I didn’t grow up going to church or believing in God. However, long before becoming a Christian at the age of 30, I had picked up a few Bible stories along the way. I heard of God’s near-destruction of all humanity through a worldwide Flood, the judgment on Egypt through a series of devastating plagues, and all sorts of ancient wars. I also heard stories of a man sent from God named Jesus who was compassionate and loving and even gave His life to save souls. At the time, none of it made any sense.
When someone reads the Bible for the first time, he or she may be tempted to view God in the Old Testament as being angry and violent and the God in the New Testament, as revealed through the life of His Son, as kind and gentle.
However, a careful survey of both Testaments reveals that God never contradicts Himself.
Is the Old Testament God different from the New Testament God?
What was God like in the Old Testament? In the Old Testament, some may be tempted to downplay God’s mercy and grace, but then we read the story of King David, who committed adultery and murder. The law required that he be stoned to death, but because of David’s humble repentance, God had mercy on him, though David’s son died (2 Sam. 11–12). In the New Testament, some may be tempted to downplay God’s holiness and justice, which requires He punish evil. But then we read in the book of Acts the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who were both struck dead by God for lying (Acts 5).
These are just two examples, but they help to remind us that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
When we ponder God’s wrath, we need to recognize it from a spiritual perspective and in the context of God’s character, which is altogether perfect. God’s wrath is never vindictive but rather an expression of His holy intolerance for evil. His wrath is in perfect harmony with His justice and righteousness and holiness. The greatest picture of God’s love was expressed in His willingness to pour out His divine wrath on His Son as our substitute to spare us the eternal wrath our sins deserve. Romans 5:8 reminds us, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Is Jesus the same God of the Old Testament?
All of Scripture is an unfolding story of who God is. The more the story unfolds, the more we see God reveal Himself as He relates to people. There is no place in all of history where God is less than who He is at any other moment in time (after all, God is outside time altogether). This is why whenever we teach any passage of Scripture, we must be mindful of the full redemptive story as revealed in all of Scripture. To teach apart from this overarching understanding will inevitably lead to error. We must know who God is as He has revealed Himself all through Scripture before we can teach about what He has done in any one part of Scripture.
Bible study tip: We must know who God is as He has revealed Himself all through Scripture before we can teach about what He has done in any one part of Scripture.
God never changes. Just as we do not want to overemphasize God’s holy wrath and judgment to the exclusion of his other attributes, we do not want to overemphasize His love and mercy, either. Whenever we lean to one extreme or the other, by minimizing or emphasizing one aspect of God’s character over another, we distort our understanding of who God is—and when we do this, we commit idolatry: creating our own image of who God is.
If we focus too much on love and mercy, for example, we may neglect to teach others to nurture a healthy reverence for God’s burning holiness, which cannot tolerate sin and evil. When we do this, we fail to deliver the gospel. Few people will be attracted to the message of God’s love without first recognizing their need for God’s forgiveness.
The psalmist laments, “There is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps. 36:1).
No fear of God. No fear of consequences. No fear of sin, hell, or Satan. The tragic result is thinking they have no need of a Savior.
This excerpt is supplemental reading from Week 4 of RAHAB: Rediscovering the God Who Saves Me.
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Shadia is a passionate Bible teacher, award-winning author, and speaker who has a heart for seeing lives transformed by the power of God’s Word. She holds a master’s in biblical and theological studies from Western Seminary and is the author of several books and Bible studies, including TAMAR, HAGAR, LEGION, Worthy of Love and her newest study, RAHAB: Rediscovering the God Who Saves Me!Â