Ezekiel 18:24

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. BUT IF THE WICKED SHALL TURN FROM ALL HIS SINS ... BUT WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS TURNETH AWAY FROM HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ... 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). (, "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.") `To threats the stu...

As in the last lecture the Prophet offered to sinners a sure hope of pardon if they heartily repented, and promised that God would be propitious to them as soon as they shall seek reconciliation with him: so now, on the other hand, he pronounces,_if the just shall decline from his justice_, whatever he has hitherto done, shall not come into the account before God. He urged sinners to repentance when he assured them that God was prepared to pardon them: but he now frightens those who profess for the occasion to be pure and sincere worshipers of God, if they fall back in the midst of their course: as Paul says, Let him who stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12.) Besides, we gather from this passage, as Christ teaches, that those only are happy who persevere, (Matthew 24:13;) since a temporary righteousness will never profit those apostates who a

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. Ezekiel 18:26; Ezekiel 18:27 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, returni...

Verse Ezekiel 18:24. _WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS TURNETH AWAY FROM HIS_ _RIGHTEOUSNESS_] Here is the _second_ case. Can a man who was once holy and pure, fall away so as to perish everlastingly? YES. For God says, "If he turn away from his righteousness;" not his _self-righteousness_, the gloss of theologians: for God never speaks of turning away from _that_, for, in his eyes, that is a _nonentity_. There is no righteousness or holiness but what himself infuses into the soul of man, and as to _self-righteousness_, i.e., a man's _supposing_ himself to be _righteous_ when he has not the _life of God_ in his soul, it is the delusion of a dark and hardened heart; therefore it is the _real_ _righteous principle_ and _righteous practice_ that God speaks of here. And he tells us, that a man may so "turn away from this," and s...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 18:1, EZEKIEL 18:2 WHAT MEAN YE, THAT YE USE THIS PROVERB, etc.? Another and entirely different section opens, and we see at once from what it started. Ezekiel had heard from the lips of his countrymen, and had seen its working in their hearts, the proverb with which they blunted their sense of personal responsibility. They had to bear the punishment of sins which they had not committed. The sins of the fathers were visited, as in Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:7;...

BUT WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS TURNETH AWAY FROM HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS,.... This is to be understood, not of a truly righteous man; for no man can be so denominated from his own righteousness; but from the righteousness and obedience of Christ; and such a man cannot turn from his righteousness; for that is the righteousness of God, and can never be lost; and is an everlasting one, and will always endure; and with which eternal life is inseparably connected: but this is to be interpreted of one that is reckoned so from his own righteousness, what he himself has done, and not from another, from the righteousness of Christ, which he has wrought out; he is one that is righteous in his own esteem, and in the account of others; who is outwardly righteous before men; who trusts in himself that he is righteous, and trusts to his own righteousness; see Ezekiel 33:13; whose righteousness is not an evangelical...

Ezekiel 18:1. In Ezekiel 18:1, we find the false accusation against God and the divine answer, and this is followed in Ezekiel 18:5 by the conditions of life, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). But the conditions to have life and to be just cannot be fulfilled by sinful man; nor is In these verses “eternal life” in view; these are not conditions to secure “eternal life,” but to escape physical death in the announced judgment. The conditions which bring death are given in Ezekiel 18:10. The son does not die for his father's sins, as th

RIGHTEOUSNESS. So Hebrew text; but margin, with scone codices and one early printed edition, read plural. "none of his righteous acts The Hebrew verb is plural TRESPASS. TRESPASSED. Hebrew. _ma' al._ App-44....

Although it would have sufficed for the prophet's purpose to assure the repentant sinner of God's forgiveness, he has a certain theoretical interest in the principle which he is insisting on which makes him develop it on the other side also....

B. The Potential of Personal Repentance 18:21-32 TRANSLATION (21) But if the wicked one turns from all his sins which he has done, and keeps all My statutes, and deals justly and righteously, he shall surely live, he shall not die. (22) All of his transgressions which he has done shall not be remembered against him; in his righteousness which he has done he shall live. (23) Do I have delight in the death of the wicked? (oracle of the Lord GOD); is it not when he turns from his way and lives? (24) But when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked has done, shall he live? All his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered for his trespass which he committed, and for his sin which he has sinned, in them he shall die. (25) And you say, The way of the Lord is not even. Hear now, O house of Israel: Is it My...