Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord Jehovah. Return ye, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your snare.
God ends His argument with Israel here. They had claimed His way was unfair; He answers by promising to judge each person by his own conduct. In the same breath, He calls them to turn.
The people had accused God of being inconsistent. Instead of silencing them, He came down and argued the case. One writer notes how far God stooped in doing this:
The godless in Israel dared to challenge the consistency of God's ways in His dealings with the people. He took notice of this, and in grace came down to reason with them. By then their ways had got so bad that He left His own sanctuary.
The complaint itself exposed where they stood:
Their complaints were nothing but empty objections… It is always likely to be so. Those who put God's ways on trial, whether in mercy or in judgment, have never seen themselves in His light. How humbling for Israel, or for anyone, that God should stoop to justify His own dealings, or to press home how sinful we are!
The word for "ruin" carries the weight of a penalty. One writer notes that the Greek Old Testament reads "so iniquity shall not be your punishment" (Frederick W. Grant). But commentators warn against pushing the chapter's talk of death too far:
Another important thing to note here is the misuse of the word "die"… But dying in its positive sense is never applied to the soul. People constantly quote Ezekiel 18 for this, and good people do it with good intentions. Yet it speaks only of death in this world — present judgment here, not for a father's sins but for our own.
Read that way, the chapter is about how God governs people now, and the gospel's grace is not yet in view:
Remember through all this that God is not speaking of the final account in eternity. He is speaking of entering His favour now, or coming under His judgment now, in the way He governs. This passage says nothing at all about the grace of God's mercy, as the gospel has shown it to us. God's ways in government are before us, and this is the constant theme of the prophet. … Their ways, not His, were unequal, so judgment was at hand. Still, He would have them turn from all their transgressions, so that these would not become their destruction.
The command is about direction, not feeling:
But what does repentance mean? Not fear of the consequences of sin, nor even sorrow for the sin itself, though that will surely go with it. Repentance is a complete turn. When God commands all men everywhere to repent, it is as though He said, "Right about turn!"
One writer points to this verse as the classic example of repentance under law. He sets it against the repentance the gospel preaches:
"Oh yes," I replied. "The repentance of the law was a man trying to forsake all sin and do all righteousness, and so be saved. But the repentance of the gospel gives up all claim to righteousness." … Sorrow for sin, forsaking sin, and living to God — if anything is works, these are. If you seek salvation by works this way, you can never have enough of this repentance to get saved.
Verse 31 goes on to tell Israel to make themselves a new heart. Elsewhere God promises to give it, and commentators note that the nation has not yet received it:
They still remain under the condemnation of their sins. As a nation they have plainly never yet received the new heart and the new spirit that go with this… It is not mere reformation. It is no work that man can perform. David testifies that God must create in him a clean heart, and the promise here matches it: "I will give you a new heart." Only the new heart He gives can change their condition.
Yet the gift never cancels the choice. As one writer puts it, "the new heart given is a heart which chooses freely the service of its Master" (Frederick W. Grant).
- Charge — Israel said God's way was unequal. Their complaint was an empty objection, and those who put God's ways on trial have never seen themselves in His light.
- Verdict — Judgment falls on each person for his own conduct. The death in view is present judgment in this world, not the soul's fate in eternity.
- Command — "Repent" is not fear of consequences or even sorrow, but a complete turn: right about face.
- Caution — Repentance under law tries to forsake all sin and do all righteousness to be saved. You can never do enough of it. Gospel repentance gives up all claim to righteousness.
- Cure — God tells man to make himself a new heart, but no reformation can produce one. The heart God demands here is the heart God elsewhere promises to give — and it then serves Him freely.
Cast away from you all your transgressions wherewith ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit why then will ye die, house of Israel?
God has just spent a whole chapter shutting down Israel's excuses: the blame passed to their fathers, the charge that His ways are unfair. Now He turns from argument to appeal, and asks them for the one thing He elsewhere promises to give them — a new heart.
This call comes to people who had been arguing that God is unfair. One writer says their complaint falls apart as soon as they see themselves in God's light.
The mouth of Israel is closed. Their murmurs were only quibbles. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?... It is always apt to be like this. Those who find fault with the ways of the Lord in mercy or in judgment have never seen themselves in His light. How humbling for Israel, or for anyone, that God should stoop to justify His own dealings! How humbling that He should bring home to us the conviction of our own sinfulness!
