OT God NT God
Old Testament God
New Testament God
To many, God appears very different in the Old Testament from the way He is portrayed in the New Testament. This can be a source of doubt for some. It causes a tension that can lead others to eschew the “God is love and the Gospel is good news” message of grace found in the New Testament. It can appear that God is different, or that He changed after the cross, or simply that the Bible isn’t credible and has grave conflicts.
The Old and New Testaments are different.
The Old Testament, or Covenant, was exclusive to the Hebrew people, the ethnic Jews. Gentiles were never included in that covenant as we see in Ephesians 2:11–12 (NASB 2020) “11 Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
The Old Testament, or Covenant, was bilateral. God had a part to keep, and the Hebrew people had a part to keep. The covenant was based on a set of Laws, which f they were kept, resulted in the people being blessed and if broken, resulted in the people being cursed. It was literally life and death as we read in Deuteronomy 30:19–20 (NASB 2020) “19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Notice here that God told them that both results were available to them and then also counseled them which one to choose. God declared that if they would live by His Laws they would live, as we see in Ezekiel 20:11 (NASB 2020) “I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them.”
One thing Father was doing in the Old Testament then, is showing the natural consequences of rejecting God’s plan of salvation through the righteousness of faith. (see Romans 4:13) Doing that is choosing death.
If you read on in Ezekiel 20, you find God explaining Himself further. Ezekiel 20:13 (NASB 2020) “But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; and they greatly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them.” Israel (the Hebrew people) rejected Him, they rebelled against His Laws and thus broke the terms of the covenant. This resulted in wrath. Texts such as this serve as a shadow, picture, or example, of the natural consequences of unbelief.
Unbelief is disobedience. The two terms are tightly linked. In fact, apeitheō <Strong’s G544> is translated both ways. Unbelief rejects God’s offer of life and therefore results in death.
Another thing Father shows in the Old Testament is that He protects His people. While this is perhaps the most famous, there are examples like this throughout the Old Testament
Numbers 22:9–12 (NASB 2020)
9 Then God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?”
10 Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent word to me:
11 ‘Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt, and they cover the surface of the land; now come, curse them for me; perhaps I will be able to fight against them and drive them out.’ ”
12 But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
Numbers 23:11 (NASB 2020) “Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to put a curse on my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!”
In the Old Testament we also find Father protecting the line of Christ, which the enemy kept trying to destroy. Perhaps the earliest case of this is found in Genesis 3:15 (NASB 2020) “And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”
The line of David, from whom Christ would come, was protected at every turn. Most famously in the battle between David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:50–51 (NASB 2020) “50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with the sling and the stone: he struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in David’s hand. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and finished him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.”
In addition to all this, Father often foreshadowed the Gospel in various events and the lives of people. One only need recall the rescue of Noah and his family from the judgement of the flood to see the parallels with Jesus rescuing all of us from the final judgement. Genesis 7:15–16 (NASB 2020) “15 So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed the door behind him.”
Similarly, God’s provision of food for Israel and his 12 sons at the hand of Joseph during the great famine shows His care for and rescue of those who are His. Genesis 45:5–7 (NASB 2020) “5 Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to save lives. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 So God sent me ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
The Exodus typifies the finished work of Christ in rescuing the Hebrew people from slavery and completely destroying their enemies in the depths of the Red Sea. Exodus 15:2–4 (NASB 2020) “2 “The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. 3 “The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name. 4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.”
This is the overarching message of the Old Testament. Before the cross of Christ, before the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world and reconciled the world to God,
the consequence of foolishly trying to live by our own power is made clear
the promise and plan of God to rescue all who would put their trust in Him is pictured over and over, and
the love and protection Father provides for His own is demonstrated.
We are told that God spoke in many ways in the Old Testament, but that now He has finally spoken in one way. He has spoken through Jesus Christ as we read in Hebrews 1:1–3 (NASB 2020) “1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
In the New Testament
We see the fulfillment of the promises and prophesies as we read in Matthew 5:17 (NASB 2020) “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.”
We see that those who trust in Jesus Christ as their only hope of righteousness are the beneficiaries of His grace. John 20: 31 (NASB 2020) tells us that “…by believing you may have life in His name.”
We see that disobedience and unbelief are inexorably linked and that each has its natural consequence as we see in these three passages.
John 3:36 (NASB 2020) “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 6:28–29 (NASB 2020) “28 Therefore they said to Him, “What are we to do, so that we may accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Romans 6:23 (NASB 2020) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We see that Jesus Christ is the gospel.
Acts 5:42 (NASB 2020) “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news [Gospel] of Jesus as the Christ.”
We see that Jesus Christ is the promised One in the line of Abraham and David. This is made clear in the genealogies in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. Hebrews 7:14 (NASB 2020) points it out as well in saying, “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah.”
Jesus Christ is the protection for God’s children, keeping them from the evil one as we read in these passages.
John 17:13–15 (NASB 2020)
13 “But now I am coming to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one.
1 John 5:18 (NASB 2020) “We know that no one who has been born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
John 10:11 (NASB 2020)
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
1 Peter 2:24–25 (NASB 2020)
24and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.
25For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
In Hebrews 13:8 (NASB 2020) we learn that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same. The covenantal agreement between God and the Hebrew people changed. Gentiles have been brought into the New Covenant. Nevertheless, God remains the same. Trusting Him is and has always been the only way to life. He is the creator and giver of life, so separation from Him is separation from life. That fact is played out repeatedly throughout the Bible so that everyone who cares to look can see it. That is why before the cross things look different than they do after the cross.
