Unchanging God

"I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny [justice to] the foreigner. They do not fear Me," says the Lord of Hosts. "Because I, Yahweh, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.” – Malachi 3:5-6 HCSB

There has been a very popular fallacy propagated among American Christians over the last half of a century. It purports that the God of the Old Testament was somehow intrinsically different from the God of the New Testament. The idea seems to be that somehow over the four hundred year inter-testamental “silence” God had a chance to reevaluate His methods, came to the conclusion that He was being barbaric and decided to dress up His image a bit.

This has never been the historical doctrine of the church. The truth of the matter is that God is immutable, which is a fancy way of saying He cannot change his fundamental traits.

It was about faith in the Old Testament when Abraham followed God to an unknown land[1] and it remains about faith to this day.[2]

It was only God’s grace that allowed the people of Israel to make restitution with bulls He didn’t need[3], and it is still grace that allows us to be saved by simply trusting Christ’s finished work on the cross.[4]

The people of Israel could not live the holy life in the Old Testament[5], and we too still struggle with our sin natures[6], even though we are inhabited by the Holy Spirit[7], something the Old Testament patriarchs could only dream of.[8]

Sacrifice and shed blood was necessary in the Old Testament[9] and the same need drove our Savior to the cross in the New.[10]

God grew angry at sinful rebellion in the Old Testament[11] and He is just as frustrated with human stupidity in the New.[12] That anger is turned away not only by Christ[13], but by faith in Christ.[14] Though Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for all, it is only effective for those who believe. Not everyone will be saved.[15]

God’s purpose has always been that we circumcise our hearts.[16] It’s never been about our works elevating us into Elohim’s good graces. Nothing fundamental changed between the Old Testament and the New because nothing fundamental changed about God.

Every human throughout history has been saved the same way. They recognized their sinfulness, their dependence upon God and by God’s grace their faith saved them. The main difference was that the Old Testament saints believed in a Messiah to come, and we in a Messiah that came. History changed, we changed – God did not.

[1] Hebrews 11:8
[2] Hebrews 11:6
[3] Psalm 50:7-13
[4] Romans 3:22; 5:2, 15-21; 11:5; Ephesians 1:5; 2:8-10; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:7
[5] Romans 9:31; Galatians 2:16
[6] Romans 7:18-25
[7] 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
[8] Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 14:5-6, 19; 15:14-15; 1 Samuel 16:13-14; Psalm 51:11
[9] Genesis 4:4; large parts of Exodus and most of Leviticus
[10] John 3:16
[11] Deuteronomy 9:7; Isaiah 13:9
[12] Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; Revelation 14:10, 19
[13] Luke 2:11, 14; Romans 5:9; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Ephesians 2:14, 17; Colossians 1:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:10
[14] John 3:14-18; Romans 3:25; 5:1
[15] Matthew 7:13-14
[16] Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4