Introduction: Wrestling with Two Visions of God
Christians often struggle to reconcile the Old Testament portrayal of God with the New Testament revelation in Christ. The Old Testament frequently depicts God through the lens of ancient Israel’s culture – sometimes as a warrior deity sanctioning tribal wars or a lawgiver enforcing strict rituals. In contrast, the apostolic witness of the New Testament paints a strikingly different picture: a God of universal love and grace who reaches out to all humanity through Jesus Christ. This tension raises a provocative question: Must we accept Israel’s old paradigm of an ethnocentric, legalistic God as fully accurate, or has God’s true character been clarified and redefined by the core apostolic testimony found in Luke–Acts and Paul’s writings? In this article, we will argue the latter – that the Luke–Acts narrative and the letters of Paul provide the clearest window into God’s intentions, one that surpasses and even corrects the older portrayals. Scripture itself gives us warrant for this bold claim. As the Apostle Paul taught, God’s plan, long hidden in ages past, “has been sent to the Gentiles” – to all nations – and “they will listen!” (Acts 28:28). In other words, through Christ’s apostles God has thrown open the door of mercy to the whole world, shattering the confines of the old worldview.
The New Testament writers themselves did not shy away from vigorously challenging the status quo. Luke–Acts and Paul present a forceful critique of any theology that would limit God’s grace to a single ethnicity or bind believers under the yoke of the old Law. We seek to illuminate how the Gospel radically transforms our understanding of God. Luke–Acts and Paul together constitute the core apostolic witness of the Christian faith, and they unapologetically draw a contrast between the new reality in Christ and the old religious paradigm that preceded it. By exploring that contrast – Matthew’s traditionally Jewish-Christian perspective vs. Luke’s and Paul’s universal, grace-centered Gospel – we can appreciate why the apostolic testimony must guide our view of who God truly is.
The Old Paradigm: Ethnocentrism and Legalism in Scripture
To understand the breakthrough of the New Testament, we first must grasp the “old paradigm” that dominated much of the Old Testament and even echoes in parts of the New. This old paradigm is characterized by two key features: ethnocentrism (a focus on Israel’s special status above other nations) and legalism (a focus on strict adherence to the Mosaic Law as the path to righteousness). In the Old Testament, God’s identity was tightly intertwined with Israel’s national story. God is often portrayed as a tribal protector – fighting Israel’s battles, favoring Israel against her enemies, and commanding Israel to uphold a detailed law code to remain in His favor. For example, the Israelites believed God sanctioned and even participated in their wars; victory or defeat was seen as a direct sign of divine favor or displeasure (ivpress.comivpress.com). Many texts describe God as ordering the conquest of Canaan and the defeat of Israel’s foes. Such depictions, however, reflect ancient cultural assumptions about gods and war. Scholars note that when Israel claims “God wills, ordains, sanctions, or otherwise blesses war,” this likely represents a “culturally conditioned explanation” of events – the people’s attempt to interpret their history through the only framework they knew (ivpress.comivpress.com). In other words, the Old Testament writers sometimes attributed violence to God in ways that do not fully capture His ultimate character. Just as ancient Israelites assumed many things we no longer hold (a flat earth, the necessity of animal sacrifice, the acceptability of slavery), they also assumed “God is a warrior” on their behalf – an idea that we are not required to affirm uncritically as Christians (ivpress.com). The old covenant worldview was a partial shadow of the truth, awaiting a greater revelation.
Ethnocentrism in the old paradigm meant that Israel understood itself as God’s chosen people – which, in a sense, was true (God did elect Israel for a purpose) – but this often devolved into viewing Gentiles as outsiders to God’s love. The Law reinforced a separation: Israelites had dietary laws, purity codes, and rituals that set them apart from other nations. God’s holiness was seen as tied to Israel’s distinct identity and strict obedience. The result was that mercy and inclusion took a backseat to boundary-keeping. The legalism of the old paradigm is epitomized by the Torah’s detailed commandments. Righteousness was measured by law-keeping, and failure brought curses. While the Law of Moses had gracious purposes (to teach justice, humility, and the need for atonement), over time many in Israel came to believe that only by meticulous observance of commandments could one please God. This mindset carried into the New Testament era among groups like the Pharisees and other legalists whom Jesus and Paul would later confront.
