⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood^(A) cannot inherit the kingdom of God,^(B) nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.^(C)

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^[a]”^(A)

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.^{(B) 6} Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit.^(C)

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,^(A) but by my Father in heaven.^(B)

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer^(A) live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.^(B)

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit,^(A) and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.^(B)

¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years^(A) later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Awaiting the New Body

5 For we know that if the earthly^(A) tent^(B) we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”^(A) The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord,^(B) and the Lord for the body.

⁴ I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.^(A)