Unless he is born again. Jesus answers the thoughts of Nicodemus. "Again" is the proper translation, as can be seen from John 3:4. Luther says on this: "My doctrine is not of doing, and of leaving undone, but of being and becoming; so that it is not a new work to be done, but the being new created not the living otherwise, but the being new-born." Nicodemus would think that all who were Abraham's descendants would be citizens of the Kingdom. What Jesus says to him is in contrast to his Jewish heritage. The teaching that a man can bury his old life of sin, to begin a new life of hope, is predicted by the Old Testament (Isaiah 1:18; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26), and clearly taught in the New Testament (Romans 6:8; Romans 8:3; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15-16).

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Old Testament