John 5

A Man Is Made Well at the Pool

1After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate there is a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five covered walkways. 3In these lay a large number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. 5A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, he asked, “Do you want to become well?” 7The sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am going, someone else gets there before me.” 8Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 9Immediately the man became well, picked up his mat, and began walking. Now that day was a Sabbath. 10So the Jewish leaders told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11He answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12They asked, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd there. 14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said, “Look, you have become well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse does not happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 16Because of this, the Jewish leaders began persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working too.” 18Because of this, the leaders sought all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

The Son Gives Life and Judges

19Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing from himself unless he sees the Father doing it. Whatever the Father does, the Son does in the same way. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you may be amazed. 21Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wants. 22The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23so that everyone may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and trusts the one who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. 25Truly, truly, I tell you, an hour is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of God’s Son, and those who hear will live. 26Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27He gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. 28Do not be amazed at this, because an hour is coming when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice 29and come out: those who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to a resurrection of judgment. 30I can do nothing from myself. I judge just as I hear, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

Witnesses to Jesus

31“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid on its own. 32There is another who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he gives about me is true. 33You sent people to John, and he testified to the truth. 34I do not depend on human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35John was the lamp that burned and shone, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 36But I have testimony greater than John’s: the works the Father has given me to complete. The very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not trust the one he sent. 39You search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and these are the very Scriptures that testify about me. 40Yet you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. 41I do not receive glory from people, 42but I know you: 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 someone else comes in their own name, you will receive that person. 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 think I will accuse you before the Father. The one accusing you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. 46If you trusted Moses, you would trust me, because he wrote about me. 47But if you do not trust his writings, how will you trust my words?”