Apologetics · FaithLogic
"My Father and Your Father, My God and Your God" — John 20:17 Explained
After the resurrection, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene: "Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'" (John 20:17). This is frequently cited as proof that Jesus is not God — he calls the Father "my God," which (it is argued) proves he is a creature with a God above him. This section answers the objection completely.
The Answer in Three Layers
Layer 1 — The Incarnate Son Speaking FROM His Human Nature
The context:
John 20:17 is spoken by the RISEN Jesus — but still in his incarnate state before his final ascension and glorification. He is the eternal Son who has taken on human nature (John 1:14: "the Word became flesh"). In that incarnate state, the Son genuinely relates to the Father as his God — not as two equal self-existing beings of the same rank, but as the incarnate Son who has entered the human condition.
Hebrews 2:17 explains this precisely:
"He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God."
The incarnate Son serves God — as high priest, as mediator, as the human representative of humanity before YHWH. In this role, the Father is his God — not because he is not divine, but because in his human nature he genuinely relates to the Father as every human relates to God.
The Psalm 22:1 parallel:
On the cross, Jesus cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" — quoting Psalm 22:1. Was this a denial of his divinity? No — it was the incarnate Son, in the depths of human suffering, crying out to the Father using the language of Psalm 22. The cry is from his human nature experiencing God-forsakenness in bearing human sin. Similarly, "my God" in John 20:17 is the incarnate Son describing his relationship to the Father from within his human experience.
John 20:17 is spoken by the RISEN Jesus — but still in his incarnate state before his final ascension and glorification. He is the eternal Son who has taken on human nature (John 1:14: "the Word became flesh"). In that incarnate state, the Son genuinely relates to the Father as his God — not as two equal self-existing beings of the same rank, but as the incarnate Son who has entered the human condition.
Hebrews 2:17 explains this precisely:
"He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God."
The incarnate Son serves God — as high priest, as mediator, as the human representative of humanity before YHWH. In this role, the Father is his God — not because he is not divine, but because in his human nature he genuinely relates to the Father as every human relates to God.
The Psalm 22:1 parallel:
On the cross, Jesus cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" — quoting Psalm 22:1. Was this a denial of his divinity? No — it was the incarnate Son, in the depths of human suffering, crying out to the Father using the language of Psalm 22. The cry is from his human nature experiencing God-forsakenness in bearing human sin. Similarly, "my God" in John 20:17 is the incarnate Son describing his relationship to the Father from within his human experience.
Layer 2 — The Distinction of Persons, Not Inferiority of Nature
Jesus says "my Father AND your Father, my God AND your God":
Jesus is doing something very specific here — he is connecting his relationship with the Father to the disciples' relationship with the Father. He does not say "our Father and our God" (which would blur the distinction between his Sonship and theirs). He carefully distinguishes: "MY Father... YOUR Father; MY God... YOUR God."
Why the distinction matters:
Jesus's relationship with the Father is unique — not the same kind of relationship the disciples have. Jesus is the eternal Son by nature (monogenēs — the unique, only-begotten); the disciples are sons by adoption through him (John 1:12: "to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"). By calling the Father "my Father and your Father," Jesus is giving the disciples access to his own relationship with the Father — not saying he and the disciples are the same kind of sons.
The functional ordering (Father sends, Son goes) is not ontological inferiority:
Within the Trinity, the Father is the one who sends and the Son is the one who is sent (John 3:17, 5:36, 6:57). The Son submits to the Father's will (John 5:19, 6:38). This functional ordering is not a hierarchy of divine nature — it is the eternal relational structure within the one divine being. The Son calling the Father "my God" reflects this ordering — not an ontological ranking.
Jesus is doing something very specific here — he is connecting his relationship with the Father to the disciples' relationship with the Father. He does not say "our Father and our God" (which would blur the distinction between his Sonship and theirs). He carefully distinguishes: "MY Father... YOUR Father; MY God... YOUR God."
Why the distinction matters:
Jesus's relationship with the Father is unique — not the same kind of relationship the disciples have. Jesus is the eternal Son by nature (monogenēs — the unique, only-begotten); the disciples are sons by adoption through him (John 1:12: "to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"). By calling the Father "my Father and your Father," Jesus is giving the disciples access to his own relationship with the Father — not saying he and the disciples are the same kind of sons.
The functional ordering (Father sends, Son goes) is not ontological inferiority:
Within the Trinity, the Father is the one who sends and the Son is the one who is sent (John 3:17, 5:36, 6:57). The Son submits to the Father's will (John 5:19, 6:38). This functional ordering is not a hierarchy of divine nature — it is the eternal relational structure within the one divine being. The Son calling the Father "my God" reflects this ordering — not an ontological ranking.
Layer 3 — The Same John Who Records John 20:17 Also Calls Jesus "God" Five Times
John's Gospel contains the highest Christology in the NT:
John 1:1: "the Word was God"
John 1:18: "the unique God (monogenēs Theos), who is at the Father's side"
John 10:33: the crowd says to Jesus "you claim to be God" — and Jesus does not deny it
John 20:28: Thomas: "My Lord and my God" — accepted without correction
1 John 5:20: "He is the true God and eternal life"
The same author who records John 20:17 (Jesus calling the Father "my God") also records Thomas calling Jesus "my God" (John 20:28) — in the SAME CHAPTER, just 11 verses later. John saw no contradiction. Neither should we. In verse 17 Jesus speaks from his incarnate human nature relating to the Father. In verse 28 Thomas recognizes Jesus's divine identity. Both are true simultaneously because the hypostatic union is true.
John 1:1: "the Word was God"
John 1:18: "the unique God (monogenēs Theos), who is at the Father's side"
John 10:33: the crowd says to Jesus "you claim to be God" — and Jesus does not deny it
John 20:28: Thomas: "My Lord and my God" — accepted without correction
1 John 5:20: "He is the true God and eternal life"
The same author who records John 20:17 (Jesus calling the Father "my God") also records Thomas calling Jesus "my God" (John 20:28) — in the SAME CHAPTER, just 11 verses later. John saw no contradiction. Neither should we. In verse 17 Jesus speaks from his incarnate human nature relating to the Father. In verse 28 Thomas recognizes Jesus's divine identity. Both are true simultaneously because the hypostatic union is true.
💡 John 20:17 — Complete Response"John 20:17: Jesus calls the Father 'my God.' Three layers of explanation: (1) The incarnate Son speaks from his human nature — in taking on real humanity (John 1:14), the Son genuinely relates to the Father as his God from within the human condition. Hebrews 2:17: 'he had to be made like his brothers in every way.' This is no more a denial of his divinity than his prayer 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' is. (2) The distinction of persons, not inferiority of nature — Jesus says 'MY Father AND YOUR Father; MY God AND YOUR God' carefully distinguishing his unique eternal Sonship from the disciples' adoptive sonship. The Son calling the Father 'my God' reflects the functional ordering within the Trinity (Father sends, Son is sent) — not an ontological hierarchy. (3) The same chapter (John 20): 11 verses after Jesus calls the Father 'my God' (v.17), Thomas calls Jesus 'my Lord and my God' (v.28) — and Jesus accepts it without correction. John saw no contradiction because there is none. The incarnate Son who calls the Father 'my God' is the same divine Son that Thomas recognizes as 'my God.'"
This is part of the FaithLogic study library — the biblical, historical and manuscript case that Jesus is God, with every claim linked to its source. Open the interactive version for search, cross-references, read-aloud, and the full library.