.
.
Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
When I say that God has changed, I am speaking very subjectively, for God has not changed, but we have. And because we have changed, our viewpoint of God has changed. If we don’t allow God to be different to us and for us than He was in the Old Testament, we stymie His ability to transform us. If we insist on relating to Him as if we were still under the law and covenant of the Old Testament, and that He is our Lord rather than our Father, we will never know the true God. The relationship between God and man has changed, making God different toward man.
Here is an example: Think about the ocean. You are in a small rowboat in the middle of the ocean, 2,000 miles from land, no other people in view. Storm clouds are developing, the waves are growing in size. Okay, got the picture? Now, how does that make you feel? How do you view the ocean? Is the ocean benign, or menacing? Is the ocean something to be embraced, or feared? Is this something to look forward to? Or to be avoided at all cost?
Now let’s say you’re a whale. In the same ocean. How would you view the same ocean? Is it menacing, or is it friendly? Is it your enemy? Is it your friend? More than your friend, it is necessary for your life! And what fear would you have as you swam about? None, because you’re the biggest, baddest dude in the ocean! It could be hurricane winds on the surface, but you’re peacefully gliding through serene water beneath the waves, completely at home.
Did the ocean change? It went from being at odds with you living a good life to being the actual supplier of that life. It went from being menacing to being comfortable and nourishing. This is how God has changed from the Old Testament to the New. He went from being detrimental to man in his fallen life, to being the father of man’s new life.
Romans 5:10 For it, when we were enemies (with God), we were reconciled to God by the death of His son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be made whole by His life (is us).
Here’s another example. Imagine a choir where a single beautiful voice sings a certain melody in B flat. But the rest of the voices are singing the same melody in C. To the choir, that single voice is disharmonious, grating to the ears, not pleasant at all. But now the rest of the choir changes to B flat, and suddenly that single voice sounds lovely, melodious, beautiful. The voice didn’t change, but everything around it did change, and so that single voice did change…..from being out of key to being in key.
II Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who has reconciled us (brought us into harmony) to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
In the Old Testament God was very imperious. Now He is very caring and attentive. Then He was very adamant. Now He is very tender and forgiving. Then He cared more about behavior. Now He cares more about heart. Then He cared more about you doing what He commanded. Now He cares more about you believing what He says Jesus Christ did for you. Then He cared more about right and wrong. Now He cares more about love. Then He tolerated the working of Satan. Now He has condemned the devil to hell.
Then, because of our fallen, sinful, selfish nature, which was contrary to the nature of God, we lived in God’s creation as in a dangerous place that always eventually brought about our demise. Now, because of our new, born-of-the-spirit righteous nature, which is actually the very life and presence of God, we live in God’s creation as sons of the Creator with the license to freely explore in our own unique individual style everything He has created and everything we might choose to do and become.
Then, that fallen nature could do no righteousness. Now, that new risen nature can do no unrighteousness. Oh yes, God has changed ….. because He changed us!
I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them (by experience), because they are spiritually discerned.
So God went from being foolish (contradictory, capricious, flighty, unreasonable, domineering) to being empowering, life-giving, lovingly instructional, and joyfully useful. Jesus Christ did that for mankind. Jesus Christ allowed for man to know a changed God…..or rather, to know God in a changed way!
God did not give us the Bible for His sake, but for ours. Therefore the Bible’s various writings are intended to address the specific situations and circumstances in which the people it was written to were involved at the time. Don’t ever think the whole Bible is addressed to you today…….to be interpreted and applied by you as is……for it is not! The circumstances have changed; by the work of Jesus Christ we have been changed, and therefore in the New Testament God has changed…..toward us!
John 1:17, 18 For the law (which deals with the flesh) was given by Moses; but grace and truth (which deals with the spirit) came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared Him (led Him out into plain view).
Sin has been paid for. Death has been defeated. The devil has been judged guilty of all the sins of the world. God can spiritually adopt mankind as His children. God has created us as something new…..we are a new creation. A man who is born of the spirit of Christ is not the same “animal” as all men of the Old Testament. And so God can reveal His true nature to His children ….. loving, forgiving, patient, wise, powerful, humorous, creative, understanding.
God was someone to be feared. Now He is to be approached and desired. He was someone who was a harsh taskmaster. Now He is a loving, tender Father. He was good if you were good, now He is good all the time. You see, God has changed because you are different. Because of Jesus Christ, his dying on the cross and his being raised from the dead and his being glorified by the right hand of the Father, because of these works of this one man, God has changed……toward us, for us, in us and concerning us.
II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all (these new) things are of God,
God never changes, but because man has changed, God has changed toward him. From man’s subjective point of view, God has changed. And this “new and improved” God is found in all His glorious perfection in the New Testament!
Never read the Old Testament thinking, “This is my God.” Oh, you will catch glimpses of your Father in the OT, but only that. You will also catch God displaying some of the attributes of the devil in the OT! Don’t be amazed when I say this, because it’s true!
I Samuel 16:14 But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
Isaiah 45:5a, 7 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
These are only 2 verses! There are many others! When Jesus said that the thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), he was separating out the work of the devil from the work of his Father. So anywhere in the OT where God seems to be stealing, killing or destroying, it is actually the work of the devil!
But it is only in the spirit of the glorified Christ that these attributes of the true God are clearly seen and understood (as well as the attributes of the devil).
II Corinthians 3:14 But their (Israel’s) minds were blinded; for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it (the tribe of Israel) shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
So the more you see Christ, the more the spirit of Christ is revealed within you, the more you become like Christ, then the more you will see and understand what I am saying in this study.
With the veil of Old Testament understanding over our minds, God really is a demanding, harsh, punishing, capricious God, and you better do what He says or He will punish you. When that veil comes off, by the spirit of Christ, it is simply astounding how much God changes!
________________________________________
..
The book, Give Me Christ … Revelations of the Glorified Christ is now available on Amazon.
You can subscribe at the upper right of this page by supplying your name and e-mail. You’ll be notified by e-mail whenever a new study is posted, every couple of weeks or so. Your e-mail is not shared with anyone else. After you subscribe, add our address to your contact list, so that the notifications are not sent to your junk folder.
Other studies that will help your understanding regarding this matter:
God’s Point of View
Dark Christian Doctrines
Dark Christian Doctrines 2
The 2 Systems of God
Do not preach the Old Testament.
Is God in Control?
