Is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament?

Yes. Next question…All joking aside, this is a complex question that we don’t have the time and space to fully dig into. However, I think it could be helpful to hit a few highlights of this conversation. To be clear, we are writing this under the truth from Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” With that in mind, hopefully these 3 points help shape the answer to this question, even though we already know the answer is “yes”.

Grace and Mercy are all over the Old Testament

There is a false perception that God in the OT was like an angry boss looking for people to fire. Here are a few examples of God’s grace and mercy on his people: 1) His patience with Israel’s disobedience in the desert. 2) God withholding punishment on the Israelites because of Moses’ prayers. 3) God using Balaam to bless his people instead of cursing them. 4) God using people like Rahab, and Ruth in the bloodline of Jesus despite their pasts. 5) God using flawed, messed up people like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, David, Solomon, etc…… One could argue there is just as much, if not more evidence of his compassion, grace, and mercy in the OT than the NT.

There’s judgement and hard truth all over the New Testament

There is a false perception that Jesus in the New Testament was just walking around full of rainbows, butterflies, and puppies. While, yes, Jesus came full of love, hope, and joy, John 1:14 is also clear that he came full of TRUTH as well. Jesus didn’t mince words, He carried the same attitude and mission into the New Testament. Here are just a few examples of Jesus dropping hard truth on his people that might sound like the kind of things you expect to hear from the Old Testament: Matthew 25:41, Mark 9:43, Luke 9:60, Revelation 3:16, Matthew 23:27.

The elephant in the room: Why’d God order the killing of entire people groups in the OT?

How much time you got? Below are a few resources to dig in a little deeper. If you look at this conversation through the lens of “God is good” the truth will become clearer. But in SHORT…. This conversation mainly comes up when talking about God commanding his people to completely destroy the Canaanites and Amalekites. Here are two key thoughts, but much more research should be done… 1) God gave those people groups hundreds, if not thousands of years to repent. Nineveh, in the book of Jonah is a good example. The Ninevites repent, and God withholds destruction. 2) God’s #1 mission was/is to save the world through Jesus. These people groups (due to their corruption of God’s people) continue to get in the way of this mission. Haman, in the book of Esther, is a descendent of a people group that God told the Israelites to destroy, but they didn’t listen. A couple hundred years later, Haman very nearly kills all of God’s people. God’s #1 goal was to save the world through Jesus. God’s enemy wasn’t a people group, it was sin. God was fighting a war against sin. He was seeking to destroy sin, not people. Easy example, chemo’s target is the cancer, but there’s collateral damage in that pursuit.

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