Crucially, elements of this old paradigm are evident even in one of the Gospels – the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew’s Gospel is widely recognized as the most “Jewish” of the four Gospels. (sephizo.com). It was likely written for a community of Jewish Christians and emphasizes continuity with Jewish law and tradition. Matthew quotes the Old Testament frequently and portrays Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and the new Moses, giving a law from a mountain (the Sermon on the Mount). Notably, Jesus’ saying according to Matthew reflects an initial ethnocentrism. For instance, when Jesus sends out the Twelve disciples during His earthly ministry, Matthew records Him strictly limiting their mission to Israel: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:5–6). And when a Canaanite (Gentile) woman begged Jesus for her daughter’s healing, Matthew relates that Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24) (biblehub.combiblehub.com). Such statements align with the old covenant understanding that the Messiah’s work was first and foremost for Israel. Matthew’s Jesus eventually does show mercy to Gentiles (He healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter after testing her faith) and the Gospel ends with the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Yet the overall tenor of Matthew’s account is deeply rooted in a Jewish worldview, sometimes to the point of upholding the Law’s demands in a way that sounds “legalistic.”
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus insists that “until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law”, and “whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom” (Matthew 5:18–19). He even tells His followers that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees to enter the kingdom (Matthew 5:20). This is a stark call to intensified Law observance. According to Matthew, Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled and deepened it – requiring not only outward compliance but inward purity of heart (see Matthew 5:21–48). Thus, a reader of Matthew could come away thinking that faithful Christians are still very much under the yoke of the Law, obliged to keep even “the least of the commandments” meticulously. Matthew’s view of the Law appears so strict that it flatly conflicts with Paul’s teaching on grace. “Matthew thinks that the followers of Jesus need to keep the law – and do so even better than the most religious Jews. Yet Paul thought that followers of Jesus who tried to keep the law were in danger of losing their salvation. In Matthew’s perspective, failing to keep the Law could cost one eternal life, whereas Paul warned that relying on keeping the Law could cut one off from Christ! The contrast is jarring: Matthew advocates an intensified form of Jewish law-keeping for believers, while Paul preaches freedom from the Law’s yoke in the name of Christ.
Why does Matthew reflect this old paradigm? It’s important to remember the context: Matthew’s community was likely wrestling with how to integrate Jesus’ teachings with their Jewish heritage. The Temple was still standing or only recently destroyed; Judaism and the young Christian movement were intertwined. Matthew presents Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who upholds the Torah. There is a certain ethnocentric loyalty to Israel and the Law in Matthew’s approach – a conviction that God’s promises to Israel remain central, and that Jesus’ followers, though believing in Him as Messiah, must still honor the ancient commandments fully. In many ways, Matthew’s Gospel “couples” the Old Testament worldview with the story of Jesus, as if bridging the two. It does not radically break from the old paradigm so much as extend it into the messianic age. This explains why Matthew’s emphases can feel conservative and traditional, even “legalistic,” compared to what we find in other New Testament writings.
As we turn now to Luke–Acts and the letters of Paul, we will see a new paradigm emerge – one that fulfills and far exceeds the old. This new paradigm, championed by the core apostolic witness, is universal rather than ethnocentric, and based on grace rather than law. It does not negate all that came before, but it overshadows it with clearer display of God’s character.
The New Paradigm in Luke–Acts and Paul: Grace and Universality
Where Matthew leans toward the old, Luke–Acts and the Apostle Paul unveil the true paradigm of God’s dealings with humanity. The Gospel of Luke (together with its sequel, Acts of the Apostles) and Paul’s epistles together form a cohesive testimony from the heart of the early church’s mission. These writings proclaim a God whose intent was always to save all peoples and who, in Jesus Christ, has inaugurated a new covenant that transcends the boundaries of ethnicity and Mosaic Law. The tone of Luke–Acts and Paul’s letters is triumphantly universal and rigorously anti-legalistic. This is not a minor shift in emphasis – it is a revolutionary development in biblical revelation, tantamount to God doing “a new thing” (cf. Isaiah 43:19) that was hinted at in prophecy but fully unveiled only after Christ’s resurrection.
