⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[a] gives birth to spirit.^(A)

⁵ he saved us,^(A) not because of righteous things we had done,^(B) but because of his mercy.^(C) He saved us through the washing^(D) of rebirth and renewal^(E) by the Holy Spirit,

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth^(A) through the word of truth,^(B) that we might be a kind of firstfruits^(C) of all he created.

²³ For you have been born again,^(A) not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,^(B) through the living and enduring word of God.^(C)

⁹ No one who is born of God^(A) will continue to sin,^(B) because God’s seed^(C) remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.