Separated from God

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, ^(A)unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is ^(B)flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ^8 (C)The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus answered and said to Him, ^(D)“How can these things be?”

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? ^11 (E)Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and ^(F)you do not receive Our witness. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ^13 (G)No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man ^[a]who is in heaven. ^14 (H)And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so ^(I)must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever ^(J)believes in Him should ^[b]not perish but ^(K)have eternal life. ^16 (L)For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten ^(M)Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ^17 (N)For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

^18 (O)“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, ^(P)that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For ^(Q)everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been ^(R)done in God.”

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am ^(A)the way, ^(B)the truth, and ^(C)the life. ^(D)No one comes to the Father ^(E)except through Me.

Behold, My Servant

¹⁵ But when Jesus knew it, ^(A)He withdrew from there. ^(B)And great ^[a]multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. ¹⁶ Yet He ^(C)warned them not to make Him known, ¹⁷ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

Abraham’s Faith Confirmed^(A)

22 Now it came to pass after these things that ^(B)God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

² Then He said, “Take now your son, ^(C)your only son Isaac, whom you ^(D)love, and go ^(E)to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a ^(F)burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

³ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵ And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the ^[a]lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will ^(G)come back to you.”

⁶ So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and ^(H)laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷ But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the ^[b]lamb for a burnt offering?”

⁸ And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the ^(I)lamb for a ^(J)burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

⁹ Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and ^(K)laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

¹¹ But the ^(L)Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

So he said, “Here I am.”

¹² And He said, ^(M)“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for ^(N)now I know that you fear God, since you have not ^(O)withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

¹³ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of the place, ^[c]The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

¹⁵ Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, ¹⁶ and said: ^(P)“By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— ¹⁷ blessing I will ^(Q)bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants ^(R)as the stars of the heaven ^(S)and as the sand which is on the seashore; and ^(T)your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. ^18 (U)In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, ^(V)because you have obeyed My voice.” ¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to ^(W)Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

The Passover Instituted^(A)

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ^2 (B)“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the ^(C)tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be ^(D)without^[a] blemish, a male ^[b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ Now you shall keep it until the ^(E)fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. ⁷ And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ⁸ Then they shall eat the flesh on that ^(F)night; ^(G)roasted in fire, with ^(H)unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but ^(I)roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ^10 (J)You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus you shall eat it: ^[c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. ^(K)It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² ‘For I ^(L)will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^(M)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: ^(N)I am the Lord. ¹³ Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ ‘So this day shall be to you ^(O)a memorial; and you shall keep it as a ^(P)feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast ^(Q)by an everlasting ordinance. ^15 (R)Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, ^(S)that ^[d]person shall be ^[e]cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day there shall be ^(T)a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^(U)on this same day I will have brought your ^[f]armies ^(V)out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. ^18 (W)In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ¹⁹ For ^(X)seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

²¹ Then ^(Y)Moses called for all the ^(Z)elders of Israel and said to them, ^(AA)“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ^22 (AB)And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and ^(AC)strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. ^23 (AD)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the ^(AE)blood on the ^[g]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(AF)not allow ^(AG)the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And you shall ^(AH)observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. ²⁵ It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, ^(AI)just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. ^26 (AJ)And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ^(AK)‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people ^(AL)bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went away and ^(AM)did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn^(AN)

^29 (AO)And it came to pass at midnight that ^(AP)the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was ^[h]in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^(AQ)livestock. ³⁰ So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

The Lamb of God^(A)

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! ^(B)The Lamb of God ^(C)who takes away the sin of the world!

¹⁵ that whoever ^(A)believes in Him should ^[a]not perish but ^(B)have eternal life. ^16 (C)For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten ^(D)Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The Heavenly Sanctuary

¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of ^(A)the good things ^[a]to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not ^(B)with the blood of goats and calves, but ^(C)with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place ^(D)once for all, ^(E)having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ For if ^(F)the blood of bulls and goats and ^(G)the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, ^[b]sanctifies for the ^[c]purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without ^[d]spot to God, ^(H)cleanse your conscience from ^(I)dead works ^(J)to serve the living God? ¹⁵ And for this reason ^(K)He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that ^(L)those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.