Thomas said to him, ”My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28 (NIV)
EU•AN•GE•LION (YOO-AN-GEL-EE-ON) · εὐαγγέλιον — Good News
John 20:24-31
DAY 3 OF 6
The Cost of Confession
How would first-century readers have understood Thomas’s declaration, and what did it cost him to make it?
What Does It Mean to Believe? · 6 Days
John 20:28
The Cost of Confession
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GREEK
Ὁ κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου
/Ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou/(ho KOO-ree-os moo kai ho theh-OS moo)
My Lord and my God
This is one of the clearest declarations of Jesus’s divinity in the New Testament, using the strongest possible language for divine identity.
In the Roman Empire, the emperor was called ‘Dominus et Deus’ (Lord and God). Thomas applying these titles to a crucified carpenter from Nazareth was politically subversive and religiously revolutionary.
RELATED
κύριος — Lord, master, one with authorityθεός — God, deity
The Cost of Confession in the Roman World
Thomas’s confession ‘My Lord and my God’ was not just a personal spiritual experience—it was a politically subversive and religiously revolutionary declaration with life-or-death consequences in the first-century world.
When Thomas declared Jesus to be ‘My Lord and my God,’ he was using titles that carried enormous political weight in the Roman Empire. The emperor was officially called ‘Dominus et Deus’ (Lord and God), and citizens were required to participate in emperor worship as a demonstration of loyalty to Rome.
For a Jew to apply these same titles to a crucified carpenter from Nazareth was not just religiously significant—it was politically subversive. It implied that ultimate authority belonged not to Caesar but to Jesus, and that true divinity resided not in the emperor but in the risen Christ.
From a Jewish perspective, Thomas’s declaration was equally shocking. The Shema, the central confession of Jewish faith, declares: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). For a devout Jew to call another human being ‘God’ would normally be considered blasphemy. Yet Thomas, who had been with Jesus for three years, somehow understood that calling Jesus ‘God’ didn’t contradict Jewish monotheism but fulfilled it.
John’s Gospel was likely written to a community that was facing persecution for their beliefs about Jesus. Many of the original readers would have been wrestling with the same question Thomas faced: Is Jesus really worth the cost of believing in him? Thomas’s story would have been deeply encouraging—here was someone who had demanded the highest level of proof, received it, and then made the ultimate confession of faith despite the personal and social costs.
John explicitly states his purpose in writing: ‘These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ (20:31). Thomas’s story serves this by validating honest doubt, providing compelling testimony from a hard-won skeptic, and addressing future believers who would need to decide based on testimony rather than direct experience.
The Cost of Speaking Truth
Sarah Chen’s article was due in two days, and she was paralyzed. She had spent six weeks investigating what she expected to be a medical fraud, but instead had uncovered what appeared to be a genuine breakthrough in cancer treatment. The evidence was overwhelming, the documentation was solid, and the results were independently verified. But publishing this story would change everything.
Her editor had already expressed skepticism about the direction of her investigation. ‘Sarah, you went there to debunk this thing, not to become their PR department,’ he had said during their last phone call. Her colleagues in the medical journalism community would question her credibility. Some would assume she had been bought off or had lost her objectivity. Publishing a story that validated extraordinary medical claims would put her reputation on the line.
But the alternative was worse. She had met Maria Santos, a 34-year-old mother of three who had been given two months to live eighteen months ago. She had interviewed Dr. Williams, a Harvard-trained oncologist who had initially dismissed the treatment as ‘snake oil’ but was now sending his own patients to Houston after seeing the results. She had examined lab reports, scanned medical records, and verified patient outcomes through independent sources.
Sarah realized that her dilemma wasn’t really about the evidence anymore—it was about what she was willing to risk to tell the truth. Publishing this story would align her with claims that seemed impossible, but the evidence demanded that someone with credibility speak up. The question was whether she was willing to stake her professional reputation on what she had discovered.
Sometimes believing the truth requires us to risk our reputation, relationships, and standing in our community—especially when that truth challenges prevailing assumptions.
