Ezekiel 18:21

18:21-29 The wicked man would be saved, if he turned from his evil ways. The true penitent is a true believer. None of his former transgressions shall be mentioned unto him, but in the righteousness which he has done, as the fruit of faith and the effect of conversion, he shall surely live. The question is not whether the truly righteous ever become apostates. It is certain that many who for a time were thought to be righteous, do so, while ver. 26,27 speaks the fulness of pardoning mercy: when sin is forgiven, it is blotted out, it is remembered no more. In their righteousness they shall live; not for their righteousness, as if that were an atonement for their sins, but in their righteousness, which is one of the blessings purchased by the Mediator. What encouragement a repenting, returning sinner has to hope for pardon and life according to this promise! In verse 28 is the beginning and progress of repentance. True believers watch and pray, and continue to the end, and they are saved. In all our disputes with God, he is in the right, and we are in the wrong.

But if the wicked,.... So far is the Lord from punishing the sins of one man upon another, that he will not punish a man for his own sins: if he will turn from all his sins that he hath committed: if he truly repents of them, and thoroughly forsakes them; for it must not be one sin only, but all; every sin is to be loathed and mourned over, and sorrow expressed for it, and to be forsaken; not one sin is to cherished and retained, but all to be relinquished: or the repentance and conversion may be justly questioned whether they be sincere: and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right; as the repentance and turning from sin must be general, so also obedience to the commands of God, both moral and positive; respect is to be had to all his ordinances, which are all of them to be esteemed as right and lawful, and to be observed: this is bringing forth fruits meet for repentance: he shall surely live, he shall not die; he shall live in his own land, and not go into captivity. Kimchi's note is, he shall live in this world, and not die in the world to come; so Ben Melech.

Ezekiel 18:21-23 . But if the wicked will turn from all his sins — That is, repent and bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. He shall surely live — He shall escape punishment: he shall be pardoned, and it shall be well with him in time and in eternity; as if he had said, So far is God from punishing the sins of guilty parents on their innocent children, as is objected above, that it is certain he does not punish even the guilty for their own sins, when they repent of and forsake them. Our God, who mercifully pardons the penitent for their own sins, will not, cannot for a moment, be supposed to charge innocent children, or any others, with the sins that are not their own. All his transgressions — That is, not one of all his transgressions; shall be mentioned unto him — Or remembered against him; that is, imputed to or punished on him; they shall be as if they were forgotten. God is said in Scripture to remember men’s sins when he punishes them, and not to remember them when he pardons them: see Jeremiah 14:10 ; Jeremiah 31:34 . Have I any pleasure, &c., that the wicked should die? — “Is it any pleasure to me that men should be wicked; or that those who are now wicked men, should die everlastingly? Is it not rather my desire that men should repent, and that the repentant should live? Is not this the very sum of my gospel, which I send into the world? Do I not call, and cry, and sue to men, that they would return from their sins, and be saved?” — Bishop Hall.

It is not in the nature of God, which is infinitely holy and gracious, to have any pleasure in the unholiness and misery of any of his creatures. It does not comport with the wisdom and rectitude of the eternal lawgiver and sovereign ruler of the world, to take delight in seeing his laws violated, the rights of his government infringed, and his subjects punished. And it cannot consist with the boundless love of the almighty Father of the universe to take pleasure in witnessing the wretchedness of his offspring; or with the infinite mercy of the Redeemer and Saviour of the fallen race of Adam, to delight in seeing those perish for whose salvation he gave his Son to die. On the contrary, he willeth all men to be saved, and, in order thereto, to come to the knowledge of the truth, and is not willing that any should perish, 1 Timothy 2:4 ; 2 Peter 3:9 . It is true that God has determined to punish sinners continuing in sin; his justice calls for it; and, pursuant to that, impenitent sinners will lie for ever under his wrath and curse. This is the will of his decree, his consequent will, but it is not his antecedent will, the will of his delight and good pleasure.

(21) I f the wicked will turn. —The prophet now takes up the fourth and last case—that of a change in the individual character. This has necessarily two sub-divisions: (1) that of the wicked repenting and doing righteousness ( Ezekiel 18:21-23 , and Ezekiel 18:27-28 ), and (2) that of the righteous falling into wickedness, ( Ezekiel 18:24-26 ), which latter case is more briefly treated, because the object is to encourage hope in repentance. This case, in both its parts, is first treated in Ezekiel 18:21-24 , and then, for the sake of emphasis, repeated in reverse order in Ezekiel 18:26-28 .

