I sometimes hear Christians trying to account for all the violence in the Old Testament by explaining that God has somehow changed. "That was the God of the Old Testament; Jesus is the God of the New."

Such an explanation betrays a false understanding of the faith in two directions: first, with respect to the character of God; second, with respect to the real power of God's Word and Spirit.

God, as He Himself explains, does not change. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament - incarnated in our glorious and self-sacrificing Savior and King, Jesus Christ - are the same; moreover that God is the same today as well, and He is afoot in the world in the Person of His Spirit. He does not change.

The Word of God professes itself to be alive and powerful, so living and so powerful that it can penetrate to the very depths of a human soul and perform a miracle of transforming grace. Accompanied by the Spirit of God, wielded in the hand of our exalted King, the Word is powerful to convict and convert even the enemies of the Lord. Ask Saul of Tarsus. Or ask yourself.

The power of the Word and Spirit spread through the believing community, over time, to affect everything they touch, wherever they go, whatever they do, whomever they're with. The Spirit restrains evil; as bad as the world can be at times, it would be much worse were the Spirit of God not at large in it and the Word of God not so widespread and influential as it is in many cultures (our culture scoffs at the Law of God in the public square, but still prosecutes murderers, rapists, thieves, and perjurers).

Before the giving of the Spirit and the breakout of the Gospel, the world lay in darkness and widespread, unmitigated unbelief. The peoples among whom God determined to establish His people in the Old Testament were violent and unsparing in their treatment of one another. They would have inflicted the same on Israel, typically, in the name of their gods, and, in fact, frequently did. Persuasion would have had little effect with people given to violence and the worship of demons. The sword of war was necessary against such peoples in order for Israel to establish a beachhead in a violent world.

In this age of the Gospel, the Spirit, and the exaltation of Christ, grace is more widespread than we know, truth is more powerful than we believe, and the hearts of men are more under the sway of God's Law than we think. God has not changed. The times have. Wherever sin abounds in this wretched world, grace abounds much more. God goes ahead of His people now, even as He always has. However, His preferred - and vastly more effective - weapon is the Sword of the Spirit, wielded in the hand of His King, through the faithful lives and ministries of His people.

There is still a need for the sword of violence these days, and God still sanctions its appropriate use. But our weapon of choice must be the Sword of the Spirit, wielded by words and deeds, and extended through us by the hand of Him Who never changes and never fails. And we must wield it every day of our lives.

T. M. Moore