The Solution
1 There was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night
and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no
one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless
one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus 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?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I
say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God. 6 That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you,
‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind
blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it
comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to
Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him,
“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We
speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our
witness. 12 If I have told you
earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you
heavenly things? 13 No one has
ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of
Man who is in heaven.[a]
14 And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but[b]
have eternal life. 16 For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation,
that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. 20
For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light,
lest his deeds should be exposed. 21
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly
seen, that they have been done in God.
1 There is
therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus,[a]
who do not walk according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. 2
For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did
by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He
condemned sin in the flesh, 4
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6
For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded
is
life and peace.
7
Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is
not His. 10 And if Christ is
in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. 11 But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are
debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live. 14 For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom
we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we
may also be glorified together.