Verses 21, 22. - But if the wicked will turn, etc. Here, however, there is a distinct advance. The question is carried further into the relations between the past and the present of the same man, between his old and his new self. And in answering that question also Ezekiel becomes the preacher of a gospel. The judgment of God deals with each man according to his present state, not his past. Repentance and conversion and obedience shall cancel, as it were, the very memory of his former sins (Ezekiel's language is necessarily that of a hold anthropopathy), and his transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him (comp. Ezekiel 33:16 ; Isaiah 43:25 ; Isaiah 64:9 ; Jeremiah 31:34 ). Assuming the later date of Isaiah 40-66 , the last three utterances have the interest of being those of nearly contemporary prophets to whom the same truth had been revealed. Ezekiel 18:21

But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my {d} statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. (d) He joins the observation of the commandments with repentance; for none can repent indeed, unless he labour to keep the Law.

So far is God from punishing the sins of guilty parents on innocent children, as in the last instance, Ezekiel 18:14 to the end of Ezekiel 18:20 , appears, that he doth not punish the guilty for their own sins which they repent of and forsake. Our God, who mercifully pardoneth the penitent all their own sins, will not, cannot be supposed to charge innocent ones with the sins which are not their own. The wicked; or a wicked man, any wicked man among you, O Jews! who charge me with such severity, if the most notorious sinner. Turn, i.e. repent, for it is expressed by that word which implies repentance, and by the subsequent fruits of repentance. From all; it must be a total renouncing of sin. His sins that he hath committed; the penitent are most afflicted with the remembrance of their own sin, that which they committed, and watch most against it for the future. Keep all my statutes; resolve to endeavour seriously and diligently, for in God’s merciful judgment a gracious penitent soul keeps what he would keep, keeps all his statutes, in that he would transgress none of them. He shall surely live; he shall be pardoned, escape punishments, it shall be well with him: and this is the constant method of God’s proceedings with his people; he calls them to himself by promises of pardon, he never frights them from him by threatening to punish others’ faults on their backs. Leave your own, and you shall never suffer for others’ sins.

21-24. Two last cases, showing the equity of God: (1) The penitent sinner is dealt with according to his new obedience, not according to his former sins. (2) The righteous man who turns from righteousness to sin shall be punished for the latter, and his former righteousness will be of no avail to him. he shall surely live—Despair drives men into hardened recklessness; God therefore allures men to repentance by holding out hope [Calvin]. To threats the stubborn sinner oft is hard, Wrapt in his crimes, against the storm prepared, But when the milder beams of mercy play, He melts, and throws the cumbrous cloak away. Hitherto the cases had been of a change from bad to good, or vice versa, in one generation compared with another. Here it is such a change in one and the same individual. This, as practically affecting the persons here addressed, is properly put last. So far from God laying on men the penalty of others' sins, He will not even punish them for their own, if they turn from sin to righteousness; but if they turn from righteousness to sin, they must expect in justice that their former goodness will not atone for subsequent sin (Heb 10:38, 39; 2Pe 2:20-22). The exile in Babylon gave a season for repentance of those sins which would have brought death on the perpetrator in Judea while the law could be enforced; so it prepared the way for the Gospel [Grotius].

Turning to good leads to life; turning to evil is followed by death. - Ezekiel 18:21 . But if the wicked man turneth from all his sins which he hath committed, and keepeth all my statutes, and doeth right and righteousness, he shall live, and not die. Ezekiel 18:22 . All his transgressions which he hath committed, shall not be remembered to him: for the sake of the righteousness which he hath done he will live. Ezekiel 18:23 . Have I then pleasure in the death of the wicked? is the saying of Jehovah: and not rather that he turn from his ways, and live? Ezekiel 18:24 . But if the righteous man turn from his righteousness, and doeth wickedness, and acteth according to all the abominations which the ungodly man hath done, should he live? All the righteousness that he hath done shall not be remembered: for his unfaithfulness that he hath committed, and for his sin that he hath sinned, for these he shall die. Ezekiel 18:25 . And ye say, "The way of the Lord is not right." Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? Ezekiel 18:26 . If a righteous man turneth from his righteousness, and doeth wickedness, and dieth in consequence, he dieth for his wickedness that he hath done. - The proof that every one must bear his sin did not contain an exhaustive reply to the question, in what relation the righteousness of God stood to the sin of men?