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 ruler of the Jews; ✦ ²this man came to Jesus at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ✦ ³Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ✦ ⁴Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” ✦ ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ✦ ⁶That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. ✦ ⁷Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ✦ ⁸The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.” ✦ ⁹Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?” ✦ ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ✦ ¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony. ✦ ¹²If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ✦ ¹³No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. ✦ ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ✦ ¹⁵so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him. ✦ ¹⁶“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. ✦ ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. ✦ ¹⁸The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ✦ ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. ✦ ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. ✦ ²¹But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.” ✦ ²²After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea; and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. ✦ ²³Now John also was baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there; and people were coming and being baptized— ✦ ²⁴for John had not yet been thrown into prison. ✦ ²⁵Then a matter of dispute developed on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. ✦ ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing and all the people are coming to Him.” ✦ ²⁷John replied, “A person can receive not even one thing unless it has been given to him from heaven. ✦ ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ✦ ²⁹He who has the bride is the groom; but the friend of the groom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. ✦ ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease. ✦ ³¹“He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ✦ ³²What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies; and no one accepts His testimony. ✦ ³³The one who has accepted His testimony has certified that God is true. ✦ ³⁴For He whom God sent speaks the words of God; for He does not give the Spirit sparingly. ✦ ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand. ✦ ³⁶The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but 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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