“The word of the LORD came to me: ‘What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?” As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.” [1]
The Christian Faith demands that individuals be held accountable for their own actions rather than being held to account for the actions or the attitudes of others. The Word of God teaches personal accountability for mankind, and that is especially true for us as Christians. This becomes evident when we hear God, speaking through His prophet, informing us, “The soul who sins shall die.” The principle is iterated and emphasised when Ezekiel states soon after announcing the principle, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” [EZEKIEL 18:20].
A folksy way of stating this truth is to declare, “Every tub sits on its own bottom.” Each person who now hears me stands accountable for his or her own actions. Each of us is free to make our own choices, but each of us must bear responsibility for the choices that we make. We can neither excuse ourselves nor accuse others on the basis of identity as part of some group. Just because our parents, or our grandparents, are members of a religion, we cannot excuse our own actions on the basis of family association.
The Judeo-Christian view is unique in the pantheon of the major religions of the world. For example, the Muslim religion, in keeping with almost all other false religions, teaches class responsibility. One who holds individuals personally responsible for their acts may murder. For example, he may kill the landlord or an employer, but he bears responsibility for his action. However, an individual who believes in class guilt will kill any and all landlords or any and all employers—even ones the individual has never met. And in this instance, the one who murders would receive a commendation from others within his particular class being people who believe as he does. The “idealist” may therefore kill absolutely blameless people who happen to belong to a “guilty” class.
What does “class guilt” mean? A class is nothing more than an arbitrary grouping of people that serves the agenda of the person doing the analysis. The last few decades have seen a surge in the political division of people according to classes in order to ascribe collective guilt or collective victimhood. Men subjugate women, whites exploit minorities, Americans oppress the world—at least that is the prevailing concept in much of society. The relevant political factor has become: what class do you belong to? The concept of class guilt appears to be growing in prominence when we hear the demands for reparations from various classes.
What isn’t always recognised in this trend is that the concept of “class guilt” is a Marxist ideal. Adopting this concept of class guilt is a godless act, an act exalting man and attempting to dethrone God the Creator. In fact, this means that Islam shares much in common with Communism, which may account for the tendency of Muslim states to gravitate to Russia and/or China. In great measure this accounts for the disparity witnessed in the Iranian regime to execute disproportionate numbers of Balochistan youth or explains why the Erdogan regime seeks to exterminate Kurds and Armenians.
Opposed to this Marxist concept is the position characterised by the Christian view of morality, which is that each individual is responsible for his or her own actions. The political systems of the world mirror the religious systems of the world. Non-Christian religions eagerly adopt the Marxist ideal, assigning class guilt to groups that are out of favour or groups that disagree with the view of that particular religion. The Judeo-Christian view of accountability may accept that some from within a given group are disadvantaged, they are nevertheless responsible for their own choices.
One’s world view dictates how they will interact with society. In short, what one believes concerning God dictates how they view others. The point is so critical that we dare not pass over it too quickly. Underscore in your mind this essential truth that must be stressed: what one believes concerning God dictates how they view others. If our perception of God is flawed, it will become apparent in our relationship with other people. If we view God as distant and uninvolved in running the universe, we will place ourselves at the centre of our world. Consequently, we will be inclined to treat people in an unequal fashion, seeking closeness with some and ignoring others. If we see God as tyrannical, as oppressive, and capricious, we will tend to treat people in an analogous manner, raising ourselves above others until we can advance no farther. Then, we will exert ourselves in making those we think to be our betters accept us into their group. If we see God as gracious and generous, though understanding that He is holy, we will live to honour Him, treating others with grace and mercy.
GOD’S PROCLAMATION — “The soul who sins shall die” [EZEKIEL 18:4b]. There is no exemption from this stern pronouncement. There is no wiggle room provided for the individual who wishes to avoid God’s righteous condemnation. Those who sin shall die. We should bear in mind that this terrifying pronounce was first delivered to the professed people of God, His chosen people! Here is the thing we must remember always: we do not live righteously in order to be saved, but if we are saved we want to live righteously.
We who are known by the Father take seriously Christ’s teaching that instructs us, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” [MATTHEW 5:16].
We seek to ensure our lives are aligned with the Saviour’s demanding admonition, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [MATTHEW 5:48].
We want to honour the Father Who saved us. Peter addresses this desire, writing, “Get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, because I am holy’” [1 PETER 1:13-16 NET 2nd].
The Apostle to the Jews continues instructing us in how we should live, writing, “If you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake. Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” [1 PETER 1:17-21 NET 2nd].
