"The God of the Old Testament"

"The God of the Old Testament”

I shudder when I hear this phrase. I shudder because it is usually accompanied by, "Well, let's not forget the God of the Old Testament, He was a God of wrath, He laid waste to nations. He is a God not to be messed with." I

I shudder because I know I have used the phrase in this very same way. The way which says, "Let's not get too carried away with this Grace thing, let's remember our boundaries, we are just worms after all."

I have a friend whose father loves to use this term. She has grown up hearing it. When she has fallen short of his expectations he has used many verses in a very damning way. One day when a group of us were discussing the love offered to us on the cross she quietly asked, "Well, what about the God of the Old Testament?" I knew instantly what she was asking. She wanted to know how the grace that is ours in Christ Jesus can be melded together with the stories of the Old Testament. Is the grace of Jesus Christ, the redemption and freedom of the cross something new that God came up with in between Malachi and Mathew? Was Jesus simply God changing His tactics and moving to Plan B?


Oh no, He was not!

For many of us, the Old Testament is little more than a Sunday School lesson, a collection of stories told with the help of flannel graph characters. We know the stories but we have not studied the words, the words of our most Holy and Righteous God. We often use the Old Testament to reinforce our idea that our salvation has something to do with us, our behavior, our deeds. It does not, it is from Him alone. Listen to some of the things He says to His people, the rebellious nation of Israel.

In Jeremiah 33, after pronouncing His judgment on them for their sins He goes on to say, "Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to you, I will heal my people and let them enjoy abundant peace and security (vs 6). I will cleanse them from all the sins they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me (vs8). I will rejoice in doing them good (32:41). As I read these passages, I am struck with the fact God offers forgiveness and restoration even when the people of Israel are not seeking it. Forgiveness and healing are actions done to them, for them, not things they are seeking.

We see this again in Isaiah. God has poured out His wrath on His people, but again He has done it for the sake of reconciliation, not destruction. In Chapter 52 He says to them "Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger." He then goes on for most of the chapter explaining the consequence of their sin and just when you think He is really going to let them have it He declares, "This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God who defends his people, "See I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger, from that cup, the goblet of my wrath you will NEVER drink again." Isn't that phenomenal! He forgives, He restores, He takes the cup out of their hands. Please take note they do not lay the cup down, they do not surrender the cup over to Him, He takes it out of their hand! What a God!

Oh, yes, what a God, the very same God who brought Salvation at the cross. Jesus Christ was the plan all along. The Old Testament cries out "A Savior is coming." As He says in Jeremiah upon promising restoration to His people, "The days are coming declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah, in those days and at that time I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line, he will do what is just and right in the land (Jer 33:15)." He is our Jesus!

He is the God of the Old Testament, He is the God of the New Testament, He is the God of all. In Isaiah he tells them, "You will never again drink from the cup of my wrath (Isa 51:22)," and in Romans 5 He tells us because we have been justified by the blood of Christ we also are saved from His wrath. In the light of such mercy how can we not bow down and praise Him.

Knowing this makes the words of Isaiah real to me. He says, "I delight greatly in the LORD, my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

Who is the God of the Old Testament? He is my bridegroom and He has dressed me to be His bride.

Again, and again, Oh, to live like it!