John 3:8-21

⁸Let me illustrate: The wind blows wherever it wants to blow. You hear its sound, but you do not know where the wind comes from or where it is going. Similarly, those who do not know God cannot understand/control/predict how people are born again as a result of what God's spirit does.”

⁹Nicodemus replied to him, “How can that happen?”

¹⁰Jesus replied to him, “You (sg) are a well-known teacher among us Israelite people, so ◄I am surprised that you do not understand these things!/how is it that you do not understand these things?► RHQ

¹¹Listen to this carefully: ◄My disciples and I/I► tell you (pl) about the things that my disciples and I have seen and know are true, but you (pl) do not admit that what my disciples and I are saying is true.

¹²I have told you about the things that happen here on earth that are true, but you (pl) do not believe me. So if I tell you (sg) about things that happen in heaven, ◄you certainly will not believe me!/how will you believe me?► RHQ

¹³I am the only one who has gone up to heaven; no one else has gone up there. I am also the one who came down from heaven. So I know what happens there.

¹⁴Long ago when the Israelite people rebelled against God in the desolate area, God sent poisonous snakes to bite them. But when Moses lifted up on a pole the model of a poisonous snake, everyone who looked at that model was healed from their snake bites. Similarly, even though I am the one who came from heaven, some day people will lift me up on a cross to kill me.

¹⁵As a result, everyone who believes/trusts in me will have eternal life.”

¹⁶God loved us people MTY in the world so much that he gave his only Son as a sacrifice for us, in order that everyone who believes in him would not be separated from God forever. Instead, they would have eternal life.

¹⁷When God sent his Son into the world, his purpose was not to punish the people in MTY the world for their sins. Instead, he sent him in order that they might be saved by him {he might save them} from being ◄ guilty/punished► for their sins.

¹⁸Everyone who trusts in his Son, God says that they will not be punished {that he will not punish them}. But God has already said that everyone who does not trust in his Son will be punished {that he will punish everyone who does not trust in his Son}, because they have not trusted in what his only Son has done for them.

¹⁹The one who was like a light MET to reveal God's truth to us came into the world. But people loved doing what was evil, like darkness MET is evil, instead of loving the one who was like a light. That is the reason God will judge people and condemn them.

²⁰Everyone who does what is evil hates the one who is like a light, and they will not come to the one who is like a light, because it would be shown { the one who is like a light would show} that their deeds are evil, and he would rebuke them.

²¹But those who live according to God's truth come to the one who is like a light, in order that it may be seen clearly {that people may see clearly} that the things they have done, they did them because they have depended on God.