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3 Jesus replied to him, "Listen to this carefully: Unless people are born again and have a new life from God, they cannot even see the place where God rules [MET]!"

3 Jesus replied to him, "Listen to this carefully: Unless people are born again and have a new life from God, they cannot even see the place where God rules [MET]!" 4 Then Nicodemus said to him, "◄No one can be born when he is old!/How can anyone be born when he is old?► [RHQ] ◄There is no way he can enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time!/How can he enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time?► [RHQ]" 5 Jesus answered, "Note this: Being born naturally is not enough; people need to also be born spiritually by God’s Spirit. If that does not happen, they cannot experience God ruling [MET] their lives. 6 Humans give birth to humans. But those who are born again as a result of what God’s Spirit does receive a new spiritual nature from God. 7 Do not be surprised about my telling you that you must be born again and have a new life from God. 8 Let me illustrate: The wind blows wherever it wants to blow. You hear its sound, but you do not know where the wind comes from or where it is going. Similarly, those who do not know God cannot understand/control/predict how people are born again as a result of what God’s spirit does."

5 Jesus answered, "Note this: Being born naturally is not enough; people need to also be born spiritually by God’s Spirit. If that does not happen, they cannot experience God ruling [MET] their lives. 6 Humans give birth to humans. But those who are born again as a result of what God’s Spirit does receive a new spiritual nature from God. 7 Do not be surprised about my telling you that you must be born again and have a new life from God.

15 Note this: Those who do not trustingly allow God to direct their lives, as children do, will not enter the place where God rules."

Jesus showed that being great in God’s sight means being as humble as a child.

1 About that time we disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who among us will be the most important when God [MTY/EUP] makes you king?" 2 Jesus called a child to come, and he placed that child in our midst. 3 He said, "Think about this: If you (pl) do not change the way you(pl) think and become as humble as little children, you (pl) will surely not go to the place where God [MTY/EUP] rules. 4 The people who become as humble as this child or any child is, will be the most important people among those over whom God rules.

17 The fact is that God makes every one of us who trusts in Christ to be completely different than we were before. Our old way of conducting our lives is gone. We now have a completely new way of conducting our lives.

4 So, when we were baptized {someone baptized us}, it was as though we were buried with Christ. We were baptized in order to indicate that we would not let our sinful desires make us do what they want us to do, just like people cannot make a corpse do what they want it to do [MET]. We were baptized to signify that we would continually conduct our lives in a new way, just like Christ was caused to live again in a new way by the great power of God his Father. 5 Because of our close relationship with Christ, we have separated ourselves from the former way in which we conducted our lives, just like he was separated from his physical life when he died [MET]. But God will also certainly enable us to live in a new way, just like he enabled Christ to live again. 6 We must keep remembering that when Christ died on the cross [MET], it was as though our sinful nature died with him. It has lost its power to make us do what it wants us to do [MET]. That happened in order that we would not do the sinful things that our bodies [MET], which desire to sin, want us to do, and in order that we would no longer have to sin [MET], as slaves have to do what their masters want. 7 We are, as it were, freed {free} from sinful desires [MET] controlling us, just like those who have died are free from anything controlling them.

4 So, when we were baptized {someone baptized us}, it was as though we were buried with Christ. We were baptized in order to indicate that we would not let our sinful desires make us do what they want us to do, just like people cannot make a corpse do what they want it to do [MET]. We were baptized to signify that we would continually conduct our lives in a new way, just like Christ was caused to live again in a new way by the great power of God his Father.

11 Similarly, you must consider that it is as though you have become unable to do what your sinful desires [MET] want, as a corpse is not able to do what anyone wants it to do. You must also consider that because of your relationship to Christ Jesus you are living in a new way in order to serve/honor God.

20 It is as though I was with Christ when he was crucified {died on the cross} [MET] (OR, It is as though my old way of life ended when Christ died on the cross.) No longer am I directing the way I behave as I did before I believed in Christ. Now Christ is directing how I behave. And whatever I do now while I live, I do it trusting in God’s Son. He is the one who loved me and offered himself as a sacrifice for me.

