A
Deeply Religious Man Encounters Jesus
(John 3:1-21)
After
dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader
named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to speak
with Jesus. "Teacher," he said,
"we all know that God has sent you
to teach us. Your miraculous signs are
proof enough that God is with you."
Jesus replied,
"I assure you, unless you are born
again, you can never see the Kingdom of
God."
"What
do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus.
"How can an old man go back into
his mother's womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied,
"The truth is, no one can enter the
Kingdom of God without being born of water
and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only
human life, but the Holy Spirit gives
new life from heaven. So don't be surprised
at my statement that you must be born
again. Just as you can hear the wind but
can't tell where it comes from or where
it is going, so you can't explain how
people are born of the Spirit."
"What
do you mean?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied,
"You are a respected Jewish teacher,
and yet you don't understand these things?
I assure you, I am telling
you what we know and have seen, and yet
you won't believe us. But if you don't
even believe me when I tell you about
things that happen here on earth, how
can you possibly believe if I tell you
what is going on in heaven? For only I,
the Son of Man, have come to earth and
will return to heaven again. And as Moses
lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in
the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man,
must be lifted up on a pole, so that everyone
who believes in me will have eternal life.
"For
God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him will not perish but have eternal
life. God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn it, but to save it.
"There
is no judgment awaiting those who trust
him. But those who do not trust him have
already been judged for not believing
in the only Son of God. Their judgment
is based on this fact: The light from
heaven came into the world, but they loved
the darkness more than the light, for
their actions were evil. They
hate the light because they want to sin
in the darkness. They stay away from the
light for fear their sins will be exposed
and they will be punished. But those who
do what is right come to the light gladly,
so everyone can see that they are doing
what God wants."
Taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation, copyright © 1996. Used
by permission of Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights
reserved.
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