Do you know the full extent of your salvation? John 19-21

John 20:17 (NASBStr)

Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. ’”

Perhaps the greatest news in the Gospel that is still not developed completely in the minds of the believer is what Jesus says to Mary, at the tomb, after the resurrection.  Peter and John had come to the tomb and stayed only long enough to see it was empty.   Mary had been first to arrive and last to leave (as a result she gets more instruction and inspiration ... a lesson all by itself).   While she lingers at the empty tomb angels arrive to comfort her and inform her.   And then, to her surprise, The Lord, Himself, arrives.  Jesus tells her to go back to the disciples (again) and tell them that He was about to ascend to "My Father AND your Father, and MY God AND your God."    The aspect of the Gospel was to provide payment for the sins of man.   That is the fundamental teaching of the gospel to the lost.   The lost are sinners, can't pay the price for their sin and, hence, need Christ's death, burial and resurrection to pay for it.  However, Jesus stresses something important in this text.  He wants Mary to know and to tell the disciples that He is ascending to His Father AND their Father.  He wants them to know that now that He has paid the price for their sin they have a special relationship with the God of the universe.   He wants them to know that His Father is Their Father.   We not only have a payment for our sin, we now have a special relationship with God.  Paul writes to us that the relationship is so close and so genuine that the relationship enables to call Him, "Daddy" (Romans 8:15).  Our relationship with God is now both established and permanent.  We are saved from hell, but even more exciting, we are granted relationships and privileges in heaven with the Father.   Our salvation is from something and to or for something.   Rejoice in your relationship with God through faith in Christ. Take time to develop the relationship.