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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Bible Question:
Hello to all I need help with understanding something about a couple scriptures in John. It says in John 3:16 "whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." For example my grandma is a Catholic, and if all she would need to do is believe in Jesus to have eternal life, what about being born again? John 3:3 says "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." So what if she believes, but is not born again? Can someone explain to me how that works..? Thanks to all Julia |
Bible Answer: To be 'born again' or more preferably to be 'born from above' refers to the work of the Holy Spirit producing spiritual life within. It is not sufficient to have a vague intellectual belief about Jesus (compare John 2.23-25). The belief that is required for this to happen is 'belief into Christ', that is a genuine personal response to Christ, calling on Him to act as our Saviour. As we genuinely believe His promises to be our Saviour as a consequence of His work on the cross, and call on Him to work in our lives and make us into what He wants us to be, we come within the sphere of His salvation. He makes us into new creatures (2 Corinthians 5.17). We are born again of imperishable seed through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1.23). |