Ezekiel
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Ezekiel Chapter 18
This indicates a proverb that teaches that children have to be held accountable for what their parents do. It is not the doctrine taught in the word of God. Although children may inherit the tendency to commit certain types sin because of the influence of ungodly parents, they are not held accountable unless they actually commit the same sins. In the law it states that God will visit the iniquity upon those that commit it unto the fourth generation but I believe that means if there is no repentance and the children continue in the sins of the fathers which is usually the case.
All of us are answerable to God as individuals. It is the soul that sins that shall die both physically and spiritually. If one reaches physical death still "in sin" or in a sinful state, they lose their souls for eternity. It is the one who sins which shall suffer that death, not the parents or the children. Since all of us over the age of accountability have sinned in one point or another (sin is transgression of God's law), we all need to be forgiven and have our sins cleansed or taken out of our lives.
Eating on the mountains is referring to the eating in connection with idolatry which took place in the mountains where high places for idolatrous worship took place. These may have been temples or other places used to sacrifice to idols. Idolatry was forbidden according to the law of the Lord. The 2nd commandment forbids the making of images to bow down in worship either as a representation of the real God or an image to a false god. Defiling a neighbor's wife would be adultery. The law of cleansing in the Torah forbade having sexual relations with a woman during the time of her menstrual period. Oppression against the weak, the widow, orphan etc. was considered sin against God. According to verse 7, we are to pay our depts. Violence and robbery was of course forbidden. Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked was part of God's law and do neglect this was sin. The children of Israel were not allowed to charge interest on loans for their brethren but were allowed when it came to strangers. They were not to take increase from their brethren (all of Israel). They were not to be part of any iniquity. They were to judge fairly if they saw two in dispute and had to settle the dispute.
If a father has a son that sins and does all these things breaking the law of God, the son only is held accountable, not the father. I will assume here that the son is of age where he is not under the roof or authority of his father such as a young child still living at home and under the care of a responsible adult.
A son which rejects the way a sinful father lives and does not follow in his footsteps but lives in righteousness, the son is not accountable for what his father did before him. Every soul is held accountable for his own sin, not the sin of a family member.
To die in one's iniquity would mean the soul is lost for eternity.
Here is see the law of grace and mercy in the Old Testament. The future death of Christ that paid the price for all sins, covers those that lived before the coming of Christ. To be saved in the time before Christ, one simply had to stop sinning and live by the law. The future death of Christ for their sins paid the price for their past sins. Under the new covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, it is still the same. To repent means to stop sinning and start living for God. We still have to turn from sin to be saved. The difference from then and now is that we know of the one who came to save us from sin and who paid the price for all our past sins. Since we know of the price Jesus paid, we are held to a higher standard because we know of the one who died for sin and gave us the ability to stop sinning and live for God. We now have the help of the Holy Spirit which is given to individuals who believe in the savior God sent to save from sin.
This is all God asks of us. To turn from sin. One has to believe in God to be able to turn from sin. He has to be aware of God's law in order to know right from wrong. Since the coming of Jesus Christ, we have been given a new and living way. The law is written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit once we have believed in Jesus Christ. We do not have to rely on will power alone but we have help. To repent of sin and believe in Christ is to be "born again" by the spirit of God. It makes it a whole lot easier than trying to memorize the whole law and have to use will power to keep it in all points. As far a the animal sacrifices and ordinances in the law, Christ fulfilled them by His own death for sin. We are no longer under the sacrificial requirements of the law but we are still under the moral law of right and wrong. The moral law is the law that tells us what sin is and what causes the soul to be lost and have to die eternally. Although the soul really exists somewhere, it is eternal separation from God in hell if the soul sins and remains in sin until death of the body. In the new and living way through Jesus, the power will be within us to teach us what sin is, convict of sin and lead us to repentance.
This is the opposite of a wicked person changing and doing righteousness and the sins are not remembered when one repents. In this case if a person who was once righteous and kept God's law turns away from that law and does sin, refusing to turn again to righteousness, he shall die in his sin and be lost. This is where the eternal security people and I will part company. This is the word of God here that shows us that if one leaves off being righteous and does sin and dies in that state, they are eternally lost. That word has not changed. His righteousness is not remembered just like the sins of a sinner is not remembered if he turns to righteousness. Through Christ it works the same. Jesus fulfilled the law, He did not change it. If a person repents of sin and believes in Jesus and then goes back into sin without ever repenting of sin, then that person is lost. These words were spoken by God, not man. It doesn't matter what men teach, the man who sins and continues in that sin with no genuine repentence, whether he has ever been saved by faith in Christ or not, will die and not live. What determines our eternal life is what state we are in when we reach physical death. If we live as a sinner and we repent one minute before we die, we will have eternal life. Only God can determine whether or repentance is genuine of course but Christ's death pays for the sin of any who repent at any time and all sins at that point are not held against him. That is how powerful the gospel of Jesus is. However, if we have believed in Christ. To believe means more than just believing He once existed. To believe means to partake of Christ to follow Christ and to keep His words. If we do not keep His words, we do not really believe in Him. The difference though is that when one has received Christ and turned from sin and then sins again, the Holy Spirit will convict right away and bring him back into repentance so it is less likely that he will be lost than we think. It is only when we continually reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit and willfully turn back into sin that we are in danger of being lost. Some say that person has really never been saved. I've known people though who once loved God and lived for him that did indeed backslide and return to sin. I do believe that God plans to save and save for eternity but we still have our own willpower, we are not puppets. To return to sin is not as easy as we think but it is possible to be saved, return to sin and be lost if we continually reject the correction of the Holy Spirit.
