Is God Different in the Old and New Testaments?
Is God Different in the Old and New Testaments?
Overview
Read the Old Testament and you'll find battles, judgment, and whole nations falling. Then you meet Jesus, eating with sinners and forgiving the worst people in the room. It can feel like two different Gods. In this episode, Andre Samson asks Pastor Brad Kirby straight out: is there a difference? Brad's answer is no. The difference isn't in God. It's in the moment you're looking at. Brad walks through how Jesus stepped into a window of mercy, why the God of the Old Testament is kinder than we remember, and why Jesus is more serious about sin than we tend to think. So which picture of God have you been carrying around?
Three Takeaways
The difference is in the moment, not in God.
Picture a parent with a toddler who spills food: patient, gentle, quick to forgive. Now picture that same parent with a 16-year-old doing the same thing, and you'd see someone firmer. Same parent, different moment, and the same is true when you read one testament without the other.
Jesus opened a window of mercy.
In Luke 4, Jesus read from Isaiah 61 about good news for the poor and freedom for the captives, then stopped right before the lines about judgment. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus still cares about justice, but He came into a moment of invitation, when sinners can come and be saved.
Mercy and judgment run through both testaments.
We tend to have a kind of biblical amnesia, remembering only the harsh parts of the Old Testament and only the gentle parts of Jesus. But the Old Testament calls God merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, and Jesus warned about the one who can destroy soul and body in hell. He's the same God the whole way through, and the only way to see Him clearly is to read the whole story.
Scripture in This Episode
Luke 4:18-21
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Isaiah 61:1-2
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
John 12:47
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
Revelation 19:11
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Exodus 34:6-7
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
Ezekiel 18:23
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?
Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Talk About It
Before this episode, which picture of God did you lean toward: the harsh God of the Old Testament or the gentle Jesus of the New? Where do you think that picture came from?
Brad compares God to a parent in different seasons. Where have you seen someone stay the same person but respond differently in different moments?
Which surprised you more: the mercy in the Old Testament or how seriously Jesus talks about judgment? Why?
Your Next Step
This is the window of mercy, and the invitation is open. This week, try reading Exodus 34:6-7 and Luke 4:16-21 side by side, and ask what each one shows you about who God is.
Take it with you
Download the printable one-pager below.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.*
