Everything about Christian identity flows from this sentence.

Everything about Christian identity flows from this sentence.

When Jesus speaks in John chapter 20, He is not making a casual remark. He is issuing a precise theological declaration at the moment of resurrection that redefines relationship, authority, and access to God. This is one of those passages you have to slow down and teach carefully because almost everything we believe about Christian identity is anchored right here.

When Jesus tells Mary Magdalene, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God,” He is announcing a completed shift in covenant reality.

Pay close attention to the timing. This happens after the resurrection but before the ascension. Redemption has been accomplished. Sin has been judged. Death has been defeated. Yet Jesus has not yet taken His place in glory. In this narrow window, He speaks language that could not have been spoken before the cross.

Up until this moment, Jesus consistently spoke of God as “My Father” in a unique and singular sense. Even when He taught the disciples to pray “Our Father,” that was instructional language. It was not a declaration of shared sonship. No one in Scripture prior to the resurrection is ever directly told by Jesus that God is their Father in the same relational category He occupies.

That changes here.

When Jesus says, “My Father and your Father,” He is declaring adoption. Through His finished work, those who belong to Him are now brought into familial relationship with God. This is not poetic language. It is not symbolic. It is legal, covenantal, and relational. The resurrection confirms that the barrier separating humanity from God has been removed. What was exclusively His by nature is now shared by grace.

Now listen carefully to the second half. “To My God and your God.”

This is just as important and often misunderstood.

Jesus does not stop being divine when He says this. He is speaking as the risen Son who has fully taken humanity into Himself. As the second Adam, the representative man, He stands before God on behalf of redeemed humanity. When He says “My God,” He is affirming His incarnational obedience and priestly role. When He says “your God,” He is declaring restored worship. Humanity is once again rightly ordered under God, not as slaves, not as outsiders, but as sons and daughters.

This statement also marks a transition. The relationship is moving from discipleship under a Rabbi to participation in a living union with the risen Christ. Mary is told not to cling to Him physically because the mode of relationship is changing. Access will no longer be external, physical, or location based. It will be covenantal, spiritual, and permanent.

In plain terms, this is what Jesus is teaching in that moment.

The relationship I have with the Father is now being shared with you.
The God I stand before as Son and Mediator is now your God as restored family.
The separation is over. The order is restored. The way is open.

This is why the moment is so quiet and yet so explosive. There is no thunder. No sermon. No crowd. Just one woman standing in a garden hearing the first spoken declaration of the new creation reality.

John places this scene here intentionally. Genesis begins in a garden where humanity loses access to God. John chapter 20 takes place in a garden where access is restored. The risen Christ announces that what was lost in Adam has been recovered in Him.

This is not sentimental language. It is a legal announcement of sonship, worship, and restored authority under God.

Everything about Christian identity flows from this sentence.