²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.^{(A) 27} As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.^{(B) 28} There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.^(C)

²³ You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.^{[a](A) 24} For

³² And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,^{(A) 34} quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.^{(B) 35} Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.^{(C) 36} Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^{(D) 37} They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two;^[a] they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented^(E)— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.^(F)

³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.^(G)

The Example of Jesus

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,^[b] and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,^{(H) 2} looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of^[c] the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.^(I)

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?^(A)

³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”^{[a](A) 4} Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.^(B)

¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,^{(A) 13} who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.^(B)

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^[a] full of grace and truth.^(C)

³⁵ The circumference of the city shall be eighteen thousand cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.^(A)

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,^{(A) 23} and to the assembly^[a] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,^{(B) 24} and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(C)