John · chapter 3 of 21
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John 3 tells of Jesus' night conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, whom he teaches that one must be born again of water and the Spirit. Here is John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave his Son so that whoever believes may have eternal life. The chapter ends with John saying that Jesus must increase and that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
After the first sign at Cana and the cleansing of the temple, John 3 slows down for a personal conversation. A respected religious leader seeks out Jesus, and the talk touches the heart of the Gospel: how one enters the kingdom of God and what God did to save the world. It is one of the best known and most quoted chapters of the Bible.
A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, goes to Jesus at night and says he knows Jesus has come from God, because no one can do the signs he does unless God is with him. Jesus answers that unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus asks how an old man can be born; Jesus clarifies that one must be born of water and the Spirit, and compares the Spirit's work to the wind, which you hear but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. Nicodemus asks again how this can be, and Jesus is surprised that a teacher of Israel does not understand. He says he speaks of what he knows and has seen, that the Son of Man came down from heaven, and that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Verses 16 to 21 explain the purpose. 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. God did not send him to condemn the world but to save it. Whoever believes is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because the light has come into the world and people loved darkness more. Whoever does the truth comes to the light.
Afterward Jesus goes with his disciples into the land of Judea and baptizes there, while John the Baptist is baptizing at Aenon near Salim because there was much water. A discussion about purification arises, and John's disciples tell him that everyone is now going to Jesus. John answers humbly: he is not the Christ but the friend of the bridegroom, who rejoices at the bridegroom's voice, and Jesus must increase while he decreases. The chapter closes with a word about the Son, sent by the Father: whoever believes in him has eternal life, and whoever rejects the Son will not see life, and the wrath of God remains on him.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jesus declares that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. Entering the kingdom is not moral improvement or religious inheritance but a new beginning that God himself produces.
Jesus compares the Son of Man to the serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness: just as the bitten looked and lived, now whoever believes in the lifted-up Son receives eternal life. It is an early reference to the cross.
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. It sums up the gospel: God's love is the source, the Son is the gift and faith is the response.
John says that Jesus must increase and he must decrease. It is the attitude of someone who understands his place: to be a witness, to rejoice in another's success and not to seek the spotlight.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: At night; he recognized Jesus as a teacher come from God because of the signs he did. — John 3:1-2
Answer: To be born again. — John 3:3
Answer: The wind: you hear its sound but do not know where it comes from or where it goes. — John 3:8
Answer: When Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. — John 3:14
Answer: Not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. — John 3:17
Answer: That Jesus must increase and he must decrease; he is the friend of the bridegroom, not the Christ. — John 3:28-30
The conversation with Nicodemus reminds us that being religious or respectable is not enough: all of us need the new birth the Spirit gives. In a class or group you can think of people who seem to have everything in order and yet need to hear what Nicodemus heard. And each person can ask whether they trust their own effort or what Christ has done.
The chapter also invites us to receive God's love with wonder and to share it without condemnation, since the Son came to save. John's attitude corrects us: do we want to be recognized, or do we want Jesus to be seen? Stepping back so that others look at Christ is a real form of worship.
John 3 joins the teaching on the new birth with the love of God who gives his Son, and closes with John's humble testimony. In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and shows that this same life is open to those no one expected.
Interpreters understand it in several ways. Some see water as a reference to the cleansing the prophets promised, others to John's baptism, others to natural birth. What is clear is that Jesus speaks of a spiritual renewal that only God's Spirit produces, and he himself compares it to the wind.
The text does not give the reason. Some think he feared his colleagues, others that he wanted a quiet conversation. John also uses night symbolically, and later shows Nicodemus cautiously defending Jesus and helping with his burial.
The text does not mark the change clearly, and some editions place the quotation marks in different spots. Many scholars hear Jesus' voice up to verse 15 or 21, followed by the Evangelist's reflection. Either way, the message is consistent with the rest of the Gospel.