John 8:21–45

²¹So he said to them again, ^f“I am going away, and ^gyou will seek me, and ^hyou will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²²So the Jews said, ⁱ“Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³He said to them, ^j“You are from below; I am from above. ^kYou are of this world; ^lI am not of this world. ²⁴I told you that you ^mwould die in your sins, for ⁿunless you believe that ^oI am he you will die in your sins.” ²⁵So they said to him, ^p“Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶I have much to say about you and much to judge, but ^qhe who sent me is true, and I declare ^rto the world ^swhat I have heard from him.” ²⁷They did not understand that ^the had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you have ^ulifted up the Son of Man, ^vthen you will know that ^wI am he, and that ^xI do nothing on my own authority, but ^yspeak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹And ^zhe who sent me is with me. ^zHe has not left me alone, for ^aI always do the things that are pleasing to him.” ³⁰As he was saying these things, ^bmany believed in him.

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ^c“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will ^dknow the truth, and the truth ^ewill set you free.” ³³They answered him, ^f“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, ^geveryone who practices sin is a slave³ to sin. ^35hThe slave does not remain in the house forever; ⁱthe son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet ^jyou seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ^38kI speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard ^lfrom your father.”

You Are of Your Father the Devil

³⁹They answered him, ^m“Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, ⁿ“If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now ^oyou seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth ^pthat I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, ^q“We were not born of sexual immorality. We have ^rone Father—even God.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, ^s“If God were your Father, you would love me, for ^tI came from God and ^uI am here. ^vI came not of my own accord, but ^whe sent me. ^43xWhy do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot ^ybear to hear my word. ^44zYou are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. ^aHe was a murderer from the beginning, and ^bdoes not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. ^cWhen he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.