A Plain Parallel to John 20:28

John 20:28 is often treated as if Thomas proves that Jesus is God in the ultimate divine-person sense.

Thomas says:

“My Lord and my God.”

That confession is real.

But the question is not merely whether Jesus is the Father.

The question is deeper:

How can Jesus be called God without being God as an ultimate divine person, whether as the Father or as a second divine person beside the Father?

Here is a down-to-earth parallel:

A child comes into being through a real generative event in which the mother’s own body and life are truly involved.

The child is carried in her, sustained through her, and bears real continuity with her life.

But the child is not the mother herself.

The child is a real new person who comes into being through origin, dependence, and embodied relation.

No one would say the child is unrelated to the mother.

No one would say the child is the mother.

The point is simple:

True origin and real relation do not erase personal distinction.

Luke 1:43 already shows this kind of distinction.

Elizabeth speaks to Mary, yet identifies the Lord within her:

“the mother of my Lord.”

• Mary is not the Lord.
• The child is not Mary.

Yet the Lord is truly present within Mary.

So Elizabeth can speak to Mary while recognizing the Lord within her, without collapsing Mary and the child into one person.

That helps us understand John 20:28.

Jesus is not merely a man externally used by God.

But Jesus is also not God in the ultimate divine-person sense.

He is not the Father Himself.

He is not a second divine person beside the Father.

He is not “God the Son” in a Trinitarian sense.

Jesus is the real human Son in whom God Himself is present through His own Form, by His own Spirit.

So when Thomas says:

“My Lord and my God”

He is not confessing a second God-person beside the Father.

He is confessing God Himself truly present and revealed in the risen Son.

Jesus can be called Lord because the Lord Himself is present in Him through His own Form, by His own Spirit, from His emergence. His exaltation publicly manifests and enthrones what was already true of His identity.

Jesus can be called God because God Himself is truly encountered in Him.

But Jesus is not God as an ultimate divine person.

The ultimate divine person is God Himself, the Father, the divine Soul.

So John 20:28 is not mere agency.

It is not Trinity.

It is not identity-collapse.

It is God Himself truly revealed in the emergent Son.

The confession stands.
The distinction remains.
God is truly encountered.
Jesus remains the risen Son.

Igor Pogoda | Christ Rooted | Divine Identity Theology (DIT)