God doesn't change. He is also just and will honour His word.
Gods covenant with Abraham was based on Abraham believing what God said. The Bible says "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness"
Then later, after the Israelites left slavery in Egypt with heaps of the Egyptians gold and were complaing about their journey to the promised land, not one of them was killed before the law was given to them. God wanted them to live by faith. Finally the Israelites asked for a set of rules to follow because they were scared of God. (Still on smoting at this stage)
When the law was given, the smoting began because they kept breaking the law they had asked for. The whole time they had the choice to simply believe God and come under the Abrahamic covenant instead. The law was designed to convince them that they couldn't be 'good' enough to earn their own righteousness. It still applies, for people who want to convince themselves they are pretty good, to measure themselves against.
Then Jesus came, lived a sinless life and died to impute His righteousness to whoever believes that that's what He did. Hence it is no longer for Christians to follow the law since instead of being judged for what I have done I am and will be rewarded for what Jesus did.
God's nature doesn't change, but peoples response to His presence does. In another scripture in the Old Testament it says 'God hardened Pharaoh's heart'. God's presence had inspired Moses. The difference is like the sun melting wax or hardening clay.
If anyone has been hurt by the Church (a group of people who not everything they do is what God wants them to do..) by being told that they aren't behaving well enough, or they are evil or whatever, that is not how God sees you. When someone is a believer in Christ for their righteousness they are given a new nature.
All this begs the question: Why do some Christians still commit horrendous acts, or even just bad ones?
If someone grows up with crack-head parents in a slum and then is given a mansion and a fortune they will live a lot differently to someone who grew up in a wealthy family. In the same way a Christian can find it hard to believe they have a new nature that is good. Until they believe it they will keep trying to be good and keep falling short.
A lot of this stuff people will never have heard, even a lot of Christains, because they have been too busy convincing the world to follow a bunch of do's and don'ts that most people don't even care about.
Anyways... if this has bored anyone, you should have stopped reading ages ago.
