Sermon Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 18:20
These passages severally profess to give a rule of Divine dealing, if not with the world generally at least with the people of Israel. And at first sight certainly they seem to enunciate principles which are diametrically opposed. To use the language of modern controversy, the one seems to adopt and the other to repudiate, the doctrine of imputed sin.
I. Quite independently of other difficulties, the picture of the Divine government drawn by Ezekiel at once suggests these questions Is it true? Is it true that the son does not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the iniquity of the son? Ask the history of the world. What answer does it give? Blighted fortune, blighted name, blighted health, descending even to the third and fourth generation do they not tell you that the son doesbear the iniquity of his father? Father of a bad son, sinking brokenhearted into his grave, can you not read in his withered life that the father doesbear the iniquity of the son? It needs but small acquaintance with the world's history to know that in this life vicarious suffering is no mere theological fiction, but a terrible reality.
II. We have but to admit that the lawgiver and the prophet are speaking of different things, and the difficulty of these two passages will almost disappear. (1) The whole scope of the Mosaic law, so far at least as its sanctions are concerned, is in the present life. Gratitude for earthly blessings, hope of earthly prosperity the law strikes no higher note than these, and therefore we may fairly interpret Exodus 20:5 as referring to this life only, and as containing a statement which, even without Scriptural authority, we should know to be true. (2) The Divine message delivered by Ezekiel tells us, in fact, that the rules by which the world of eternity is governed are not identical with those which rule the world of time. It tells us that things are permitted, done, nay, ordained here,which find no place there.And one of these essentially temporary ordinances is vicarious suffering. The suffering of the innocent does play a large and important part in the history of this world. And if there were no other world than this, it would be hard to reconcile such an ordinance with the existence of a perfectly moral governor. But look to that wondrous existence, some glimpses of which Christianity opens to our view. Think of all the powers of compensation for earthly suffering which may be found there; and then say whether, as a matter of pure selfishness, it may not be well for the innocent sufferer himself that he has suffered. Certainly St. Paul thought so when he declared, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son and Other Sermons,p. 103.
References: Ezekiel 18:20; Ezekiel 18:21. S. Cox, Expositions,3rd series, p. 1.Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 18:32. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1795.