“My Lord and my God”

Thomas is the only person in the Gospels to call the Lord Jesus Christ “God”, when he “answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The text is often used by those of other persuasions as a ‘proof’ of the Trinity. As Bible-believers we have no difficulty in accommodating the handful of instances where the title “God” is applied to the Son, taking into account the overwhelming number of places where the Father is called “God” in the New Testament. The evidence against any suggestion of a Trinity is decisive.

Why then does Thomas call Jesus “My Lord and my God”? Why does he use two titles, “Lord” and “God”, rather than one? Why does he combine the titles in this distinctive twofold affirmation? These are questions which we can only answer by examining the context, and particularly the allusions which take us back to the Genesis creation. We shall see that Thomas’ remark has in it echoes of Genesis, and has to do with the new creation.

It is easy to overlook the fact that Thomas’ remark is part of a conversation. Jesus’ conversations always allude to the Old Testament Scriptures, and those with whom he talked also show an awareness of the Scriptures, their remarks often being recorded in order to reveal insights of faith for our learning. In addition, the Biblical writers (under inspiration) have recorded the conversations in such a way, with details of time and place, so as to bring out the significance of the things that are said. The conversation between Jesus and Thomas illustrates all these points.

The main allusion is in John 20:22: “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit”; which (as indicated by most marginal references) con­nects up with Gen 2:7: “The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. Such an allusion introduces to a reader the theme of creation, and the disciples are being presented to us as types of Adam. Other creation allusions are not far away: the breathing takes place on the first day of the week (John 20:1), but in the evening of that day — the day had had a morning and an evening (John 20:19). This is the language of creation week (Gen 1).