Consider first the Gospel of Luke. Even on a literary level, Luke’s Gospel signals a broader outlook. As one biblical scholar notes, “People have often thought of Luke’s Gospel as a Gentile Gospel, in contrast to, say, Matthew’s much more Jewish Gospel.”(psephizo.com) Luke explicitly portrays Jesus as the Savior not only of Israel but of the entire world: early in Luke, the aged Simeon in the Temple rejoices that the child Jesus is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to [God’s] people Israel” (Luke 2:32). This dual emphasis – salvation for Gentiles as well as Jews – runs throughout Luke’s narrative.
Furthermore, Luke alone records certain teachings of Jesus that champion outsiders and rebuke exclusivity. In Luke 4:25–27, Jesus reminds His fellow Nazareth Jews that in Elijah’s time God bypassed all the Israelite widows to miraculously feed a Gentile widow in Sidon, and the prophet Elisha healed a Syrian (Gentile) leper but no Israelites. This enrages his hometown audience – a dramatic indication that God’s grace to the Gentiles was a scandal to ethnocentric mindsets. Likewise, only Luke gives us the beloved Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37), in which a Samaritan (a people despised by Jews) is the hero who fulfills the law of love, unlike the pious Jewish priest and Levite who passed by the wounded man. Through this story, Jesus subverts the racial and religious boundaries of His day, implying that compassion trumps ethnic identity in God’s eyes – a very non-legalistic, non-ethnocentric message! Luke highlights Jesus’ outreach to other marginalized people too: tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, Roman centurions, women, the poor and sick. In Luke, Jesus is constantly crossing barriers to show God’s mercy.
The Book of Acts then continues this trajectory with unmistakable force. Acts, also written by Luke, chronicles how the Gospel exploded outward from Jerusalem into the Gentile world. Jesus’ final instruction in Acts is programmatic: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Thus from the outset, the risen Christ sets an agenda of geographical and ethnic expansion – far beyond the confines of Israel. The early chapters of Acts show the Gospel first taking root among Jews (Acts 2-7), but soon crossing into Samaritan territory (Acts 8) and then, in a watershed moment, to the Gentiles (Acts 10). In Acts 10, the apostle Peter receives a vision from God declaring all animals clean, symbolizing that the old purity distinctions are being removed. Peter then preaches to a Gentile, Cornelius, and his household, and the Holy Spirit falls upon these uncircumcised Gentiles just as He did on Jewish believers – a clear divine sign that they are accepted as-is, by faith. Peter’s astonished exclamation captures the new paradigm: “In truth, I understand that God is not a respecter of persons, 35 but in every nation, the one who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34–35, AICNT). Here is a direct repudiation of ethnocentrism: God has no favorites, no ethnic favorites, but welcomes anyone from any nation who turns to Him. This was a revolutionary realization for a Jew like Peter, who earlier would not even enter a Gentile’s home. God Himself had to correct Peter’s old paradigm thinking (Peter says, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean,” Acts 10:28).
After Peter’s encounter, Acts 15 records the Jerusalem Council, where the early church officially addressed whether Gentile converts must keep the Mosaic Law to be saved. Certain Jewish Christians (sometimes called Judaizers) were teaching that Gentiles had to be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses (Acts 15:1,5). This was the ultimate clash between the old legalistic paradigm and the new grace paradigm. Luke’s account makes it abundantly clear where God stood: Paul and Peter testify how God worked among the Gentiles apart from the law, and Peter pointedly asks, “Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). He concludes that “We believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we [Jews] are saved, just as they [Gentiles] are” (15:11). The council agrees not to impose the law (aside from a few basic guidelines for fellowship) on Gentile believers. The Law, as a binding covenant, was not to be enforced in the new community – Christ’s grace was sufficient. This was a monumental shift: the early Christian leaders formally recognized that adherence to the Jewish Law was not a prerequisite for belonging to God’s people. God’s family was no longer defined by circumcision or kosher diets or ethnic lineage, but by faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is in the letters of Paul, however, that the theological underpinnings of this new paradigm are most fully articulated. Paul – formerly the zealous Pharisee Saul who had lived the old paradigm to its extreme – became the chosen instrument to explain the Gospel of grace to Jews and Gentiles alike. In Paul’s writings, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, we see a relentless emphasis on salvation as God’s free gift to all people through faith in Christ, and an equally relentless denial that obeying the Law of Moses can justify anyone. To Paul, the coming of Christ was the decisive turning point in history that renders the old religious distinctions obsolete. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” Paul declares (biblehub.com). All are one – what a sweeping statement! Ethnic, social, and gender divisions are superseded in Christ’s new family. The Jew/Gentile divide in particular, which had loomed so large for ages, is abolished in terms of spiritual status. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and gives riches to all who call on Him” (Romans 10:12). God is no longer dealing primarily with one chosen ethnicity; He is dealing with humanity as a whole, offering salvation on equal terms. Paul even says that in Christ the ancient barrier of the Law itself has been removed: “For [Christ] Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations” (Ephesians 2:14–15). That “dividing wall” was the Law that separated Jews from Gentiles – and Paul asserts Christ abolished it on the cross, creating one new people of God.