It is what we do at the time of our natural death that counts, not our past. This is still in place today. Through Jesus though, there is power to live a new life that does not want to sin. In Christ we have a different, "Want to". We still can be tempted but we have someone within to help us overcome that temptation and not return to the filth we were saved from. The Holy Spirit abides within us to steer us in the right direction. Still we are not puppets with God pulling the strings. The Holy Spirit is gentle. He doesn't force us to live righteous but He is there to guide, lead and counsel us not to return to sin. Natural man has no ability in himself to keep from sinning but when we come by faith to Christ, we are given the strength and help we need. If we own a construction company and hire carpenters, we make sure they have all the right equipment before they are sent out to do a job. Christ came to save us from sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. To receive this, we must believe this. We can't receive something we don't believe. The above mentioned carpenters are not going to take any equipment if they don't believe it will be of any use. They have to have faith that the tools they take on the job will do what they want them to do. Christ gave us all the right equipment to live a life of righteousness after we are saved. He doesn't always give everything and every gift to us all at once but we receive a measure of the Holy Spirit the moment we believe. As we continually walk with the Lord we then continually seek Him and are filled with His spirit as we keeping yielding and seeking His help through prayer and through the study of His word. We always need to be refreshed in the spirit and filled with the spirit and not allow the cares of this life to smother what we receive with a lot of junk. If we eat junk food, we will have a junky unhealthy body. We must eat the right foods to be healthy physically. We must have the right spiritual food to be spiritually healthy. If we come to Christ, forsake our sins and began to watch TV, attend sports and spend time hearing our friends tell dirty jokes, and we never spend any time in prayer or in the study of the word, we will be more likely to return to the old sin Jesus saved us from. If after coming to Christ, we spend the majority of our time with Christ, in prayer and in the word, we will continually grow spiritually and be filled with the spirit. I believe in a one time infilling of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I do believe in the evidence of speaking in tongues but I do not believe that is all. I believe in being filled with the spirit and have many times of refreshing in the Holy Spirit. We need to be saved at one time but continue in the word and in the truth growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. That way we are insured against backsliding and going back the way we came. When we first come to Christ, it is just the beginning of many times when we enter into the presence of the Lord through prayer, through public worship with other believers and in the study of His written word. The bible says he that believes in Jesus inherit eternal life and receive rivers of living water within. Naturally if we stop believing, we will return to sin and be lost. To believe means to receive, follow and live by His word. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is power given to us for service where we then can give this message to others so that they too can believe. This is not a one time event but is continual and active until we go home to be with the Lord who saved us. Just like we have to eat food to live, we have to eat spiritual food to live and walk in the spirit. As a tree that will dry up if it doesn't have water and nourishment from the soil, so we will dry up if we don't get spiritual food as we walk with the Lord. A good passage about this is John 15.
This applies to believing Gentiles as well. Repent and turn from all your transgressions so iniquity will not be our ruin.
Here we have the promise of a hew heart and a new spirit. They could have this in the Old Testament merely by turning and casting away their transgressions. God pleads with them here: Why will you die O house of Israel? God cares so much for us that He sent His own Son to die a horrible death to pay for the sins that we have done. He does not desire the loss of any soul for eternity. He cares. It has not changed. In our day the one who ushers in the way of salvation has already come. We now have to turn from sin like they did in the days of Ezekiel but with one added requirement. We have to believe in Jesus Christ in order for our transgressions to be removed and forgiven. Why? Because Christ is the only one in heaven and earth who has the power to take away our sins. To not believe in Him is to reject His power to remove sins and if we do not believe, we will remain in our sins. Jesus said this, not me. He said if you do not believe that (I am He) meaning the one who God sent to take away sins, then you shall die in your sins. Before Christ came, they knew from the law given by Moses that God was going to send a prophet similar to Moses.
For one to turn from sin and live righteous was enough to save his soul until the one came who would die for all sin. In order for His death to count though, we have to believe in Him and believe to the point to where we are willing to forsake our sin and live in His righteousness. Why would God require an Old Testament person to repent of sin and not require one who believes in Christ to repent of sin. It is sin that Jesus came and bore on our behalf. Why should we who have known Christ and have known why He died, be allowed to sin and get away with it just because we say we believe. If sin is sin and sin separates us from a holy God, sin would separate us again if we return to it after Jesus has cleansed us from sin when we came to believe in Him. This is willfully sinning continually, not making a mistake by going over the speed limit or getting angry at someone temporarily. Sin is transgression of the law, not living a life that is perfect at all times. God sees our heart and after we come to Jesus, we usually grieve over any sin we do and in our hearts repent. If we don't care whether we sin or not and continue in it without caring what God thinks, that is a dangerous sin that can steal, kill and destroy. God sees the heart though that doesn't want to sin.
Here we see the whole heart of God. We see how He desires to save. For a good picture of the heart of God, read the book of Jonah. Jonah was sent to a people to tell them of God's judgment and that their city was going to be destroyed. The whole city repented so God held off judgment. He wanted to save them, not kill. God in His mercy will save those that turn from unrighteousness and turn to Him for salvation. He cannot however, allow sin to continue indefinitely. He has to stop it sooner or later. If mankind continually fails to repent, judgment will come. As God pleaded with the Israel, He still pleads with us today. It is not His will that any should perish but all come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. If we sin, just repent and turn back to God.
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