A Declaration of Competing Allegiance
John’s original readers would have understood immediately that Thomas’s confession was a declaration of competing allegiance. This wasn’t just a personal spiritual experience; it was a political statement that could have deadly consequences. Church tradition holds that Thomas eventually traveled to India as a missionary and was martyred there for his faith. Whether or not this tradition is historically accurate, it illustrates the trajectory that began with his confession in John 20:28. Declaring Jesus to be ‘Lord and God’ wasn’t just a theological statement—it was a life commitment that could lead to death. John’s original readers would have understood this connection. Many of them were facing persecution, exile, or death for their beliefs. Thomas’s story reminded them that their faith was grounded in solid evidence and that the cost of discipleship had been faced by others before them.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The emperor Domitian (who ruled during the likely time of John’s Gospel composition, around 85-95 AD) was particularly insistent on being called ‘Dominus et Deus’ (Lord and God). For Christians to apply these same titles to Jesus was a direct challenge to imperial authority that could result in arrest, torture, or execution.
Thomas’s confession includes the definite article in Greek—’THE Lord of me and THE God of me’—using the strongest possible grammatical construction for expressing divine identity. This deliberate emphasis by a former skeptic makes it one of the most powerful christological statements in all of Scripture.
BRIDGE TO CHRIST
ANCIENT TRUTH
Thomas’s confession ‘My Lord and my God’ was a politically dangerous and religiously revolutionary statement that carried the risk of persecution and death in the first-century world.
The same tension between faith and social pressure that first-century Christians experienced continues today: genuine belief demands public commitment that may conflict with the expectations of our culture.
MODERN APPLICATION
Today, declaring allegiance to Jesus can still carry significant social, professional, and personal costs, requiring courage to stand against cultural currents.
NEW TESTAMENT ECHO
Luke 2:11 declares Jesus as ‘Savior’ and ‘Lord’—the same titles reserved for Caesar—showing that from Jesus’s birth, his identity was understood as a direct challenge to worldly power structures.
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COURAGEOUS-COMMITMENT
What would it have cost Thomas to make this declaration in a world where Caesar was called ‘Lord and God’?
- Thomas’s confession had political, religious, and social implications in the first century. What would it cost someone today to make a similar declaration of allegiance to Jesus?
- How does understanding the original context of Thomas’s story affect your appreciation of his courage and commitment?
- John wrote his Gospel to help people believe that Jesus is ‘the Messiah, the Son of God.’ How does Thomas’s story contribute to that goal? What makes his testimony particularly compelling?
PRAYER
(personal)Posture: courage-seeking
Help me understand the courage it took for the first believers to declare their allegiance to Jesus in a hostile world, and give me similar courage in my own context.
TAKEAWAY
I will consider what it would cost me to publicly declare my allegiance to Jesus and take one step toward living that confession more openly this week.
LEAVING AT THE CROSS
- The fear of social disapproval for my beliefs
- The desire to keep faith private and comfortable
- The assumption that belief should be costless
RECEIVING FROM THE CROSS
- Courage to declare my allegiance to Jesus despite the cost
- Confidence that faith grounded in evidence can withstand opposition
- The knowledge that others before me have paid a greater price and found it worthwhile
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
FOR REFLECTION
- Why was Thomas’s declaration ‘My Lord and my God’ both politically subversive and religiously revolutionary in the first-century world?
- How does John’s stated purpose in writing his Gospel (20:31) connect to the way he tells Thomas’s story?
- What can we learn from the early Christians who maintained their confession of Jesus as Lord despite facing persecution?
FOR ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS
- Share a time when expressing your faith cost you something socially or professionally. How did you handle it?
- Discuss: In what areas of modern life is it most difficult to publicly declare allegiance to Jesus? Why?
- Ask each other: ‘What would it take for you to be more courageous in living out your confession of faith?’
FURTHER READING
RELATED SCRIPTURES
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Luke 2:11
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
John 20:31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
FOR DEEPER STUDY
videoThe World of Early Christians: Faith Under Fire
A documentary on the political and religious context of early Christianity
bookJohn 20:24-31
Read the complete Thomas narrative with attention to its apologetic purpose
Finished reading? Mark this day read.