In Paul’s view, the Law of Moses had a temporary role in God’s plan – it was a tutor or guardian to lead us to Christ, but now that Christ has come, we are no longer under that tutor (Galatians 3:24–25). Righteousness and membership in God’s covenant are no longer defined by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus. “A person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ,” Paul writes, “because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). He goes so far as to warn that if anyone, having come to Christ, then tries to be justified by the Law, they have “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). These are fighting words – Paul’s polemic against legalism is intense. He accuses the legalists of preaching “another gospel” and wishes that those insisting on circumcision would mutilate themselves (Galatians 1:6 7, 5:12)! Clearly, Paul saw the old paradigm of Law observance as incompatible with the new era of grace and Spirit-filled living. In his mind, to go back to the Law after Christ’s coming was to regress from adult maturity to spiritual infancy, to go from freedom back to slavery (Galatians 4:9–10, 5:1). The contrast could not be sharper.
It is also important to note how Paul’s polemical tone and Luke’s narrative of Acts reinforce each other. The Book of Acts shows us Paul in action, fiercely debating those who wanted to impose circumcision (Acts 15, and implied elsewhere), and ultimately carrying the Gospel to Rome itself, the heart of the Gentile world. Acts concludes with Paul’s declaration to the resistant Jews in Rome: “I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent out to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” This final pronouncement by Paul (Acts 28:28) serves as Luke’s climactic affirmation that the Gentile mission is God’s will – effectively, the Gospel has outgrown the old Israel-centric container. The reader of Acts is left with Christianity on the verge of a global explosion, no longer an offshoot of Judaism but a universal faith for all peoples. Meanwhile, Paul’s letters written during and after those events provide the doctrinal explanation: Israel’s role was special but temporary, to usher in the Messiah; now in Christ, the promises to Abraham (“all nations will be blessed through you,” Genesis 12:3) are being fulfilled as all nations come to the blessing. Paul does wrestle with the question of Israel’s place (Romans 9–11), affirming God’s continued love for the Jews, yet he insists that God’s mercy is now shown to both Jew and Gentile on the same basis – mercy that depends not on lineage or law but on God’s calling in Christ (Romans 9:24-26, 11:30-32).
In summary, Luke–Acts and Paul present a cohesive new paradigm: God’s true character and redemptive plan are revealed as radically inclusive and gracious. No nation or tribe has a monopoly on God anymore – if they ever did. The Holy Spirit is poured out on Gentiles and Jews alike with no distinction. The Law that separated people is fulfilled in Christ and thus no longer the governing covenant. And the core of how we relate to God is not by adhering to regulations, but by entering into a trusting relationship through Jesus, empowered by the Spirit. This is the apostolic Gospel. This is what the earliest Christians – those who knew Jesus or, like Paul, encountered Him in glory – unanimously preached: that in Christ, God has reconciled the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19), and that now “there is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28).
