When You See Me, You’ve Seen the Father: Reconciling the Old Testament God with Jesus
In John 14:9, Jesus tells Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” This astounding statement emphasizes that Jesus is the perfect and complete revelation of God. Hebrews 1:3 further declares, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
For many, this truth brings comfort and clarity—God is like Jesus. Yet, it also raises a challenging question: How do we reconcile the God revealed in Jesus with the God of the Old Testament, who is sometimes depicted as commanding judgment, destruction, and even death?
Jesus and the Father: One in Nature and Purpose
To begin, it’s essential to affirm that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God (John 10:30), perfectly unified in nature and purpose. This means that the same God who is love (1 John 4:8) and who sent Jesus to save the world (John 3:16) is the God who acted in the Old Testament.
Jesus’ life and ministry provide the clearest picture of who God is. Colossians 1:15 tells us, “The Son is the image of the invisible God.” If we want to know God’s heart, we look to Jesus, who healed the sick, forgave sins, and welcomed the marginalized. But how does this align with the Old Testament’s accounts of judgment?
Understanding Old Testament Judgment Through the Lens of Jesus
1. The Purpose of Judgment
Old Testament judgment often served a redemptive purpose. For example, God’s actions in Egypt during the Exodus (Exodus 12:12-13) were intended to demonstrate His power, free the Israelites, and establish His covenant. Similarly, the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 6:21) was about establishing a holy nation in a land corrupted by idolatry and wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:4-5).
When we look at Jesus, we see that He, too, confronted sin and injustice. He rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy (Matthew 23:27-28), overturned tables in the temple (John 2:13-17), and warned of judgment for unrepentant cities (Matthew 11:20-24). Jesus’ actions reveal that God’s justice and love are not opposites; they are perfectly balanced. God judges sin because He is holy and because sin destroys the goodness He desires for His creation.
2. The Old Testament’s Forward-Looking Nature
The Old Testament often points forward to the ultimate resolution of sin and judgment: Jesus. For instance, the sacrificial system foreshadowed Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The destruction seen in the Old Testament prefigures the ultimate destruction of sin and evil through Christ’s victory on the cross (Colossians 2:15).
Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). This fulfillment includes revealing the full extent of God’s character—His holiness, justice, and mercy—through His life, death, and resurrection.
3. God’s Patience and Mercy in the Old Testament
It’s easy to focus on the moments of judgment and overlook God’s extraordinary patience and mercy throughout the Old Testament. In Genesis 15:16, God tells Abraham that judgment on the Amorites will not come until their sin has reached its full measure—demonstrating His patience in delaying judgment. Similarly, the story of Jonah reveals God’s willingness to relent from judgment if people repent (Jonah 3:10).
In Jesus, we see this same mercy and patience extended to sinners. He dined with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10-13), forgave an adulterous woman (John 8:11), and wept over Jerusalem’s unwillingness to turn to Him (Luke 19:41-42). The same God who waited patiently for repentance in the Old Testament offers forgiveness and restoration through Christ.
Reconciling Death and Destruction with the Cross
The cross is where God’s justice and mercy meet. While the Old Testament contains accounts of death and destruction as a consequence of sin, the New Testament shows that God Himself bore the ultimate judgment for sin. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, willingly suffered and died on the cross to take upon Himself the punishment humanity deserved (Isaiah 53:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The cross doesn’t negate the Old Testament; it fulfills it. The judgment seen in the Old Testament finds its resolution in the person of Jesus, who bore God’s wrath to offer humanity salvation. This ultimate act of love reveals the heart of the Father, who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
What Can We Learn?
1. God’s Character is Consistent
Jesus reveals that God’s character has always been one of love, justice, and mercy. The God who acted in the Old Testament is the same God who walked among us in Jesus Christ. Understanding this consistency helps us trust in His goodness, even when we don’t fully understand His actions.
2. God’s Ways Are Higher
As Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us, God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. We may not fully grasp why God allowed or commanded certain actions in the Old Testament, but we can trust that His purposes are ultimately good.
3. Jesus is the Lens Through Which We Interpret Scripture
Jesus is the fullest revelation of God’s character. By looking at Jesus, we can better understand the Old Testament. His life, death, and resurrection reveal the depth of God’s love and the lengths He will go to redeem His creation.
Conclusion: The God Who Is Love
When Jesus told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), He invited us to view God through the lens of His life and work. The God who commanded judgment in the Old Testament is the same God who bore judgment on the cross. This doesn’t diminish the seriousness of sin; it magnifies the extent of God’s love.
Through Jesus, we see a God who is holy, just, and merciful—a God who desires not death but life, not destruction but restoration. When we wrestle with the complexities of the Old Testament, let us remember that the God revealed in Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).