Week 4: What This Means for Us

¹Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, ²came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” ³Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ⁵Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things? ¹¹I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” ¹⁶For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. ²¹But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.

⁸For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹it is not from works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.

⁹because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. ¹¹For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. ¹³For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.