Who Is God? The Character of God Clarified in Christ
What do these two contrasting paradigms tell us about the character and intentions of God? The Old Testament (and Matthew’s more Old Testament-flavored Gospel) often leave us with a picture of God that is partial and perplexing. In those writings, God can appear exclusivist (choosing one nation and seemingly spurning others), legalistic (demanding absolute adherence to rituals and exacting punishment for failure), and even wrathful to the point of violence (ordering wars, floods, and judgments). There are, to be sure, profound revelations of God’s mercy and love in the Old Testament as well (the compassion described in Psalms and prophets, for instance). Yet the overall impression for many readers is that the Old Testament God is “angry” or harsh, whereas the New Testament God (revealed by Jesus) is loving and gracious. This simplistic dichotomy troubled believers for centuries – one early church figure, Marcion, even went so far as to claim the God of the Old Testament was a different, inferior deity than the God revealed by Jesus Christ. The Church rightfully rejected that extreme view as heresy, affirming that there is only one God who authored both Testaments. However, we need not swing to the opposite extreme and assert that every Old Testament depiction of God is a full and final revelation of His heart. Instead, the key is to recognize the progressive unfolding of God’s self-revelation, culminating in Jesus and the apostolic witness. The New Testament itself gives us this hermeneutic: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). The implication is that God’s message and character have been communicated in a variety of partial ways before, but now, finally, we have the ultimate communication in the person of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, is the perfect revelation of who God is – far surpassing all previous revelations.
So, if something in the Old Testament seems inconsistent with what we see in Jesus, we have legitimate reason to give priority to Jesus’ revelation as conveyed by Luke, the most historically reliable Gospel, and by Paul, the apostle to the nations. Paul’s writings highlight God’s kindness, patience, and inclusive love. Paul proclaims that God “wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He marvels that “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Far from being a tribal deity concerned only with one nation, God “overlooked the times of ignorance” among the nations “but now commands all people everywhere to repent” – because He desires to save all (Acts 17:30). Paul even confronts the darker parts of Israel’s story and sees lessons in them rather than endorsements. In 1 Corinthians 10, he recalls how many Israelites fell in the wilderness due to sin, implying that being “God’s people” didn’t guarantee immunity – humility and faith were always what God wanted. In Romans 15:8-10, Paul cites the Old Testament itself to show that God’s plan always included the Gentiles: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people” (quoting Deuteronomy and Psalms). The mystery kept hidden is now revealed: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs… members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). In short, God’s intention all along – now made crystal clear – was to create one multi-ethnic family united by faith and love, not by law and lineage.
This new, clarified revelation of God’s character forces us to rethink the Old Testament narratives of violence and exclusivity. If God is most fully revealed in Jesus, then perhaps the Israelites’ understanding of God’s commands to wage war was partial or context-bound. The Old Testament’s honest record shows people grappling with God’s will and sometimes misunderstanding God. Jesus Himself corrected Moses’ laws at times. This indicates that not everything in the Old Testament law was the perfect expression of God’s heart; some of it was an accommodation to human weakness until a better way came. Similarly, the eye-for-an-eye justice of the Torah (Exodus 21:24) was a step forward in its time (limiting vengeance), but Jesus reveals a higher ethic: “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.” (Luke 6:29). Jesus isn’t contradicting God – He is revealing God more fully.
By embracing the apostolic witness of Luke–Acts and Paul, Christians can confidently assert that God is not the tribal, vengeful deity some imagine from certain Old Testament stories. Rather, God is as Jesus showed Him to be: a loving Father who runs to welcome the prodigal, a Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, a Savior who pours out grace on undeserving sinners – Jew and Gentile alike. The apostolic writings serve as our interpretive key. They teach us to read the whole Bible with Jesus at the center. We can honor the Old Testament as at least a partially inspired record of God’s redemptive work leading to Christ, without having to adopt all of its cultural trappings or incomplete understandings as normative for today. The Old Testament portrayal of God may not fully correspond to the actual God who transcends the text.
Conclusion: Embracing the Core Witness of the New Covenant
The old paradigm guarded identity through works of the Law. The new covenant grants identity and power through the Spirit. Paul names this the unrivaled mystery. Gentiles and Jews become equal coheirs in one body. Luke–Acts shows how the Spirit validates this at real tables with real people. Matthew preserves a Torah-shaped catechesis that fits a closed Jewish flock. The apostolic center, however, is clear. Belonging is by faith. Transformation is by the Spirit. The ethic is love that fulfills the Law.
