John 3:1-21 — Legacy Standard Bible

You Must Be Born Again

3Now 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 ¹^,^bsigns 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 ²^,^conly 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.”