⁴ “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a](A) 5} Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.^(B)

²⁵ I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.^(A) I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.^{(B) 26} I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;^(C) I will remove your heart of stone^[a] and give you a heart of flesh.^{(D) 27} I will place my Spirit within you^(E) and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.^{(F) 28} You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors;^(G) you will be my people, and I will be your God.^{(H) 29} I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine on you.^{(I) 30} I will also make the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer experience reproach among the nations on account of famine.

³¹ “‘You will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good,^(J) and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and detestable practices.^{(K) 32} It is not for your sake that I will act^(L)—this is the declaration of the Lord God—let this be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated because of your ways, house of Israel!

³³ “‘This is what the Lord God says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.^{(M) 34} The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. ³⁵ They will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden.^(N) The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and demolished are now fortified and inhabited.” ³⁶ Then the nations that remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was demolished and have replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken and I will do it.^(O)

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man from the Pharisees^(A) named Nicodemus,^(B) a ruler^(C) of the Jews. ² This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi,^(D) we know that you are a teacher^(E) who has come from God,^(F) for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”^(G)

³ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,^[a](H) he cannot see the kingdom of God.”^(I)

⁴ “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born^(J) of water and the Spirit,^(K) he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh^(L) is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit^(M) is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born^(N) again. ⁸ The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.^(O) So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^(P)

⁷ Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth.^(A) It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.^{(B) 8} When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: ⁹ About sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father^(C) and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ and about judgment,^(D) because the ruler of this world^(E) has been judged.^(F)

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.^{(G) 13} When the Spirit of truth^(H) comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^(I) For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ Everything the Father^(J) has is mine.^(K) This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.^(L)

¹¹ In him we have also received an inheritance,^[a] because we were predestined^(A) according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, ¹² so that we who had already put our hope^(B) in Christ might bring praise to his glory.^(C)

¹³ In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit^(D) when you heard the word of truth,^(E) the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. ¹⁴ The Holy Spirit is the down payment^(F) of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

Prayer for Spiritual Insight

¹⁵ This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,^[b] would give you the Spirit^[c](G) of wisdom and revelation^(H) in the knowledge of him. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope^(I) of his calling,^(J) what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power^(K) toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.

³ You show that you are Christ’s letter,^(A) delivered^[a] by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God^(B)—not on tablets of stone^(C) but on tablets of human hearts.^[b](D)