“For This Is How God Loved The World"

When Adam sinned he died spiritually and and his nature was passed on to all humanity. Jesus the Messiah who was God, came to earth to go to the cross to pay the price of sin. He willingly took the wrath of his Father so that we could be born from above and have eternal life.  

John 3 ISV

1Now there was a man from the Pharisees, a leader of the Jews, whose name was Nicodemus. 2He came to Jesusa at night and told him, “Rabbi,b we know that you have come from God as a teacher, because no one can perform these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.”

• 3Jesus replied to him, “Truly, I tell youc emphatically, unless a person is born from aboved he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4Nicodemus asked him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He can’t go back into his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”

• 5Jesus answered, “Truly, I tell youe emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• f6What is born of the flesh is flesh, 
• and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

7Don’t be astonished that I told you, ‘All of you must be born from above.’g 8The windh blows where it wants to. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. That’s the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9Nicodemus asked him, “How can that be?”

10Jesus answered him, “You’re the teacher of Israel, and you can’t understand this? 11Truly, I tell youi emphatically, we know what we’re talking about, and we testify about what we’ve seen. Yet you peoplej do not accept our testimony. 12If I have told you peoplekabout earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

13“No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.l 14Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.m

16“For this is how God loved the world: 

• He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life. 
• 17Because God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
• 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s unique Son. 
• 19And this is the basis for judgment: The light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light because their actions were evil. 
• 20Everyone who practices wickedness hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his actions may not be exposed.n 
• 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may become evident that his actions have God’s approval.”o

Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a teacher should have known about being born from above as Jesus told them about the new birth in Ezekiel, in the Old Testament. Ezekiel, speaking of eternal life or eternal death, told the children of Israel:

Ezekiel 18 ISV 
30“Therefore, Israel, I’m going to judge you according to the behavior of each and every one of you,” declares the Lord GOD. 

• “So repent and turn from all your sins so that sin won’t keep on being a stumbling block for you.
•  31Stop your transgressing—the deeds by which you’ve rebelled—and then make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. 
• Why should you die, you house of Israel? 
• 32I don’t take pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the LORD. 
• “So repent, so you may live!”