John 8:21–45

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.

Free Men and Slaves

³¹So Jesus said to those who believed in him, “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; ³²you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

^33*“We are the descendants of Abraham,” they answered, “and we have never been anybody’s slaves. What do you mean, then, by saying, ‘You will be free’?”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. ³⁵A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there for ever. ³⁶If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free. ³⁷I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are trying to kill me, because you will not accept my teaching. ³⁸I talk about what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.”

³⁹They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.”

“If you really were Abraham’s children,” Jesus replied, “you would do^v the same things that he did. ⁴⁰All I have ever done is to tell you the truth I heard from God, yet you are trying to kill me. Abraham did nothing like this! ⁴¹You are doing what your father did.”

“God himself is the only Father we have,” they answered, “and we are his true children.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God really were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own authority, but he sent me. ⁴³Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message. ⁴⁴You are the children of your father, the Devil, and you want to follow your father’s desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of all lies. ⁴⁵But I tell the truth, and that is why you do not believe me.