John 3

Quick answer

Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be "born again," and the chapter holds the Bible's most famous verse on God's love.

A night conversation about new birth by the Spirit opens into John 3:16 — God's love giving his Son so that whoever believes has eternal life — and closes with John the Baptist's glad deference to Christ.

Part of Signs and Discourses📖 John introduction

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¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ✦ ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” ✦ ³Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” ✦ ⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” ✦ ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ✦ ⁶Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. ✦ ⁷Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ ✦ ⁸The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ✦ ⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. ✦ ¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things? ✦ ¹¹Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony. ✦ ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not 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 snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ✦ ¹⁵that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. ✦ ¹⁶For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ✦ ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. ✦ ¹⁸Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ✦ ¹⁹And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. ✦ ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ✦ ²¹But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.” ✦ ²²After this, Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them and baptized. ✦ ²³Now John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because the water was plentiful there, and people kept coming to be baptized. ✦ ²⁴(For John had not yet been thrown into prison.) ✦ ²⁵Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the issue of ceremonial washing. ✦ ²⁶So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Look, Rabbi, the One who was with you beyond the Jordan, the One you testified about—He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him.” ✦ ²⁷John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. ✦ ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but am sent ahead of Him.’ ✦ ²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ✦ ³⁰He must increase; I must decrease. ✦ ³¹The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all. ✦ ³²He testifies to what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony. ✦ ³³Whoever accepts His testimony has certified that God is truthful. ✦ ³⁴For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. ✦ ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands. ✦ ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

In this chapter

Person / place Jesus of Nazareth Concept The Bridegroom

Where this chapter connects

John 1 ·34 John 3 ·32 John 6 ·23 John 5 ·17 John 8 ·15 1 Jn 5 ·12 John 7 ·11 John 12 ·10

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 3YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 3David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 3Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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