Many people contrast the portrayal of God in the New Testament with that of God in the Old Testament and conclude that they were two different deities. They feel that the God portrayed in the Old Testament was harsh, cruel, judgmental and quick to anger, whereas the God of the New Testament is fatherly, loving, tender and merciful. This is actually a false dichotomy. Ironically, it is in the very act which we rightly see as the greatest act of mercy—Jesus hanging on the cross and bleeding for our sins—that we see the same Old Testament holiness, severity and judgment. Christ’s self-sacrifice was the result of both unrelenting judgment and the tenderest compassion: God’s holiness and justice required that the full penalty due humanity for their sins be satisfied, and He gave up His own Son compassionately to accomplish that. Mercy and justice are both seen on Calvary’s cross, just as they are both seen in the Old Testament. God did not change between Malachi and Matthew.

One day that stern holiness of God will break out against sin forever. It will be the unleashing of a righteous hostility toward evil that will never end—like a massive flash fire that suddenly breaks out and whose fury never ceases. Christ’s shed blood on the cross, however, is a complete satisfaction and appeasement of that righteous anger toward sin. When God sees that blood applied to a believer in Jesus, He has no wrath whatsoever toward that person: “Whoever believes in him [Jesus Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18, ESV).

The God revealed in the Old Testament is exactly the same God revealed in the New: loving and merciful and kind, yet also fearful and terrifying in His wrath. He is not to be trifled with. Don’t make light of Jesus’ death and suffering on the cross. If you reject it, you have nothing to look forward to but an eternity of suffering God’s holiness breaking out against you in hell. Repent and come to Christ now!