My Lord, My God

Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. John 20:27-28.

When Thomas referred to Jesus as god, how should we take this, literally or conceptually. How did Thomas understand the concept of god when he used it here. We may never truly know. However, what we do have is the scriptures, which informs our intellect regarding the attributes of a god. It contains all the criteria for describing this divine position. Below, I offer some criteria (in no particular order) that I gleaned from scripture regarding godly attributes.

Heavenly Father is the appropriate starting point to understand the god complexity. God the Father is the ultimate model of a god. What He is, Jesus is. We read how Jesus said, "all who see me, see the father". The following traits can best describe Heavenly Father's godly status:

1. He is immortal and eternal.
2. He is omnipotent and omniscient.
3. He created the heavens and earth and all things in them. 
4. He resides in the highest realm of heaven as ruler over all he observes.

 Consider the same traits in Jesus:

1. He is immortal and eternal (following his resurrection).
2. He declared "all power has been given to me in heaven and earth" (declared at Bethany).
3. He created heaven and earth (recorded in the first verse of John's gospel).
4. He resides in heaven at the Father's side (at the tomb, he told Mary of his ascension to heaven).

To see the Father in this light is to see the Son in the same way. Jesus satisfies the criteria of a god in this limited comparison. This, however, doesn't justify all the traits that could be written concerning Jesus' god status. Whether you believe or not, these written records would invite any person to draw his or her own conclusion. It would be difficult to ignore such an account. I think, at the very least, what we could agree upon is that Jesus was and is no ordinary man.

Returning to Thomas, let us consider for a moment, you witness your friend being killed under capital punishment. He died, was buried, arose from the dead and then appeared to you walking and talking in the exact likeness when he was alive. Some time later, that friend takes you and a group of others to a distance place, proclaims he has all power given to him and then ascends to heaven in a cloud, everyone bearing witness. While bowing and worshiping him, two angels in white apparel appear to you all saying, know you not that this same Jesus you see ascending into heaven shall return in like manner as you see him go.

Jesus was called to be a god before the foundation of this earth was laid. He was a god in the making during his mortal mission on earth and before his resurrection. He is a god now following his resurrection and ascension to Heaven where he rules over all.

In addition, I offer a further summation related to Thomas' experience from which we can learn some interesting points, 1) in New Testament accounts, we read where men have bowed and worshiped men and angels but were told not to do it Acts 10:25-26 and Revelation 22:8-9 and 2) when Thomas bowed down and worshiped Jesus, the Lord did not forbid or rebuke him. To do so would place Jesus on equal footing with Peter (who said he was but a man) and the angel (who said he was a servant of god, with an instruction to worship God). In his silence, Jesus seems to acknowledge his god status and instead of rebuking Thomas, he offers a truth claim that is relevant to our days, that is, seeing is believing but not seeing and believing is a powerful blessing John 20:29. To reiterate, this exchange took place following Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead as an immortal being/ god (who was and is worthy of worship).

Allow me to conclude with this verse "there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. John 21:25 KJV.

And now, I add my testimony to Thomas. Jesus is not only my Lord and my God, he is a God! All knees shall bow when he returns Romans 14:11.