The “mystery” is God’s now-revealed plan that Jews and Gentiles stand as equal coheirs in one body through the Messiah, with full access to the Father in one Spirit, so that the ancient promise to bless all nations is finally realized.
Luke–Acts and Paul’s letters stand at the heart of the New Testament for a reason. They together chronicle and explain the definitive shift in God’s dealings with humanity brought about by Jesus Christ. This apostolic witness is our best frame of reference for understanding God’s character and intentions. It tells us emphatically that we do not need to project every Old Testament depiction of God. We are called instead to see the Father in the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. The old covenant had glory, but it was a fading glory – “what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory” of the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:10). The light of God’s love, which dawned in Israel, has reached noonday brightness in Christ. And in that light, some distortions of the earlier revelation are dispelled.
To put it plainly: A Christian does not need to, for example, justify the herem warfare of Joshua or the polygamy of the patriarchs or the nationalistic fervor of Ezra as if those fully reveal God’s ideal. I. The Gospel of Jesus was proclaimed by his apostles. In that final chapter, God’s universal love and grace take center stage, relativizing those earlier provisions. Paul and the author of Hebrews describe the old covenant as obsolete, aging, and ready to vanish (Hebrews 8:13). The new covenant in Christ’s blood (Luke 22:20) has superseded it. Therefore, we must be careful not to build our doctrine of God on an incomplete picture of God when the fuller has come into view in light of the Gospel. If we did, we might end up with an “Old Testament God” concept – one that fuels fear, exclusivity, or legalism – and miss the full beauty of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:15). The church of Jesus must hold fast to the revelation of God’s character given by Christ and the Apostles. This revelation invites all into covenant and focuses on inner transformation by the Spirit rather than external rule-keeping. It portrays God as holy love – righteous, yes, but also self-sacrificing for our sake and eager to forgive.
In embracing Luke–Acts and Paul as guides, we are not “pitting Scripture against Scripture” in a destructive way; rather, we are affirming the superior revelation of the apostolic core testament of Luke-Acts + Paul over previous and more inferior witnesses. The law was given through Moses, but the truth in its fullness came through the Gospel of Christ Jesus. So we emphasize the apostolic witnesses over Moses, the prophets, and even Matthew. The proper lens to understand God's character and intentions is Luke and Paul. The character of God that shines from the pages of Luke–Acts and Paul is one of expansive love, impartial justice, and saving grace. This is the same God who patiently worked through Israel’s turbulent history, but now we see His heart without shadow. It’s a heart that aches for the lost, rejoices in the repentant, and calls former enemies to sit at one table.
Therefore, we can confidently say: We trust the apostolic witness to show us who God truly is. We honor the Old Testament as the vital introduction to the story, but our ultimate doctrine of God comes from Jesus’ revelation as transmitted by His apostles. In that sense, Matthew’s more traditionalist approach must yield to the greater light of Luke’s and Paul’s testimony. Any theology that would keep us bound in fear, prejudice, or legalism – as if we were still under the old covenant – is to be boldly challenged, just as Paul challenged Peter when his behavior contradicted “the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:14). The core truth of the Gospel is that God’s grace has appeared bringing salvation to all (Titus 2:11), and that through Christ, God’s true intentions for humanity are revealed.
The old paradigm had its time and purpose, but the new has come. As the Apostle Paul triumphantly declared, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). So it is with our understanding of God. The old portrait, with its shadows, has given way to the new portrait in Christ, full of grace and truth. That is the God we worship and proclaim: the God unveiled by the apostolic witness, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose character of love is fully revealed in the apostolic witness of the Gospel.
Sources:
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Bauckham, Richard. What is distinctive about Luke’s gospel? – Highlights Luke’s universal outlook versus Matthew’s Jewish orientation psephizo.com.
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Seibert, Eric. The Old Testament as a Problem for Pacifists (IVP excerpt) – Observes that Israel’s portrayal of God as warrior was culturally conditioned and not the full picture of God ivpress.comivpress.com.
IssuesWithMatthew.com. Matthew is a later embellished gospel adopted for a Jewish community.
LukePrimacy.com Evidence why Luke is the most reliable Gospel witness.
NTcanon.com. Identifying the foundational authority of the New Testament Canon.
