Leo Tolstoy Archive
Written: 1908
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
And, having heard these words, one Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked him: “How to understand that the kingdom of God is within us?” And Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is within us means that every person, in order to enter the kingdom of God, must be born again.” And Nicodemus asked: “How can a person be born again? How can man enter the belly of the mother again and be born?” Jesus said to him: “Be born again means to be born not by a fleshly birth, as a child is born from the mother, but to be born in spirit. And to be born in spirit means to understand that the spirit of God dwells in a person, and beside that every person is born from mother, he is also born from the spirit of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, it suffers and dies, but what is born from the spirit – is the spirit and lives by itself and can neither suffer nor die. God has put his spirit in people for them not suffer and die, but so that they may have joyful and everlasting life. And every person can have such life. And such life is the kingdom of God. And therefore the kingdom of God must be understood not like for all people at some time and at any place the kingdom of God would come, but so that if people recognize the spirit of God and live by it, then such people enter into the kingdom of God and do not suffer or die; if people don't recognize the spirit in themselves and live for the body, these people suffer and perish. (John 3, 1-21)
Questions:
1) What did Nicodemus ask Jesus?
2) What did Jesus answer?
3) What else did Nicodemus ask?
4) What did Jesus answer?
5) For what has God put his spirit in a human?