I sometimes encounter an assumption, both among critics of Christianity and among Christians themselves, that the God of the Old Testament is fundamentally different from the God revealed by Jesus. Critics may point to the Old Testament’s violence and judgment as evidence that Christianity’s God is morally problematic, while some Christians effectively respond by saying that Jesus gives us a better picture of God: the Old Testament God is angry and judgmental, but Jesus reveals a God of love, mercy and grace. Both approaches can therefore share a surprisingly similar premise: Jesus reveals a significantly different God from the one portrayed in the Old Testament.
But what happens if we actually test that assumption by restricting our Theology Proper to the four Gospels? Surprisingly, we still encounter the awesome Creator, the holy God, the loving Father, the merciful God, the generous provider, the righteous judge and the sovereign King. The Father revealed by the Son is not merely loving and forgiving; he also judges evil and holds people accountable. He is the God who welcomes the prodigal and the God who judges the nations. In other words, even if we temporarily set aside the Old Testament, Paul, and the rest of the New Testament, the supposed contrast between the “just God of the Old Testament” and the “merciful God of Jesus” doesn’t survive. Jesus himself presents God’s mercy and justice as belonging together.
But this raises a question for Christians as well. We rightly confess that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and that whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father. Yet when we do Theology Proper, we don’t always make Jesus foundational. We often begin with philosophical categories, abstract divine attributes, or a broad synthesis of biblical material, and only then ask what Jesus tells us about God. What if we reversed the order? What if we began by asking: What does Jesus reveal about God? This wouldn’t mean ignoring the Old Testament or the rest of Scripture. It would mean allowing the one we confess to be the definitive revelation of God to become the Christological centre from which we understand everything else.
Perhaps the answer to both the critic and the Christian isn’t to choose between “the God of the Old Testament” and “the God of Jesus,” but to let Jesus show us who the God of Israel truly is. Jesus doesn’t reveal a different God; he reveals the God of Israel decisively and personally. And if Jesus really is the image of the invisible God, perhaps Theology Proper should begin not simply with the question “What can we say about God?”, but “What does Jesus reveal about the God we worship?”
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