John
Chapter 3
Overview
A respected Jewish leader named Nicodemus visits Jesus at night, bringing careful questions to a conversation that soon stretches beyond ordinary categories. Jesus speaks about a new life created by God’s Spirit, then explains why God sent his Son into the world. The scene later moves into the Judean countryside, where Jesus’ growing influence worries John’s students. John answers without envy: his role is to prepare the way, not occupy the center. Throughout the chapter, light reveals what darkness hides, and genuine trust becomes a choice about how to live.
1There was a man named Nicodemus. He belonged to the Pharisees, a Jewish religious group, and was one of the Jewish people’s leaders.
2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Teacher, we know that you have come from God as a teacher. No one could perform the miraculous signs you perform unless God were with him.”
3Jesus answered him, “I tell you the absolute truth: unless someone is born from above, that person cannot see God’s kingdom—the world under God’s rule.”
4Nicodemus asked him, “How can someone be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born!”
5Jesus answered, “I tell you the absolute truth: unless someone is born through water and the Spirit, that person cannot enter God’s kingdom.
6What is born from human parents is human, and what is born from the Spirit is spiritual.
7Do not be surprised that I told you, ‘All of you must be born from above.’
8The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone born from the Spirit.”
9Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can these things happen?”
10Jesus answered him, “You are a teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things?
11I tell you the absolute truth: we speak about what we know and report what we have seen, but you do not accept what we say.
12If I have told all of you about earthly things and you do not believe me, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven—the Son of Man.
14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must also be lifted up,
15so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.
16This is how God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who trusts in him will not be destroyed but will have eternal life.
17God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18Whoever trusts in him is not condemned. Whoever does not trust him has already been condemned, because that person has not trusted in the person and authority of God’s one and only Son.
19This is the basis for condemnation: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because what they did was evil.
20Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light, because they do not want their actions exposed.
21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may become clear that what they have done was done through God.”
22After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside. He stayed there with them and baptized people.
23John was also baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People kept coming and being baptized.
24This happened before John had been put in prison.
25Then some of John’s disciples began arguing with a Jewish man about religious cleansing.
26They came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River—the one you spoke about? Look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him!”
27John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it has been given from heaven.
28You yourselves can confirm that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, God’s promised king. I have been sent ahead of him.’
29At a wedding, the man marrying the bride is the groom. The groom’s friend stands nearby, listening, and is delighted when he hears the groom’s voice. I feel that same joy, and now my joy is complete.
30He must become greater, and I must become less.”
31The one who comes from above is above everyone. A person from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks from an earthly point of view. The one who comes from heaven is above everyone.
32He reports what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts what he says.
33Whoever does accept what he says confirms that God tells the truth.
34The one God sent speaks God’s words, because God gives the Spirit without limit.
35The Father loves the Son and has put everything in his hands.
36Whoever trusts in the Son has eternal life. Whoever refuses to obey the Son will not see life; God’s anger remains on that person.