John 8:12–30

Jesus the Light of the World

^12*Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. “I am the light of the world,” he said. “Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.”

^13*The Pharisees said to him, “Now you are testifying on your own behalf; what you say proves nothing.”

¹⁴“No,” Jesus answered, “even though I do testify on my own behalf, what I say is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. You do not know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵You make judgements in a purely human way; I pass judgement on no one. ¹⁶But if I were to do so, my judgement would be true, because I am not alone in this; the Father who sent me is with me. ^17*It is written in your Law that when two witnesses agree, what they say is true. ¹⁸I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me also testifies on my behalf.”

¹⁹“Where is your father?” they asked him.

“You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

²⁰Jesus said all this as he taught in the Temple, in the room where the offering boxes were placed. And no one arrested him, because his hour had not come.

You Cannot Go Where I Am Going

²¹Again Jesus said to them, “I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going.”

²²So the Jewish authorities said, “He says that we cannot go where he is going. Does this mean that he will kill himself?”

²³Jesus answered, “You belong to this world here below, but I come from above. You are from this world, but I am not from this world. ²⁴That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they asked him.

Jesus answered, “What I have told you from the very beginning.^{u 26}I have much to say about you, much to condemn you for. The one who sent me, however, is truthful, and I tell the world only what I have heard from him.”

²⁷They did not understand that Jesus was talking to them about the Father. ²⁸So he said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that ‘I Am Who I Am’; then you will know that I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say. ²⁹And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

³⁰Many who heard Jesus say these things believed in him.