Day 5 – You must be born again

John 3:1-21

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler among the Jews. He came to Jesus at 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.”

Jesus answered him, “Most certainly I tell you, unless someone is born again, they will never see God’s Kingdom.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he re-enter his mother’s womb to be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter God’s Kingdom. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and you don’t understand these things? Most certainly I tell you, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, and you don’t accept our testimony. If you didn’t believe when I told you earthly things, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not judged. Whoever does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, for fear that their works would be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that their works may be revealed as being accomplished in God.”

For reflection

What does it mean to you to have new life because of Jesus?