Christians Are Not Deceiving Themselves

A widely shared claim quotes John 20:17: “my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God,” and said Jesus never claimed divinity, not even while ascending. Friend, keep reading the same chapter. Eleven verses later, Thomas falls before Jesus and says, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Now watch what Jesus does. He doesn’t correct him. He doesn’t tear his robe. He doesn’t say, “Stand up, I’m only a prophet.” He blesses the confession: “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). If Jesus were not God, that moment was His duty to correct the worst blasphemy imaginable. Instead He blessed everyone who would ever believe the same thing. The claim is built on verse 17 and hopes nobody reads verse 28.

And notice something in the very verse the claim quotes: Jesus did NOT say “our Father” or “our God.” He said “my Father, and your Father… my God, and your God.” He kept the two relationships separate on purpose: His sonship and ours are not the same kind. Why does the risen Jesus call the Father “my God”? Because He is truly man as well as truly God: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). As a man, He honors the Father. That’s not a denial of who He is; it’s the whole reason He could die for us.

Now let’s talk about the prayer Jesus prayed the night before the cross, because it settles what eternal life actually is: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). The Greek word there is ginōskō, and it doesn’t mean knowing facts about someone, the way you know facts about a president you’ve never met. It means knowing someone personally, close, relational, experiential knowledge, the deepest kind there is. And it’s in a tense that means keep on knowing, a living, growing relationship, not a one-time introduction. Now stop and weigh what Jesus actually said: eternal life is personally knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ: one sentence, one saving knowledge, two Persons joined together as its object. No mere prophet could ever be placed there. If Jesus were only a man, then making a relationship with Him half of eternal life would be the very idolatry Christians are accused of. And two verses later Jesus prays, “glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5), while God says through Isaiah, “my glory will I not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8). Shared eternal glory, never given to another. Do the math.

“Didn’t claim divinity throughout his life”? The people who heard Him disagreed. They kept picking up stones. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), taking the name God gave Moses at the bush (Exodus 3:14), “then took they up stones to cast at him.” He said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), and they reached for stones again, telling Him exactly why: “because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (John 10:33). He forgave sins, and the scribes said, “who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:5–7). At His trial, the high priest asked if He was the Son of the Blessed, and He answered “I am,” and was condemned for blasphemy on the spot (Mark 14:61–64). His enemies understood His claim perfectly. That’s why they crucified Him.

And John tells you plainly why he wrote his Gospel: “these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31), the sentence right after the verse you skipped. John even closes his first letter with both truths in one breath: that we may know (ginōskō again) Him that is true, “This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). So no, Christians aren’t deceiving themselves. We just read the whole chapter, and the whole prayer.

Continue the Oneness & the Trinity series