I totally agree that God is a God of grace throughout the Bible and there are many examples of this in the OT. To be fair, though, I don’t think I said that the NT has a monopoly on grace, nor was that the focus of what I was writing.

Simply put, I was making a broad-brush generalized statement, to set up what I wanted to talk about – namely balancing law and grace as a parent. If that was an unhelpful illustration for you, then apologies!

Great to read you thoughts. I’m not a mother so I can only observe the trials of parenting, with much respect, from the outside! I just wanted to offer some thoughts on grace though, as I was a bit uncomfortable about the suggestion that the Old Testament is more focused on the law while the New Testament is more about grace. It is true that we are all saved by the grace of God through the faithfulness of Christ and so it can seem as if the New Testament has a monopoly on grace, but I don’t think this is the case. I would say that the Old Testament is abounding in grace! Creation was an act of grace, so was the covenant with Abraham and Israel, and the law (Torah) itself was considered a gift of grace to Israel. I think discipline is an act of grace and love towards children as is God’s discipline of us.

There are so many examples of grace in the Old Testament, and this must be so, because if graciousness is one of the most fundamental aspects of God’s character it must always be evident, as he never changes.

Jess