Ezekiel 18:20

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’

Ezekiel 18:20

I. Does Holy Writ really affirm, despite the sound of certain familiar but isolated texts and the use that has been made of them, that we must all die, and die for ever, because of Adam’s transgression?—On the contrary, in a thousand different ways, and by the whole spirit of its teaching, it affirms that every man shall be judged according to his own deeds, whether good or bad, and answer for himself alone to the great Master before Whom we must all stand or fall, but Who is in very deed able to make us stand. It meets the old godless and inveterate tradition, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,’ with the flat contradiction, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him!’ Nay, rising high above the rigours of strict law, it adds the merciful assurance, ‘But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die: all his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not (so much as) be mentioned unto him; for his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.’ The eighteenth chapter is nothing else than an eloquent and heart-piercing application of the truth contained in these words.

II. Our text is the first, or one of the first, assertions of the truth that man is more than the circumstances of which he is a part, that in God’s sight he is single and free.—In these days this truth cannot be two frequently reiterated; for if science insists upon it that we are bound through our brains and bodies to those who have preceded us, and to those whom we leave behind us, the Word of God assures us that man’s nature has within it a personal life apart from and higher than that nature. So there remains the hidden self, and it is free. It has always the power of rising from its past. You say it is impossible? With man perhaps it is impossible. But with God all things are possible. For that freedom of mine, however feeble and broken, is not alone. There is another free and sovereign power waiting for it, and acknowledging it as His own image, welcoming it, coming down upon it with His own strength and power. When I use my freedom, I meet and touch the freedom of the sovereign grace of God Himself.

Illustration

‘The eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel contains a full and interesting specimen of that “reasoning together” to which God in mercy united a backsliding people. The chief wonder in that reasoning is, that it does not rise from earth to heaven, but descends from heaven to earth. It is not man reasoning to set himself right with God, but God reasoning to set Himself right with man. Jehovah places Himself before the bar of His creature, and condescends to plead His own cause. This is a strange sight—the Judge pleading before the culprit to justify Himself. Whence this anomaly? What has so violently reversed all former precedent? What has turned the world upside down? It is mercy—mercy unwearied, inexhaustible, has been here. The transgressions of Israel were like mountains great; but there is a mercy heaven-high that has overtopped them all. It was not necessary for His own glory that God should, by reasoning, satisfy the transgressors that His ways were equal. This will be done when He is revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on His enemies. But judgment then will be judgment without mercy. God has more in view than to justify Himself. He would save sinners. He would have them to see His justice now, that they may not feel it for ever. It is the same power—love to the lost—that has printed this chapter in the Bible, and brought the Lord Jesus from heaven to earth.’