Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, comes to Jesus at night. He begins respectfully, acknowledging that Jesus must be a teacher from God because of the signs he performs.

Jesus immediately shifts the conversation. He tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again or born from above.

Nicodemus takes the language in a physical sense and asks how an adult could be born a second time.

Jesus speaks instead about birth of water and Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, while Spirit gives birth to spirit.

He compares the Spirit’s work to wind: its sound can be heard, but its origin and destination cannot be controlled or fully seen.

Nicodemus continues asking how these things can happen. Jesus challenges him as a teacher of Israel who does not yet understand.

The conversation then turns toward the Son of Man. Jesus invokes the wilderness story in which Moses lifted up the serpent, saying that the Son of Man likewise must be lifted up so that those who believe may have eternal life.

John’s famous language about God loving the world follows, emphasizing that the Son is sent not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him.

Nicodemus does not receive a tidy conclusion in the scene. He will reappear later in John defending fair procedure concerning Jesus and finally assisting Joseph of Arimathea with Jesus’ burial.