Is God the same in the Old Testament and the New Testament?

God & the TrinityIn theological review

The short answer

Yes, God is the same in both testaments. The Old Testament introduces him as merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, the New Testament shows his judgement as well as his joy over the lost, and Scripture says he does not change and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The fuller answer

Yes, God is the same in the Old Testament and the New. The claim that the Old Testament shows an angry God and the New Testament a kind one does not survive reading either testament whole. The God who judges in the New Testament also judges in the Old, and the God who shows mercy in the New Testament is introduced, by his own mouth, as merciful and gracious near the very start of the Old. The idea is popular in sermons and cartoons alike, and it usually rests on reading a few severe passages from one testament and a few tender ones from the other.

“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

Malachi 3:6 (BSB)

Malachi records God saying that he does not change, and that this unchanging character is the reason Jacob's descendants were not destroyed. His patience, not his severity, is what the verse is explaining. Earlier, on Mount Sinai, God had proclaimed his own name to Moses, and the first words of that self-description are about compassion, grace, and slowness to anger, before any word about not clearing the guilty.

Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

Exodus 34:6 (BSB)

Jesus tells the New Testament's most famous stories of mercy, and he tells them about his Father. In Luke 15 a shepherd rejoices over one found sheep, a woman over one found coin, and a father runs to a son who wasted everything. Jesus says heaven itself rejoices that way over one sinner who repents. That joy is presented not as a new mood in God but as a window into what God has always been like.

I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.

Luke 15:7 (BSB)

The New Testament states the continuity outright: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). What changes across the Bible is not God's character but the stage of his plan, from promise to fulfilment, from shadow to the reality the shadows pointed to. Reading the whole story, the severity and the kindness belong to one God throughout, and both testaments contain both, in the same proportions, for the same reasons. The two testaments are one book with one Author behind its many human authors, and its God meets the reader with the same face from Genesis to Revelation.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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What is God like?God is spirit, eternal, unchanging, all powerful, holy, just, good, and true. And he is love. Scripture gives his character in his own words and deeds rather than in our guesses: he is the I AM who always is, the Maker who never tires, and the Father who so loved the world that he gave his Son.Does God change his mind?God does not change his mind in the human sense of learning, erring, or reversing his promises. Scripture says he does not lie or change his mind and that he does not change at all, while also showing his unchanging character responding with mercy when people repent and judgement when they harden, exactly as he always said he would.Is Jesus God?Yes. The New Testament calls Jesus God in plain words, shows him doing what only God does, and records him receiving the worship that belongs to God alone. That is why the church at Nicaea confessed him as very God of very God, of one substance with the Father, and why Chalcedon confessed him as truly God and truly man in one person.What does 'God is love' actually mean?God is love means love is God's very nature, not just one of his moods or actions. Scripture defines that love by the cross: God sent his Son as the sacrifice for our sins and Christ died for us while we were still sinners.Bible Character: MosesThe prophet who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law on Mount Sinai, and brought the people to the edge of Canaan.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.On the map: SinaiSinai is the wilderness and mountain region south of Canaan where Israel camped after leaving Egypt. God gives the law here and Moses numbers the people here.Lesson: The big story of the BibleThe Bible is one story, not sixty-six separate ones. Walk the whole arc once, from creation to new creation, and every book you open will have a place to sit.