Romans 5:13 shows us that before the Law [the Law of Moses] was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no Law.

          The word 'impute' means to take what has been done and apply it to one's account or to hold transgressions against them.

                   Sin was not held against people until God gave the Law of Moses.

"For until the law, sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law."
Romans 5:13

         Law refers to all the Old Testament, but more specific here, refers to the Mosaic Law, which includes the Ten Commandments, punishments, and all of the ordinances and ceremonial observances.

The love, mercy and forgiveness God offers to us in the New Testament, through Jesus, were always available to man, even in the Old Testament.

        But mans response to Him in the Old Testament forced God to deal with him more harshly than He cared to.

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:"
Hebrews 1:3
                In Hebrews 1:3, it says Jesus is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person.

        Jesus is an exact representation of God the Father, revealing His true nature.

Most of us don't really understand the greatness of the love, mercy and compassion God has toward us.

           That mistaken impression of God keeps us distant from Him. So it is important that we know both the New Testament character as well as the Old Testament character of God, it will give us His true nature.

When Jesus came, He brought the true revelation of the Father to man and He operated in a very different way.

            If Jesus had come to earth in human form in the Old Testament times, He would have rebuked Elijah and Moses.

                     The Bible is clear that it never was God's desire to deal with man so harshly; that never was His real character.

                                    Because we haven't know this, we have a mixed impression of God.

We, Christians, misunderstand and are confused about who God really is and the relationship He wants with us, because we see Him according to the Old Testament.

             In the Old Testament, He had to deal with man and sin in a different way.

Jesus is the walking, living Word, and when we see Him, we see the Father.

              The problem so many of us Christians are facing is that we are seeing God through the Old Testament instead of through Jesus.

Elijah's actions in obedience to God were not the complete representation of the nature of God.

          The Old Testament cannot give us a total revelation of God by itself.

                   We need the New Testament to understand the fullness of God.

God's nature is not judgment; He does judge, and He is just and holy; but the Bible reveals to us in
1 John 4:8 that "God is love."

            Love is God's real nature.
            He doesn't just have love or operate in love.
            He Is Love, it's His true character.

When we don't look at the whole Word of God, by examining the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, we usually get an Old Testament picture of God as a God of wrath, judgment and punishment.

        That is a truth about God, and those who don't accept the love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ will one day experience a terrible day of His judgment.

               But wrath and judgment are not the main nature of God.

We have to come to a place where we really know God and have a very close relationship with Him.

       Religious ideas that come from a misunderstanding of the Bible blocks us from entering into a close relationship with Him.

               Many people are really afraid to come to God because they have been taught or have gotten the impression that He is going strike them with something [like sickness, disease, poverty, disasters,  or death etc]; but that's not the relationship God desires or that His Word teaches.