John 3:3-5

Living Bible

³Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”

⁴“Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

⁵Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit,^[a] he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

John 3:5 Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, or “Physical birth is not enough. You must be born spiritually.” This alternate paraphrase interprets “born of water” as meaning the normal process observed during every human birth. Some think this means water baptism.