»Even if I am giving testimony about myself,« replied Jesus, »my testimony is true; for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you know neither of these two things.
how is it that you say to one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, `You are blaspheming,' because I said, `I am God's Son'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The things that I tell you all I do not speak on my own authority: but the Father dwelling within me carries on His own work.
For the truths which Thou didst teach me I have taught them. And they have received them, and have known for certain that I came out from Thy presence, and have believed that Thou didst send me.
»So then you are a king!« rejoined Pilate. »Yes,« said Jesus, »you say truly that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world–to give testimony for the truth. Every one who is a friend of the truth listens to my voice.«
»If God were your Father,« said Jesus, »you would love me; for it is from God that I came and I am now here. I have not come of myself, but He sent me.
It is foolish of me to write all this, but you have compelled me to do so. Why, you ought to have been my vindicators; for in no respect have I been inferior to these superlatively great Apostles, even though in myself I am nothing.
You are imagining, all this time, that we are making our defense at your bar. In reality it is as in God's presence and in communion with Christ that we speak; but, dear friends, it is all with a view to your progress in goodness.
and from Jesus Christ, the truthful witness, the first of the dead to be born to Life, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins with His own blood,
»And to the minister of the Church at Laodicea write as follows:« `This is what the Amen says–the true and faithful witness, the Beginning and Lord of God's Creation.