What God Has To Say About Himself.

In the second century there was a religious teacher by the name of Marcion of Sinope. He started a religious movement that became known as Marcionism. Marcion was declared a heretic because he held to many errant views, but he is primarily known for his belief that the Old Testament Scriptures were not authoritative for a Christian. He denied that the God of the Old Testament was the same God presented in the New Testament. For Marcion, Jesus was the Son of the God of the New Testament but not the Son of the deity described in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

And while some 18 centuries have passed since his time, there are still many people today that pretty much believe the same thing. They have separated the God of the Old Testament from the God that Jesus reveals in the New Testament. This is made known every time someone talks about the God of the O.T. who destroys His enemies, and sends down wrath and punishment upon the people. Even the God who will send much of His creation to an eternal Hell! One does not have to read very far into the O.T. to find this God who urges His people to wipe out every man woman and child, even the animals. For example 1 Sam. 15:2-3 "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.  Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."

So it is no wonder that when Jesus appears on the scene, and talks about loving your enemies, doing good to those who spitefully use you, etc. it appears that Jesus is talking about a different Heavenly Father than the one the O.T. seems to reveal Who would not do the same to His enemies. So then what is going on here? Why the difference?

The truth is that the Father God that Jesus reveals IS the God of Old Testament. The discrepancy comes from the God depicted in the Old Testament writings being a distorted record told by a people who had an incomplete understanding of this God that was being revealed to them piece by piece throughout history. Each time God reveals a new Name to be called, the Children of Israel get another revelation of a Character of His Nature. But each Name was an incomplete understanding of who God is in the fullness of Himself. In the meantime, God lets His people tell the story. 

Does that mean that the Biblical account is not inspired Scripture? Of course not. It is a record of the nation of Israel being led out from among other nations to be separated unto God, to be blessed, and a blessing to the other nations. It is the process of this nation of Israel acting out according to the incomplete knowledge of God as they were coming to know Him. They also were acting out in a manner that was contrary to the full True Nature of God who is Love. It is also a record of the Israelite's failure to obey the purpose God for which He had called them.

 So do we do away with the O.T. because they got it wrong some of the time as Marcion wanted to do? No, because each experience of successes and failures are part of the nation's process along the journey of coming to know God. It would be no different than getting rid of a record of your understanding and experiences of coming to know God because you got some of it wrong, and dare I say we all STILL are getting some of it wrong! The question isn't can we find it in the Bible, the question is can we find it in Jesus.

If you want to know about the True Nature of the God of the Old Testament, the sure fire way to do that is to look at Jesus!  Jesus is the revelation of what God has to say about Himself.  Phil 2:9-11 "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:"  Meaning that the nature of Jesus is the fullness of All of the Names of God revealed in the O.T. in bodily form!... "in that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

 Jesus is the revelation of what God has to say about Himself. In Colossians 2:9 "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" Colossians 1:5 Amp.  "He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation."

In the Gospel of Luke 24:16-17 Jesus is talking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, and he says this: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Don't you wish that more was recorded about that conversation? But it is not hidden from you. All that is needed is to read the Old Testament with the realization that God and the Son are ONE, and if you can't see Jesus doing the things the Scriptures depict God as doing,  you can then realize the Children of Israel did not know the God revealed in Jesus like you do. John 14:9 "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" 

There are many who say that Jesus never claimed to be God in the Gospels, but that is simply not true. Jesus made it very clear to the religious leaders of His day exactly who He claimed to be, and they crucified Him for it! 

God is NOT schizophrenic. He is not vengeful in the O.T. and loving in the New Testament.  God does not change. God is not malleable. God IS LOVE, all of the time!

In fact, as I learned from listening to Brian Zhand, pastor of Word of Life church in St. Joseph MO., "God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus. We have not always known this, but now we do!"

Just remember: Jesus Is The Revelation Of What God Has To Say About Himself! Amen.