So I told you that you would die in your sins. Yes, you will die in your sins if you don’t believe that I am he.”
They asked, “Then who are you?”
Jesus answered, “I am what I have told you from the beginning. I have many things to say and decide about you. But I tell people only the things I have heard from the One who sent me, and he speaks the truth.”
The people did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am he. You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me. The One who sent me is with me. I always do what is pleasing to him, so he has not left me alone.” While Jesus was saying these things, many people believed in him.
So Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you continue to obey my teaching, you are truly my followers. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
They answered, “We are Abraham’s children, and we have never been anyone’s slaves. So why do you say we will be free?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. A slave does not stay with a family forever, but a son belongs to the family forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free. I know you are Abraham’s children, but you want to kill me because you don’t accept my teaching. I am telling you what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.”
They answered, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said, “If you were really Abraham’s children, you would do the things Abraham did. I am a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God, but you are trying to kill me. Abraham did nothing like that. So you are doing the things your own father did.”
But they said, “We are not like children who never knew who their father was. God is our Father; he is the only Father we have.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were really your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. I did not come by my own authority; God sent me. You don’t understand what I say, because you cannot accept my teaching. You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning and was against the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he shows what he is really like, because he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. Can any of you prove that I am guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? The person who belongs to God accepts what God says. But you don’t accept what God says, because you don’t belong to God.”
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