John 5

1Some time after this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2In Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool with five porticoes; in Hebrew it is called Bethesda. 3Many sick people used to lie in these porticoes: the blind, the lame and the paralyzed. 5One man there had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been in that condition for a long time, so he asked him, “Do you want to be well?” 7The sick man answered him, “Sir, when the water is stirred up, there is no one to put me into the pool. And while I am on my way, someone else steps down before I do.” 8Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and start walking.” 9Immediately the man became well. He picked up his mat and began walking about. And this happened on a Sabbath. 10So the Jewish leaders kept telling the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath. It is against the law for you to carry your mat.” 11But he answered them, “The one who made me well is the one who told me, ‘Pick up your mat and start walking.’” 12So they asked him, “Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13But the healed man had no idea who it was, since there was a crowd in the place and Jesus had moved off without being noticed. 14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well now. Do not sin any longer, or something worse could come upon you.” 15The man went off and told the Jewish leaders that the one who had made him well was Jesus. 16For this reason the Jewish leaders began to persecute Jesus, since he kept doing such things on the Sabbath. 17Jesus answered them, “My Father has been at work right up to now, and I am at work as well.” 18So the Jewish leaders were even more determined to kill him. Besides breaking the Sabbath, he was speaking of God as his own Father, and so was making himself equal to God.

19So Jesus gave them this answer: “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son cannot do anything on his own; he does only what he sees the Father doing. For what the Father does, the Son does as well, and in the same way. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself is doing. And there are greater works than these that he will show him, so that you will be astonished. 21For the Father raises the dead and brings them to life, and in the same way the Son brings to life whomever he chooses. 22Nor does the Father judge anyone; he has given the whole work of judging to the Son, 23so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever refuses honor to the Son refuses it to the Father who sent him.

24Truly, truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life. Such a person does not come under condemnation, but has already moved out of death into life.

25Truly, truly, I tell you, an hour is coming, and in fact it has already begun, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. 26For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son life in himself as well. 27He has also given him authority to pass judgment, since he is the Son of Man. 28Do not be astonished at this. An hour is coming when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice 29and come out. Those who have done good will come out to a resurrection that brings life; those who have done evil, to a resurrection that brings condemnation.

30I cannot do anything on my own. I judge according to what I hear, and the judgment I give is just, because I am not seeking to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.

31If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. 32Someone else is testifying about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true. 33You yourselves sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34Yet I do not accept testimony from a human being; I say these things so that you may be saved. 35John was the lamp that burned and shone, and for a little while you were glad to rejoice in his light. 36But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works the Father has given me to bring to completion, the works themselves that I am doing, testify about me: they show that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. Not once have you heard his voice or seen his form. 38And his word does not remain in you, since you do not believe the very one he sent.

39You pore over the Scriptures, since you think that eternal life is to be found in them; and they are the ones that testify about me. 40But you do not want to come to me so that you can have life. 41Glory from people is not something I accept. 42But I know you, and there is no love for God in you. 43I have come in the name of my Father, yet you do not accept me. Should someone else come in his own name, him you will accept. 44How could you believe? You accept glory from one another, while the glory that comes from the only God is something you do not seek. 45Do not imagine that I will be the one to accuse you before the Father. You already have an accuser: Moses, in whom you have put your hope. 46If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because what he wrote was about me. 47But if you do not believe the writings of Moses, how will you ever believe my spoken words?”