John 8:13-45

¹³Then the Pharisees told Him, “You are testifying on your own behalf, so your testimony isn’t valid.”

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know where I come from or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge by human standards, but I am not judging anyone.

¹⁶Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.

¹⁷It’s also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is valid.

¹⁸I am one who bears witness of myself, and my Father who sent me bears witness of me.”

¹⁹Then they asked Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you had known me, you would have known my Father, too.”

²⁰Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as He taught in the temple. Nobody laid hands on Him, for His time had not yet come.

²¹Jesus told them again, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you can’t come.”

²²Therefore the Jews were saying, “Surely He won’t kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

²³Jesus was saying to them, “You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

²⁴Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins, because if you don’t believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵Then they asked Him, “Who are You?” Jesus told them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

²⁶I have many things to say and judge about you, but He who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.”

²⁷They didn’t realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.

²⁸So, Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father taught me.

²⁹He who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me alone, because I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

³⁰As Jesus spoke, many came to believe in Him.

³¹Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you continue in my words, you are truly my disciples,

³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say that we’ll be set free?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I tell you, whoever sins is a slave of sin.

³⁵A slave doesn’t remain in the house forever, but a son does belong forever.

³⁶Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

³⁷“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.

³⁸I talk about what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹They answered, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus told them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham,

⁴⁰but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.

⁴¹You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We weren’t born of fornication. We have one Father — God.”

⁴²Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would sincerely love me, for I came from God, and now am here. I haven’t come of my own initiative, but He sent me.

⁴³Why don’t you understand what I say? It’s because you can’t accept my words.

⁴⁴You are of your father, the Devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar, and the father of lies.

⁴⁵Because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.