Real Hope: Paradoxes of GodSample

Which God? Old or New Testament?

If God is unchanging, why is He so different in the Old and New Testaments? The Old Testament presents a just and holy God, eager to liberally dole out large-scale judgment on entire nations. Floods, super-heated fires (Sodom and Gomorrah), and consecutive plagues and natural disasters. Closer to home, He required Israel to engage with intricate laws and sacrificial observances designed to provide only temporary means of atonement for sin. Those rejecting these laws and statutes often appeared to become object lessons of God’s wrath. (Uzzah perishing after merely touching the toppling Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6:1–7.)

Then in the New Testament, we see Jesus declaring the Father’s love, compassion, and forgiveness. Jesus speaks of God as a loving Father who desires a personal relationship with His children. Jesus’ death and resurrection provide a permanent means of atonement for sin and reconciliation between God and humanity.

The God of the Old and New Testaments is the same God. His character is consistent, and His actions are always in keeping with His nature. In the Old Testament, God invites His people to enter a relationship with Him. The Old Testament constantly foretells Jesus’ arrival as God’s mechanism for humanity’s eternal reconciliation to Himself. The New Testament is a record of how God makes good on that promise. And yes, His judgment is sure too.

Both the Old and New Testaments remind us that without judgment there can be no deliverance. In a holistic reading of the scriptures, we see a God who planned for, then delivered on, His promise to save us from ourselves. Praise God. He IS unchanging.

Written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES