There is no question about his super pious life. If there ever was a person who could be saved without being a Christian, Nicodemus was that man because this was a righteous man, a noble man. But I will tell you that good people, who do not have Jesus, are lost. They are lost people. Without Jesus we don't have any hope.
All ditches take their cargo further and further away from the road of life.
In fact, ditches take you down. You don't want to go down. Nicodemus was respected. He had perfect attendance at the local synagogue. He was a supreme court Justice in the ecclesiastical court of Jerusalem.