Turn and Live!

Ezekiel 18:19-32

19 "Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?' Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

21 "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. 23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?

24 "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.

25 "Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? 26 When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. 27 Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. 28 Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?

30 "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"

Turn from sin and live in Him who died in your place of judgment due according to God’s just anger on all our sin.  Turn and live forever!  The soul who sins shall surely die as Genesis 2:17 gave our ancestors the divine warning.  Romans 3:23 declares that we are all guilty of our original father’s sin (Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:22) and Romans 5:18-19 offer the only hope of our accountability for the sin we inherited.  This is not the same as the sins committed by our fathers after Adam, however.  We are not held responsible for those unless we continue to sin in like manner.  The original sin affects all descendants of Adam and Eve because they were sinless when they fell from God’s grace; all sin after them is willingly committed from an already corrupt heart under judgment (Romans 5:12).  We inherit the sin nature of a broken will and soul by Adam but are also held accountable for the sins we commit out of that nature and not from any other person, least of all our parents or other forefathers.  This passage reminds us that we newer for our own sin no cannot point a deflecting finger at our upbringing or other acquaintances who influenced us.  We all answer for our own sin and there is nobody without sin because of the original sin ingrained in the spiritual DNA of our souls.  Turning from sin is repentance, and is effective only when accompanied by faith for an eternal deliverance from sin’s just penalty we have inherited and earned.  When the prophet repeated the words of the LORD to turn and live, he was foretelling the gospel of complete forgiveness by repentance through God-given faith to believe and be saved from the judgment we all are born under.  This passage also speaks of the one who is righteous and then commits sin; it does not refer to eternal death of one declared righteous in Christ, but of the unregenerate man or woman who earns it by keeping the Law until it is broken as we all do (James 2:10, Galatians 3:11-12, 14).  For the regenerated in Christ are accountable yet not judged to punishment of eternal death, but given life irrevocably (John 5:24).  The second Adam, Jesus Christ, has taken the guilt and punishment of our inherited sin on Himself and no longer holds us accountable.  This grace shows in a way that the accusation of God not being fair seems to be true because He appears not to judge us and give us the death we deserve for our sin, but since He has atoned in our place for it we have been released from that sentence of death (John 8:51, 6:29) by faith which takes God at His word and trusts in His work of righteousness to make us righteous in Him who is the just one and justifier (Romans 3:26) of those in Christ.  God made it clear here that He takes no pleasure in our sentence of death for our sins, but offers a new heart and life (Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 3:3) in Himself if we turn (repent) to live forever in His grace with Him.  This is the gospel of Jesus Christ who saves those He calls out of sin and into Him.  Turn and live (Acts 20:21)!