John 3:1-15

There was a man named Nicodemus. He was a proud religious law-keeper and a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Teacher, we know You have come from God to teach us. No one can do these powerful works You do unless God is with Him.” 3 Jesus said to him, “For sure, I tell you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the holy nation of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? How can he get into his mother’s body and be born the second time?” 5 Jesus answered, “For sure, I tell you, unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit of God, he cannot get into the holy nation of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wants to and you hear its sound. You do not know where it comes from or where it goes. It is the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit of God.” 9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can this be?” 10 Jesus said, “Are you a teacher among the Jews and do not know these things? 11 For sure, I tell you, We are talking about things We know. We tell of what We have seen. Yet you do not take Our words to be true. 12 I tell you about things of the earth and you do not believe them. How will you believe if I tell you things about heaven? 13 “No one has gone up into heaven except the One Who came down from heaven. That One is the Son of Man *Who is in heaven. 14 As Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. 15 Then whoever puts his trust in Him will have life that lasts forever.

Titus 3:3-7

3 There was a time when we were foolish and did not obey. We were fooled in many ways. Strong desires held us in their power. We wanted only to please ourselves. We wanted what others had and were angry when we could not have them. We hated others and they hated us. 4 But God, the One Who saves, showed how kind He was and how He loved us 5 by saving us from the punishment of sin. It was not because we worked to be right with God. It was because of His loving-kindness that He washed our sins away. At the same time He gave us new life when the Holy Spirit came into our lives. 6 God gave the Holy Spirit to fill our lives through Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. 7 Because of this, we are made right with God by His loving-favor. Now we can have life that lasts forever as He has promised.

2 Peter 1:3-11

3 He gives us everything we need for life and for holy living. He gives it through His great power. As we come to know Him better, we learn that He called us to share His own shining-greatness and perfect life. 4 Through His shining-greatness and perfect life, He has given us promises. These promises are of great worth and no amount of money can buy them. Through these promises you can have God’s own life in you now that you have gotten away from the sinful things of the world which came from wrong desires of the flesh. 5 Do your best to add holy living to your faith. Then add to this a better understanding. 6 As you have a better understanding, be able to say no when you need to. Do not give up. And as you wait and do not give up, live God-like. 7 As you live God-like, be kind to Christian brothers and love them. 8 If you have all these things and keep growing in them, they will keep you from being of no use and from having no fruit when it comes to knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if you do not have these things, you are blind and cannot see far. You forget God saved you from your old life of sin. 10 Christian brothers, make sure you are among those He has chosen and called out for His own. As long as you do these things, you will never trip and fall. 11 In this way, the road will be made wide open for you. And you will go into the holy nation that lasts forever of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves.

Colossians 2:8-15

8 Be careful that no one changes your mind and faith by much learning and big sounding ideas. Those things are what men dream up. They are always trying to make new religions. These leave out Christ. 9 For Christ is not only God-like, He is God in human flesh. 10 When you have Christ, you are complete. He is the head over all leaders and powers. 11 When you became a Christian, you were set free from the sinful things of the world. This was not done by human hands. You were set free from the sins of your old self by what was done in Christ’s body. 12 When you were baptized, you were buried as Christ was buried. When you were raised up in baptism, you were raised as Christ was raised. You were raised to a new life by putting your trust in God. It was God Who raised Jesus from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins, you were not set free from the sinful things of the world. But God forgave your sins and gave you new life through Christ. 14 We had broken the Law many ways. Those sins were held against us by the Law. That Law had writings which said we were sinners. But now He has destroyed that writing by nailing it to the cross. 15 God took away the power of the leaders of this world and the powers of darkness. He showed them to the world. The battle was won over them through Christ.

Romans 2:23-29

23 You are proud of the Law. Do you take honor away from God when you do not obey the Law? 24 The Holy Writings say, “God’s name is hated by the people who are not Jews because of you.” 25 Going through the religious act of becoming a Jew is worth something if you obey the Law. If you do not obey the Law, it is worth nothing to you. 26 If a person who is not a Jew and has not gone through the act of becoming a Jew, obeys the Law, God will think of him as a Jew. 27 You Jews have the Law but do not obey it. You have gone through the religious act also. At the same time those who are not Jews obey the Law even if they have not gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. In this way, these people show you are guilty. 28 A man is not a Jew just because he goes through the religious act of becoming a Jew. 29 The true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. The religious act of becoming a Jew must be done in the heart. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Law does not do that kind of work. The true Jew gets his thanks from God, not from men.

