Ezekiel 18:31

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. THEREFORE ... As God is to judge them "according to their ways" (Proverbs 1:31), their only hope is to "repent;" and this is a sure hope, because God takes no delight in "judging" them in wrath, but graciously desires their salvation on "repentance." I WILL JUDGE YOU. Though ye cavil, it is a sufficient answer that I, your Judge, declare it so, and will judge you according to my will; and then your cavils must end. Repent-inward conversion (Revelation 2:5. "Repent and do the first works"). In the Hebrew [ s...

Ezekiel again exhorts the people to leave off complaining, and to acknowledge that there is no remedy for their evils but to be reconciled to God. But that cannot be done unless they repent. For God was not hostile to them in vain; nor did he, after the manner of men, persecute with hatred the innocent, and those who did not deserve it. Hence it was necessary to seek God’s pardon suppliantly. Ezekiel had already touched upon this, but he now confirms it more at length. He says, therefore, that they not only lost their labor, but increased the flame of God’s wrath by striving with him, and complaining that they were unworthily treated by him: _cast forth_, says he, _your iniquities from you_. He shows that the cause of all evils is within themselves: so that they have no excuse. But he afterwards expresses more clearly that they were entirely imbued with contempt of God, impiety, and depr...

30-32 The Lord will judge each of the Israelites according to his ways. On this is grounded an exhortation to repent, and to make them a new heart and a new spirit. God does not command what cannot be done, but admonishes us to do what is in our power, and to pray for what is not. Ordinances and means are appointed, directions and promises are given, that those who desire this change may seek it from God....

Verse Ezekiel 18:31. _CAST AWAY_] With a holy violence, dash away every transgression and incentive to it. _MAKE YOU A NEW HEART_] Call upon God for it, and he will give it: for as sure as you _earnestly call on God through Christ_ to save you, so surely you shall be saved; and the _effect_ will so speedily follow, that God is pleased to attribute that in some sort to _yourselves_, which is done by _his grace_ alone; because ye earnestly _call_ upon him for it, _come_ in the right way to receive it, and are _determined_ never to _rest_ till you have it. _FOR WHY WILL YE DIE_] Who should you go to _hell_ while the kingdom of God is open to receive you? Why should you be the _devil's_ _slaves_, when ye may be _Christ's freemen_! WHY WILL YE DIE? Every word is emphatic.

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;...

CAST AWAY FROM YOU ALL YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS WHEREBY YE HAVE TRANSGRESSED,.... As unprofitable and pernicious, to be abhorred and abstained from, and to be cast off, as loads and burdens upon them. Kimchi interprets it of the punishment of their sins, which might be cast off, or escaped, by repentance; perhaps it is best to interpret it of the casting away of their idols, by which they transgressed; see Ezekiel 20:7; AND MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT; which the Lord elsewhere promises to give, and he does give to his own elect; Ezekiel 11:19; and if here to be understood of a regenerated heart and spirit, in which are new principles of light, life, and love, grace and holiness, it will not prove that it is in the power of man to make himself such a heart

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

WHEREBY, &c. The. Septuagint reads "which ye have committed against Me". HEART. SPIRIT. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for all that is of the spirit, and not of the flesh. Compare Luke 1:44; Luke 1:47; John 4:24. "The flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-49....

Exhortation to repentance founded on the principle that God will deal with every man according to the condition in which he is found....

MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT— The prophets often exhort the Jews to an inward purity and holiness, that they might not rely upon an outward legal righteousness, and a scrupulous exactness in the observance of the ritual parts of the law. By thus instructing them in a more excellent way of serving God than the ceremonial law directly prescribed, they prepared their minds for receiving those truths which would be more fully displayed by the Gospel. Calmet says excellently upon this verse, "We can do nothing well of ourselves; we have of ourselves nothing but sin: all our power comes from God; and with the aid of his grace we can do all things. But if, on the one hand, we ought to humble ourselves on account of our impotency, on the other hand we ought to hope in Him, who giveth to all liberally, and who willeth not our death, but our conversion." We learn from this useful chapter,...