Today's verses answer Nicodemus' question of verse 9, ″How can this be?″ The focus now shifts from the new birth, God's part in our salvation, to belief, the immediate fruit of the new birth in our experience.

Notice how ″everyone″ and ″whoever″ is used in verses 15, 16, and 18. Salvation is available to all, and it is vital that we believe in Jesus, but even in this, God receives all the glory, for such belief doesn't come without His enabling (John 6:44, 65). And up till now, no one has known or understood the entire process of salvation except for the Son of Man, who saw and knew because He was there: He came from heaven (v. 13). Hence, He is uniquely qualified to reveal this reality.

Verses 14-15 refer to Numbers 21:4 -9. Just as the people in the Old Testament needed to look to the bronze snake and recognize the justice of God's punishment, so those who look to Jesus, the gift of God's love (v. 16), have eternal life, for in Jesus' death they recognize the just punishment of their own sin. We all, like Nicodemus, are condemned already. We are born in a state of spiritual death and remain that way until we are born again (v. 36; see 1 John 5:11-12).

Verse 16 is probably the best known and most loved verse in the Bible. It is the very essence of the gospel-the Bible in miniature. It is a shocking verse-God loves the unlovable world, which hates and rejects Him. He so loves, that He gives His dearest and best. The difference between life and condemnation is belief in Jesus (see vv. 12, 15-16, 18.)

To believe is to rely, depend, and trust. Such belief is the clearest proof that a person has been born again, from above, by the Spirit.