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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>John 3 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/john/3.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/john/3-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > John 3</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../john/2.htm" title="John 2">◄</a> John 3 <a href="../john/4.htm" title="John 4">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Jesus and Nicodemus</h3><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_1"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.1" class="v43_3_1">1</span>There was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. </span><span class="v43_3_2"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.2" class="v43_3_2">2</span>One night he went to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that God has sent you to teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_3"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.3" class="v43_3_3">3</span>Jesus replied, “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above<a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.3!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> before you can see God's kingdom!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_4"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.4" class="v43_3_4">4</span>Nicodemus asked, “How can a grown man ever be born a second time?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_5"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.5" class="v43_3_5">5</span>Jesus answered:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_5">I tell you for certain that before you can get into God's kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. </span><span class="v43_3_6"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.6" class="v43_3_6">6</span>Humans give life to their children. Yet only God's Spirit can change you into a child of God. </span><span class="v43_3_7"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.7" class="v43_3_7">7</span>Don't be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. </span><span class="v43_3_8"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.8" class="v43_3_8">8</span>Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_9"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.9" class="v43_3_9">9</span>“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_10"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.10" class="v43_3_10">10</span>Jesus replied:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_10">How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things? </span><span class="v43_3_11"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.11" class="v43_3_11">11</span>I tell you for certain we know what we are talking about because we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. </span><span class="v43_3_12"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.12" class="v43_3_12">12</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.12!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> If you don't believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_13"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.13" class="v43_3_13">13</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.13!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there. </span><span class="v43_3_14"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.14" class="v43_3_14">14</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.14!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as the metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert.<a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.14!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span><span class="v43_3_15"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.15" class="v43_3_15">15</span>Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_16"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.16" class="v43_3_16">16</span>God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. </span><span class="v43_3_17"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.17" class="v43_3_17">17</span>God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! </span><span class="v43_3_18"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.18" class="v43_3_18">18</span>No one who has faith in God's Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn't have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God's only Son.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_19"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.19" class="v43_3_19">19</span>The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. </span><span class="v43_3_20"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.20" class="v43_3_20">20</span>People who do evil hate the light and won't come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. </span><span class="v43_3_21"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.21" class="v43_3_21">21</span>But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Jesus and John the Baptist</h3><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_22"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.22" class="v43_3_22">22</span>Later, Jesus and his disciples went to Judea, where he stayed with them for a while and was baptizing people.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_23"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.23-John.3.24" class="v43_3_23">23-24</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.23-John.3.24!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> John had not yet been put in jail. He was at Aenon near Salim, where there was a lot of water, and people were coming there for John to baptize them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_25"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.25" class="v43_3_25">25</span>John's followers got into an argument with a Jewish man<a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.25!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> about a ceremony of washing.<a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.25!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span><span class="v43_3_26"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.26" class="v43_3_26">26</span>They went to John and said, “Rabbi, you spoke about a man when you were with him east of the Jordan. He is now baptizing people, and everyone is going to him.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v43_3_27"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.27" class="v43_3_27">27</span>John replied:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_27">No one can do anything unless God in heaven allows it. </span><span class="v43_3_28"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.28" class="v43_3_28">28</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.28!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> You surely remember how I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am only the one sent ahead of him.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_29"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.29" class="v43_3_29">29</span>At a wedding the groom is the one who gets married. The best man is glad just to be there and to hear the groom's voice. That's why I am so glad. </span><span class="v43_3_30"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.30" class="v43_3_30">30</span>Jesus must become more important, while I become less important.</span></p><h3 class="s1">The One Who Comes from Heaven</h3><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_31"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.31" class="v43_3_31">31</span>God's Son comes from heaven and is above all others. Everyone who comes from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all others. </span><span class="v43_3_32"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.32" class="v43_3_32">32</span>He speaks about what he has seen and heard, and yet no one believes him. </span><span class="v43_3_33"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.33" class="v43_3_33">33</span>But everyone who does believe him has shown that God is truthful. </span><span class="v43_3_34"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.34" class="v43_3_34">34</span>The Son was sent to speak God's message, and he has been given the full power of God's Spirit.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v43_3_35"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.35" class="v43_3_35">35</span><a href="#fn" id="link_John.3.35!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> The Father loves the Son and has given him everything. </span><span class="v43_3_36"><span class="reftext" id="John.3.36" class="v43_3_36">36</span>Everyone who has faith in the Son has eternal life. But no one who rejects him will ever share in that life, and God will be angry with them forever.</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">3.3 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">from above: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “in a new way.” The same Greek word is used in verses 7,31.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">3.14 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">just as the metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">When the Lord punished the people of Israel by sending snakes to bite them, he told Moses to hold a metal snake up on a pole. Everyone who looked at the snake was cured of the snake bites (see Numbers 21.4-9).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">3.25 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">a Jewish man: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Some manuscripts have “some Jewish men.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">3.25 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">about a ceremony of washing: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Jewish people had many rules about washing themselves and their dishes, in order to make themselves fit to worship God.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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