Day 244 – Ezekiel 18-20

Talking Points

• Sin has consequences. And, while those consequences can sometimes be cumulative, impacting generations to come, God’s Word is clear: responsibility (guilt) rests with the one who sins.
• In the Old Testament and the New Testament alike, the consequence for sin is death (Ezekiel 18:4,20). “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
• Revealing God’s character, the Bible says God doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). He will judge, yet His heart always yearns for repentance and restoration of the erring sinner. He truly is merciful!
• God calls for people to “repent and turn away” from their sins that they might not be a stumbling block (18:30). Today, we must be convinced: entertaining sin and staying in its proximity will only cause future issues with sin. Instead, we are to be deliberate and vigilant to flee from sin.

Thoughts

Ezekiel quotes a popular proverb of the day. In fact, it was so common Jeremiah quotes it, too. It holds that one generation sins and the following generation bears the guilt. “The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ezekiel 18:2, Jeremiah 31:29). One can only guess that it was so popular because it allowed people to displace the guilt of sin. Instead of recognizing that God’s judgment and the consequences of sin are upon those guilty of the sin, people were blaming some previous ancestor. It was our version of, “It wasn’t me.”

Today, we try the same blame game: “Sin is not my fault, but it’s my environment, my parents, my situation, etc.” The world even helps us assign the blame everywhere except where it truly rests — with us. Sin is explained away instead of owned up to.

Why do you think that is?

Here’s why it matters: A necessary tenant of the gospel is ownership of sin. In order to be saved, we must acknowledge what we are saved from — God’s wrath toward sin. Our sin. It is only in seeing our sin and accepting full responsibility for it that we will turn to Jesus, the Remedy for sin, the only Hope for sinners. While playing the blame game may seem to help us sleep better and temporarily alleviate our anxiety, it will not push us to true rest. That is found only in Jesus.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)