To Live is Christ — secure in the One who never changes

I’ve heard people say that the God of the Old Testament is much sterner than the God of the New Testament. They say the old covenant was about strong demands and harsh laws, and a God who was intolerant and loved war. But the New Testament is about Jesus Christ who loves everyone.

After decades of reading the Bible through each year, I’ve found that God does not change. He even says He is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) How can perfection be anything more or less or different? He is God and does not change.

Sometimes people change, but even then, God is the one who works changes in the lives of His people. We are like the leopard who cannot change his spots (Jeremiah 13:23) and stuck in our sin without divine intervention. I know this is true because I tried to change and could not. Then, when He came into my life, I noticed right away that I had different thoughts. Sin suddenly became a serious matter and I cared if I pleased God or not. I also cared more about others.

As for God being less loving in the Old Testament, when I read it, I see many instances where God shows mercy. For instance, Moses killed a man. God could have struck him down, but instead worked in his life and made a leader out of him. David committed adultery and killed the woman’s husband. God hates sin and could have removed David from his throne, even from this earth. Instead, He worked in his life and David became Israel’s most beloved king.

When the entire nation of Israel abandoned worship of the one true God, He could have wiped them out. Some were destroyed, yet God had mercy on these people. Through one of His prophets, He made wonderful promises to them:

Israel, I, the Lord, will lure you into the desert and speak gently to you. I will return your vineyards, and then Trouble Valley will become Hopeful Valley. You will say “Yes” to me as you did in your youth, when leaving Egypt. I promise that from that day on, you will call me your husband instead of your master. I will no longer even let you mention the names of those pagan gods that you called “Master.” And I will agree to let you live in peace—you will no longer be attacked by wild animals and birds or by weapons of war. I will accept you as my wife forever, and instead of a bride price I will give you justice, fairness, love, kindness, and faithfulness. Then you will truly know who I am. I will command the sky to send rain on the earth, and it will produce grain, grapes, and olives in Jezreel Valley. I will scatter the seeds and show mercy to Lo-Ruhamah. I will say to Lo-Ammi, “You are my people,” and they will answer, “You are our God.” (Hosea 2:14–23, CEV)

A verse in the New Testament says that through His kindness God brings people to repentance. Surely this is what He describes in this wonderful passage. He is wooing them as a man woos a woman, drawing them back to love Him and be His people. He does not do it with a big club, but with kindness, faithfulness, and mercy.

Mercy is giving to others what they do not deserve. God is merciful. The New Testament says that the wages of sin is death. Is that not harsh and a strong demand? Yet the same verse also says, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

The sin-hating God of the Old Testament still hates sin in the New Testament. The difference is that the Messiah promised and foretold in the old covenant arrives in the new, bringing with Him the hope and good news of forgiveness and change. The people who had abandoned God would be able to return to Him. He offered them new life and a new relationship with Him, one in which He would change their lives. No longer would they be lured away by pagan idols and be slaves of sin. Instead, God enables them, and all who will say yes, to joyfully proclaim, “You are my God.”

No, God has not changed. However, because of His mercy, I have changed. He reveals His grace to me from Genesis to Revelation, and throughout recorded history. I know that because His mercy endures forever, I can depend on Him from now into eternity.