This is the argument espoused in Is God A Moral Monster? by Paul Copan. I don’t find it convincing (I am a Christian, too). I think Drs Bradley Jersak and Greg Boyd have more convincing arguments (Jersak: his trilogy—A More Christlike God, A More Christlike Way, and A More Christlike Word; Boyd: Cross Vision and the more academic two volume work The Crucifixion of the Warrior God).

(I love Jersak’s line: “The Word of God is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. And when he was about eighteen years old, he grew a beard.”)

Boyd tried to write a book like Copan’s but gave up, he could not convince himself Copan was right.

Boyd and Jersak will challenge you, but worth the read. The take away is that if Jesus is the exact representation of God and you see Jesus you see the Father, then God is like Jesus, he has always been like Jesus, he will always be like Jesus—there never was a time when he wasn’t or won’t be like Jesus. So read the First Testament through the character lens of Jesus.