22 You were taught {They taught you} that you must put aside [MET] your evil nature; that is, that you must not behave like you formerly did. Your evil desires deceived you, making you want to do evil things and causing you to think that doing that was good for you; and your thinking like that was destroying you spiritually. 23 Others taught you that instead, you must let God’s Spirit change the way you think, 24 and that you must start being [MET] the new persons that God made you to become. That is, your behavior must be righteous and truly/genuinely devout.

9 Do not lie to one another. Do not do those things, because you have ◄disposed of/stopped obeying► your former evil nature and stopped doing what you did when you had that former evil nature, 10 and because you have received a new nature. God is causing your new nature to become more and more like his own nature. He created your new nature in order that you might get to know God truly. 11 As a result of that, it is not important whether anyone is a non-Jew or a Jew, or whether anyone is circumcised or not, or whether anyone is a foreigner, or even uncivilized, or whether anyone is a slave or not a slave. But what is important is Christ, who is supremely important in every way.

12 But those of us who welcomed him, God authorized that we would have a relationship with him [MET] like children have a relationship with their father. We were people who believed that what he said about himself [MTY] was true. 13 We became like God’s children, not because our ancestors belonged to God, or because of someone’s sexual desires, nor because some man desired to have children like himself. Instead, we were caused by God {God caused us} to become like his children.

God has done great things for you. Although you are now enduring trials to test your faith, you are rejoicing about your salvation. That salvation is something that the prophets who lived long ago did not fully understand.

3 Praise God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because he has been very merciful to us, he has given us new life [MET]. Because he has caused Jesus Christ to become alive again after he died, he has enabled us to live very confidently; that is, to fully expect to receive the things that God/he has promised to give us. 4 He has enabled us to expect to receive an absolutely imperishable/indestructible [TRI] inheritance that has been {that God has} preserved in heaven for us.

23 I ask you to do this, because you now have a new life [MET]. It was not by means of something that will perish that you received this new life. Instead, it was by means of something that will last forever; that is, by believing the life-giving and enduring message of God.

2 Just like newborn babies long for their mothers’ pure milk [MET], you should long for God’s spiritual truth, so that by learning it you may become spiritually mature. You need to do this until the day when God will free you completely from all the evil in this world. 3 Also, you need to do this because you have experienced that the Lord acts in a good way toward you.

Do not allow anyone to seduce you to sin, because you are God’s children, and his children maintain themselves free from evil behavior by not continuing to sin as the devil’s children do.

1 Think about how much our heavenly Father loves us! He allows us to ◄say that we are/be called► his children! And it is indeed true that we are his children. But people in the world [MTY] who are unbelievers have not understood who God is. So they do not understand who we are, that we belong to God. 2 Dear friends, even though ◄at present/now► we are God’s children, he has not yet ◄made clear/revealed► to us what we will be like in the future. However, we know that when Christ comes back again, we will be like him, because we will see what he is really like.

4 But exactly at the time [MTY] that God had previously determined, he sent Jesus, who is ◄his Son/the man who is also God►, into the world. Jesus was born to a human mother. He had to obey the laws that God gave to Moses. 5 God sent Jesus in order that he might redeem us who had to obey God’s laws. God wanted us all to receive from God the status of being his children [MET].

19 I will put a new way of thinking [IDM] within you. I will cause you to no longer be stubborn [IDM], and I will enable you to obey me completely [IDM]. 20 When I do that, you will carefully obey all my laws [DOU]. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

4 But God always acts very mercifully, and he loves us very much. 5 As a result, even when we were ◄spiritually dead/as unable to please God as a corpse [MET] is► because we were habitually sinning, he enabled us to receive spiritual/eternal life because of our relationship with Christ. Do not forget this: It is only because God has acted so kindly toward you, in a way that you did not deserve, that you are saved {that he saved you} from the guilt of your sin