With the coming of Christ on the earth, much changed, most notably the covenant revelation. The New Covenant is based on faith and grace. The Old Covenant is based in Law.
But it is not God that has changed. Oh, we say it as a theological concept, “God is the same, yesterday, today and forever,” but the question is do we live that way?
Many do not. Growing up, I knew much of the main stories of the Old Testament but was fairly ignorant of the rest. My concept of a God of love did not kosher with the God of the Old Testament. The God of the New Testament seemed so much more forgiving, tolerant, etc. I ignored the Old Testament for a decade or more. Oh, I would have told you that the whole Bible was the word of God and inerrant and whatever, but thre were large portions I wasn’t even willing to read.
A few years ago I began to read more of the Old Testament, at the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Then I began reading it all the way through, chronologically. I realized some very important things.
First of all, there is a lot of connection between the principles of the Old and New Testaments. It is startling, actually. Many of Jesus’ words were direct quotes from Deuteronomy, Isaiah and the Psalms. The Old Testament was the Scripture of John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, John, and Paul. They used the Old Testament to explain the New Covenant, so we can see a lot of God’s heart there, too.
Second, the difference in the Covenants is infinite. The New Covenant is superior in every way to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is spiritual and eternal. The Old is fleshly and of this world, as divine as it was, and therefore by nature inferior.
Third, the goals of the covenants are very similar. An obedient, righteous people (the Church), living to inhabit a promised land (eternity) and fighting for a nation (the Kingdom).
Fourth, and most importantly to this discussion, God is exactly the same. He punishes the wicked, has grace on those who repent, he forgives, loves, promises, expects obedience, all in both Testaments.
God is unfairly painted as wrathful in the Old Testament. He is amazingly kind to a people who constantly go astray, so badly that even the Gentile nations thought they were sinful and mocked them! He is merciful and patient over years and years of rebellion, despite a written law and constant warnings by prophets, which they summarily reject or just outright kill. He gives them opportunity after opportunity to repent, to change. they might for a while, but mostly they flatly refuse. Even still, God restores them even after exile, all because of His love and promise.
God is unfairly painted as a tolerant, merciful God in the New Testament. Jesus mentions hell, the gnashing of teeth, possibly more than the entire Old Testament. John, Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, all clearly indicate that the unrighteous have no hope. Several times Paul lists people who live immoral lives as outside of the Kingdom. Revelation alone has a greater level of condemnation and punishment than any Old Testament prophecy. False teachers, the immoral, the unrighteous, are all considered the enemies of God and more than deserving of his wrath.
Romans says to not forget the “goodness and severity of God.”
Many picture God as this mean guy through centuries of revelation only to send Jesus and say, “Sorry! I was just playing the whole time! I don’t really send calamities as judgment upon the wicked or expect you to be righteous and without sin. Fooled you! Here’s my Son to kill so you can live the way you want and thank me for such a wonderful gift. Just watch Veggie Tales! You’ll be fine!”
If you read the whole scripture, God is not that way at all. He is not severe one day and good the next. He is infinitely severe and good all at the same time. Our unwillingness to fear him in his severity means we do not want to know him at all, much less love him.
As a side note: “Perfect love casts out fear” is often taken out of context. The apostle John is clearly stating (if you read the whole chapter) that if we LOVE others perfectly, we will have no fear of the judgment of God, making love the highest standard from God’s perspective. The opposite is also true, if we don’t LOVE others perfectly, we will have fear of the judgment of God. There are other scriptures in the NT that expect us to have a fear of God: “Fear him who can kill the body and send the soul to hell”, ” work our your salvation with fear and trembling”, to name a couple for you.
Peace.
“Just watch Veggie Tales”. Nice touch.