The God of the Old Testament and the Father of Jesus

When we come into church on Sunday morning, do we tend to bring with us only the New Testament and think of God as merely the father of Jesus Christ? I hear people all the time in the context of church say to me, “Well, I believe in the God of the New Testament, it’s the God of the Old Testament that I can’t stomach.” But do you find that this junction between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament in the New Testament? Do you find it in the lips of Jesus? The one whom Jesus calls Father is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Joseph, the God of David, the God of Jeremiah, the God of Ezekiel, the God of Nehemiah, the God of Malachi, the God of John the Baptist, the God of Jesus, the God of Paul, the God of Peter. It’s the same God who remains the same forever.

And I think one of the reasons why we have a crisis in our worship and in the life of the church is the fact that we have been dreadfully negligent of mastering the history of God’s revelation through the centuries that are contained within the Old Testament. I honestly don’t know how we can ever understand Jesus if we don’t first master the Old Testament. So, we go back here now to understand God’s character, God’s self-revelation, understanding that He has a name, that He is personal, that He has a history.

The New Testament occurs in the fullness of time, in the Father’s appointed time. It is the Father who sends the Son into the world. And it is the Son’s mission to do all that the Father commissions Him to do. It is His good pleasure to fulfill the mandate of the Father. Well, who is this Father? He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.