the one who was sent ahead of Him.'

²⁹John said: 'The groom belongs to the bride. But the best friend of the groom stands nearby and is overjoyed when he hears the groom's voice. That is exactly how I feel — my joy is complete!'

³⁰John said: 'He must become greater, and I must become less.'

³¹The One who comes from above — from heaven — is above everything. People who come from earth speak about earthly things. But the One who comes from heaven is above everything.

³²Jesus testifies to what He has seen and heard — but most people do not accept what He says.

³³But whoever receives what Jesus says has confirmed this truth: God is true.

³⁴The One whom God sent speaks God's very own words — because God gives Him the Holy Spirit without any limit.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life right now. But whoever refuses to believe in the Son will not see life — the judgment of God remains on them.