We don’t live in terror that the Father is capricious and His actions unpredictable; we have a Father Who seeks to do us good. Because the Father wants what is best for His children, He disciplines us for our good. Do you not remember how we are told, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” [HEBREWS 12:7-11]. Therefore, we endeavour to so live that we don’t disgrace our Father. He has redeemed us from sin, and we can no longer live as we once did.
Those who sin are revealing that they are animated with the breath of life, but in reality they are dead. And sin when it has been embraced will kill the child of God. Do you recall the warning delivered by James? The half-brother of our Lord begins with a benediction for the one who remains steadfast under pressure. He writes, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” [JAMES 1:12].
Then, he segues to what is quite a common excuse for giving in to temptation. Each of us has succumbed to temptation at some point or another, and we need to hear the cautionary words James writes: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” [JAMES 1:13].
At last, we are confronted by the dark truth that none of us wish to hear, but which we must acknowledge as true: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” [JAMES 1:14-15]. There is the dark truth that stings us so severely: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
This is a general truth, but for the one who follows the Risen Lord, this sin is dealt with in a different fashion than when we were in the world. In the world, sin builds until it is fully ripe, at which time God calls in the account. This is true for cultures as it is for individuals. When God pronounced His covenant with Abraham, He said of the Amorites, “Now as for you, you’ll die peacefully, join your ancestors, and be buried at a good old age. Your descendants will return here in the fourth generation, since the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet run its course” [GENESIS 15:15-16 ISV].
While God permits wickedness to run its course within societies and within cultures, judgement and death does come in God’s own time. For His own people, however, God holds us to account, disciplining us for our own good as we saw shortly before this. We know from Scripture the discipline that God administers as He seeks to turn His own beloved child from the bent to stray, and the discipline He administers seems to be administered in a defined progression.
When we turn from following the Lord, pursuing our own desires, God permits our conscience to torment us. We know what is right, and we know we are not doing right, so we are miserable. We see this when Peter reveals how Lot was tormented even while living in Sodom. As the Spirit is speaking of God’s justice and how He will spare the righteous, Peter writes, “If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” [2 PETER 2:4-9].
When we sin, we know that we have sinned, and we put distance between ourselves and our God. We are miserable. The pleasure of sin may be sweet, but we quickly discovered that whatever pleasure there was turns to misery. Because we are redeemed, we cannot enjoy sin! We know we are wrong, and we are unsatisfied with what we are doing. The appropriate response is to turn from our sin and seek restoration, just as is recorded in the First Letter of the Apostle of Love, when he writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [1 JOHN 1:9].
And if our conflicted soul doesn’t result in confession and forsaking our sin, we can anticipate that God will apply more pressure still. He is prepared to touch what we imagine we treasure most removing that from our life. Delivering the wayward child of God to the tender mercies of the devil is certain to get the attention of that Christian. This is what Paul instructs the Corinthians to do when a man was engaged in a flagrant sin that was bringing reproach on the cause of Christ.
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
“For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” [1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-5].
The Christian who is turned over to Satan will quickly discover that the devil is a ruthless taskmaster without mercy for that wayward child. Peter warns, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” [1 PETER 5:8b].
Again, the discipline ceases when we obey the instruction given by the Apostle of Love: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [1 JOHN 1:9].
And if the loss of freedom, the loss of relationships, the loss of things fails to turn the child of God from pursuing his or her own wilful desire, God will use the ultimate act of discipline, telling that child, “Come home, right now!” You may recall how James frames this final disciplinary action when he writes, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” [JAMES 5:19-20].
What James has written anticipates the later warning delivered by the Apostle John, who writes, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death” [1 JOHN 5:16-17].
The ultimate discipline! The child is recalcitrant, refractory, rebellious. At last, there is nothing left except to demand that the child come home. God will not permit His dear child to destroy himself or herself; neither will He permit the child to continue dishonour Him or to disgrace His holy Name. You may ask whether I have known of instances where the Father said, “Enough of that! Come home, right now!” The answer to the query is yes, I am aware of times when the Father said, “Come home, now!” It is painful for all who love the rebellious child of God, but it is surely a mark of grace that the Father does not cease loving His child. God loves His redeemed child to the point that He says it is better to bring My child home than to permit this destructive behaviour to continue. “The soul who sins shall die” [EZEKIEL 18:4b].
FOUNDATION FOR GOD’S PROCLAMATION — “All souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine” [EZEKIEL 18:4a]. God made a stern pronouncement when He averred, ““The soul who sins shall die” [EZEKIEL 18:4b]; but we should be clear concerning the basis on which God able to make such a sweeping statement. To be certain, God is sovereign. With the Apostle Paul, I would challenge each person who questions how God is able to make such a stern pronouncement, “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this’” [ROMANS 9:20]?