Deuteronomy 30:4-6

4 Even if you are driven to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 The Lord your God will bring you into the land your fathers lived in and it will be yours. He will bring good to you and make you more in number than your fathers. 6 The Lord your God will take away the sin from your heart and from the heart of your children. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so you may live.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16 This is the reason we do not give up. Our human body is wearing out. But our spirits are getting stronger every day. 17 The little troubles we suffer now for a short time are making us ready for the great things God is going to give us forever. 18 We do not look at the things that can be seen. We look at the things that cannot be seen. The things that can be seen will come to an end. But the things that cannot be seen will last forever.

Ephesians 4:20-25

20 But you did not learn anything like this from Christ. 21 If you have heard of Him and have learned from Him, 22 put away the old person you used to be. Have nothing to do with your old sinful life. It was sinful because of being fooled into following bad desires. 23 Let your minds and hearts be made new. 24 You must become a new person and be God-like. Then you will be made right with God and have a true holy life. 25 So stop lying to each other. Tell the truth to your neighbor. We all belong to the same body.

Romans 7:4-6

4 My Christian brothers, that is the way it is with you. You were under the power of the Law. But now you are dead to it because you are joined to another. You are joined to Christ Who was raised from the dead. This is so we may be what God wants us to be. Our lives are to give fruit for Him. 5 When we lived to please our bodies, those sinful desires were pulling at us all the time. We always wanted to do what the Law said not to do. Living that kind of life brings death, 6 but now we are free from the Law. We are dead to sin that once held us in its power. No longer do we follow the Law which is the old way. We now follow the new way, the way of the Spirit.

Ezekiel 11:19-20

19 I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will walk in My Laws and keep them, and obey them. They will be My people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 36:24-27

24 For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will put clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will make you clean from all your unclean ways and from all your false gods. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My Laws and be careful to do what I tell you.

Colossians 3:1-4

If then you have been raised with Christ, keep looking for the good things of heaven. This is where Christ is seated on the right side of God. 2 Keep your minds thinking about things in heaven. Do not think about things on the earth. 3 You are dead to the things of this world. Your new life is now hidden in God through Christ. 4 Christ is our life. When He comes again, you will also be with Him to share His shining-greatness.

Romans 6:1-14

What does this mean? Are we to keep on sinning so that God will give us more of His loving-favor? 2 No, not at all! We are dead to sin. How then can we keep on living in sin? 3 All of us were baptized to show we belong to Christ. We were baptized first of all to show His death. 4 We were buried in baptism as Christ was buried in death. As Christ was raised from the dead by the great power of God, so we will have new life also. 5 If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life. 6 We know that our old life, our old sinful self, was nailed to the cross with Christ. And so the power of sin that held us was destroyed. Sin is no longer our boss. 7 When a man is dead, he is free from the power of sin. 8 And if we have died with Christ, we believe we will live with Him also. 9 We know that Christ was raised from the dead. He will never die again. Death has no more power over Him. 10 He died once but now lives. He died to break the power of sin, and the life He now lives is for God. 11 You must do the same thing! Think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But now you have new life because of Jesus Christ our Lord. You are living this new life for God. 12 So do not let sin have power over your body here on earth. You must not obey the body and let it do what it wants to do. 13 Do not give any part of your body for sinful use. Instead, give yourself to God as a living person who has been raised from the dead. Give every part of your body to God to do what is right. 14 Sin must not have power over you. You are not living by the Law. You have life because of God’s loving-favor.

Ephesians 2:8-10

8 For by His loving-favor you have been saved from the punishment of sin through faith. It is not by anything you have done. It is a gift of God. 9 It is not given to you because you worked for it. If you could work for it, you would be proud. 10 We are His work. He has made us to belong to Christ Jesus so we can work for Him. He planned that we should do this.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

17 For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun. 18 All this comes from God. He is the One Who brought us to Himself when we hated Him. He did this through Christ. Then He gave us the work of bringing others to Him. 19 God was in Christ. He was working through Christ to bring the whole world back to Himself. God no longer held men’s sins against them. And He gave us the work of telling and showing men this.

Acts 2:37-42

37 When the Jews heard this, their hearts were troubled. They said to Peter and to the other missionaries, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Be sorry for your sins and turn from them and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you and your children. It is to all people everywhere. It is to as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 He said many other things. He helped them understand that they should keep themselves from the sinful people of this day. 41 Those who believed what he said were baptized. There were about 3,000 more followers added that day. 42 They were faithful in listening to the teaching of the missionaries. They worshiped and prayed and ate the Lord’s supper together.

Roldan Ortiz Molinares