I'm a seminary professor teaching New Testament theology, and this verse is foundational for understanding how Christians relate to the Old Testament. Jesus isn't a new God. He's the actual reflection of God's character, the image of God's substance. That means when we read about God's actions in the Old Testament, we're reading about the character of the God revealed fully in Jesus.
This resolves a lot of contradictions for students. They see God commanding genocide in the Old Testament and wonder if that's the real God or if Jesus changed everything. But if Jesus reveals God's true character, then we read those violent passages through the lens of understanding that God's final word and fullest revelation is in Jesus's love, sacrifice, and radical inclusion.
It doesn't mean the Old Testament is wrong or irrelevant. It means we understand it in light of Jesus's revelation. God was always the God of Jesus, working toward redemption and justice, but the fullest expression of divine character comes in Jesus. That framework helps students integrate scripture rather than seeing it as contradictory or evolving.
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