Have we not read the challenge presented by the court prophet, Isaiah?
“Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
‘He did not make me;’
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
‘He has no understanding?’”
[ISAIAH 29:16]
God is our Creator, whether we admit that fact or we are only deluding ourselves in a fruitless effort to reject reality by denying that He is our Maker. The Lord GOD made us; we belong to Him. And at the last we return to Him Who has given us our being.
I invite you to recall the words of the Koheleth who counsels each of us, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them;’ before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” [ECCLESIASTES 12:1-7].
The Lord GOD is sovereign. No one can dispute His decree. He rules over mankind, and none can argue with His determination. A great king learned this lesson the hard way. The account is recorded in the Book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing dream that was only interpreted after calling Daniel to tell him what the dream could mean. Daniel did interpret the dream, advising the king to cease exalting himself. But Daniel’s admonition was to no avail.
We read in Daniel’s account, “All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, ‘Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?’ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.’ Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws” [DANIEL 4:28-33]. This mighty king would need to learn, as all must eventually learn, that God Most High is sovereign.
After the allotted time had passed, Nebuchadnezzar was restored to his senses. The king learned a valuable lesson, and he confessed, “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”
[DANIEL 4:34-35]
Though this demonstration of God’s sovereignty over the most powerful of men was open and public, it was not taken to heart by this king’s grandson. Belshazzar, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar permitted the kingdom to slip through his fingers, passing the power and might of the Babylonians into the hands of the Medes and the Persians. Witnessing a hand writing on the wall during a drunken orgy, Belshazzar called once more for Daniel to tell him what he was witnessing. He offered incredible wealth to Daniel, only to have his offer declined though Daniel did interpret what he saw.
Again, we read in the Book of Daniel, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored” [DANIEL 5:17-23].
All who hear the message I now bring will do well to heed the words of the Apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote in one of his final missives, “As for you, O man of God, flee [the pursuit of wealth and things]. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” [1 TIMOTHY 6:11-16]. Amen, indeed!
Think this through! The Lord reigns, and all mankind must confess His majesty. Long years past, the Psalmist wrote,
“The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.”
[PSALM 93:1]
And because our God reigns, we know that He judges all He has made.
“Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.’”
[PSALM 96:10]
Do you remember how we read of the Christ, the Saviour Who sacrificed Himself for His people, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11].
God is Sovereign. Because the Father is Sovereign, He has the right to judge all. The Father, however, has committed all judgement to the Son. Jesus warned the religious leaders of His day, and thus He warns us in this day, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” [JOHN 5:19-30].
Then follows that dark passage that speaks of His judgement of the lost. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” [REVELATION 20:11-14].
The lost must not trifle with the Sovereign Lord, for, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” [REVELATION 20:15].
IMPLICATIONS OF GOD’S PROCLAMATION — “All souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die” [EZEKIEL 18:4]. God has no grandchildren. Either one is a child of God, or one has no relationship to God. In an extended summation of how the fact of God creating all mankind and how He holds all to account for their own actions, the Spirit of the Lord speaks through Ezekiel.
Listen as the Lord explains His position so that no one can question His justice. “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right—if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbour’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.
“If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
“Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just” [EZEKIEL 18:5-29]?
Now listen as the LORD binds all this up in one neat package with a beautiful bow when He says, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” [EZEKIEL 18:30-32].
The crux of the message is: Your view of God determines your view of justice. When you view God as just and righteous, you will treat others with justice and mercy. When you view God as treating us as individuals, each with responsibility for our own choices and our actions, you will treat others with dignity as befitting those who are created in the image of God.
When you see God as austere, capricious, volatile, distant, you tend to identify people with a group. And that leads to violence, to exalting your own identification over others who aren’t part of your group. When you see God as distant and unapproachable, you begin to move toward a despicable form of totalitarianism. And that is what we witness in Islamic terrorists. Here is something that we don’t often consider: those who hold to leftist political views share a great deal in common with those terrorists. This accounts for the identification of those on contemporary college campuses with Hamas. This fact accounts for why unsaved youth are susceptible to Communist ideology and to influence exerted by Iranian terrorists.
I counsel any who have followed me to this point in the message to consider the invitation issued by the Saviour. “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” [MATTHEW 11:28-30].
The Son of God offers rest in the place of riot. The Son of God invites all who are willing to find freedom in Him. Jesus invites you, saying, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” [JOHN 8:31-32].
Don’t dismiss His offer when He promises, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” [JOHN 8:34-36].
There is freedom to think, to honour God, to know Him that is found in Christ. There is freedom from condemnation, freedom to be what you were created to be. The Word of God promises all who will respond, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13]. Believe and be saved even this day. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
