The Second Sunday in Lent (OT)

Ezekiel 33:10-20

¹⁰ “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ ¹¹ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹² “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. ¹³ Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. ¹⁴ Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, ¹⁵ if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶ None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷ “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. ¹⁸ When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. ¹⁹ And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. ²⁰ Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

What is true justice? Is it possible to follow this path for eternal life? The righteous must remain holy. The unrighteous must repent and do good. Those who turn from the ways of the wicked will live, and those who remain wicked will die. Doesn't everyone die (with the exception of Enoch and Elijah)?

Many people think that The Lord is not just. This passage seems to ring true today. And the really strange thing is from a legal point of view, God should kill us all. The penalty for your wickedness is death. You deserve to die of and over again. You deserve to die for you hatred, cheating, lying, stealing, sexual immorality, and all other wickedness. You do not deserve forgiveness. You can not earn forgiveness. 

But the just and holy God follows his own Justice. He provides grace upon grace for your forgiveness. God loves you so much that he makes justice. Jesus Christ dies on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. He is the justifier. He makes this scenario of repentance and forgiveness just and holy. Justice is provided for you in the gift of Christ's crucifixion.