John 5

¹After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five colonnades. ³In these colonnades lay a crowd of people who were sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁵A certain man was there who had been in his sickness for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in this condition for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to become well?"

⁷The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else goes down ahead of me."

⁸Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk." ⁹And immediately the man became well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jewish authorities said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."

¹¹But he answered them, "The one who made me well—that man said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"

¹²They asked him, "Who is this man who told you, 'Pick up your mat and walk'?"

¹³But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd in the place.

¹⁴After these things Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "Look, you have become well. Stop sinning, so that nothing worse happens to you." ¹⁵The man went away and reported to the Jewish authorities that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶And because of this the Jewish authorities began persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I myself am working."

¹⁸Because of this, therefore, the Jewish authorities were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹So Jesus responded and began saying to them, "Amen, amen, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever that one does, these things the Son likewise does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.

²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ²²For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Amen, amen, I tell you that the one who hears my word and trusts in the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed over from death into life.

²⁵Amen, amen, I tell you that an hour is coming—and now is—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has also granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, because an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹and will come out—those who have done good things to a resurrection of life, and those who have practiced worthless things to a resurrection of judgment.

³⁰I can do nothing on my own initiative. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

³¹If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. ³²There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is valid. ³³You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴Now I do not receive testimony from a human being, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵That man was the lamp that burns and shines, and you were willing to celebrate for an hour in his light. ³⁶But I have testimony greater than John's. For the works that the Father has given me to complete—these very works that I am doing—testify about me that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me—that one has testified about me. You have never heard his voice, nor have you seen his form, ³⁸and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not trust in the one whom that one sent.

³⁹You search the scriptures because you think that in them you possess eternal life. Yet these are the very ones that testify about me, ⁴⁰and you refuse to come to me so that you may have life.

⁴¹I do not receive glory from human beings, ⁴²but I have come to know you—that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive that one. ⁴⁴How can you trust, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. ⁴⁶For if you trusted Moses, you would trust me, because that man wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not trust his writings, how will you trust my words?"