So what death does this verse warn about? One writer draws a careful line.
We must remember in all this that Ezekiel is not speaking of the final account in eternity. He is speaking of entering now into the favour of God, or coming now under His judgment, in government. Nor is the grace of God's mercy, as the gospel has shown it to us, spoken of at all. It is God's ways in government that are before us, which is the constant theme of the prophet.
Later in the same book God promises, "I will give you a new heart." One writer reads the two passages together, and that promise settles who does the work.
They still remain under the condemnation of their sins. It is plain that as a nation they have never yet received the new heart and new spirit that go with God's cleansing... It is not mere reformation; it is no work that man can perform. David testifies that God must create in him a clean heart, and the promise here declares: "I will give you a new heart." Only the new heart He gives can change their condition. That new heart is itself the effect of a new spirit put within them.
Another writer marks the difference between this chapter and the promise that follows later.
It is a call to conscience, not the call of grace in which God promises that He will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. That grace will show itself in self-loathing, true repentance, and fitness for future blessing.
The command is not asking for better habits.
By dropping bad habits and picking up good ones, men sometimes achieve a good deal of the moral change that lies on the surface. But the moral renewal Ezekiel predicts goes down to the deepest foundation. It gives a man a new heart and a new spirit, so that he desires what is good by instinct and walks in obedience. No wonder the Lord Jesus called it a new birth, since it is not the altering of a nature that already exists, but the giving of a nature that is entirely new. The new heart is "given." The new spirit is "put within you." It is to start over from the very beginning.
Jesus once told Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, that he needed a new birth. One writer says Nicodemus should have known this already, and points to this verse.
Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel. He should have known that a new birth — "a new heart and new spirit" — was needed even to share in the earthly blessings of the kingdom. The passage in Ezekiel 18:31 bears on this, and Ezekiel 36:24-31 does so still more directly. In that later passage, they will have this new heart and spirit when God gathers them from the nations into the land of their forefathers, to enjoy their "earthly things" there. How much more is it needed to enjoy the "heavenly things" which the Lord had come to reveal.
The closing question is not cold. God clears Himself of any pleasure in a sinner's ruin and puts the blame where it belongs.
God's love to all men shows us that infinite goodness from which men have to tear themselves away. It is the goodness of which He has sworn: "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?"... Men die because of their own will, not of God's will; yet they die.
- Demand. God ends His case by telling Israel to throw away every transgression and make a new heart. Their quarrel with His fairness came from never seeing themselves in His light.
- Inability. The new heart is not reformation and not repair; it is a nature that did not exist before, so no one can manufacture it.
- Gift. What He commands here, He promises later: "I will give you a new heart." The demand exposes a need only His gift can meet.
- Reach. New birth is needed for Israel's blessings on earth in the kingdom, and needed all the more for the heavenly things Jesus taught Nicodemus.
- Appeal. God swears He takes no pleasure in the sinner's death; if a man dies, he dies by his own will, not God's.
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord Jehovah; therefore turn ye and live.
God ends a long chapter about judgment not with a sentence, but with a plea. Israel had complained that His dealings were unfair; His last word to them is an offer of life.
God stoops to answer that complaint, and the answer exposes the ones who made it.
It is always likely to be this way. Those who find fault with the Lord's ways have never seen themselves in His light. That holds whether He acts in mercy or in judgment. How humbling for Israel, or for anyone, that God should stoop to justify His own dealings! How humbling that He should press home the conviction of our own sinfulness!
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches. Some read the whole chapter as God's government of His people on earth, not as a statement about eternity.
Everything people try to draw from this chapter in an Arminian sense has no foundation. The chapter replaces the Jewish principle of government, that the "children should die for their fathers' sins," with the declaration that "each should die for his own." We know from other teaching in Scripture the terrible effect of a person dying in his sins. But that is not the direct subject here. If it were, the law would have condemned a son's soul because of his father's sins, which is monstrous. It is the government of the Lord that the chapter is about.
Others hear in the same words God's heart toward everyone.
The verse says something about God before it says anything about us. Even when He does act in judgment, He calls that work foreign to Himself.
First, it is not because judgment is His delight... God pleaded like this with Israel long ago. So we may be sure He is no more willing to carry out judgment now on the Christian world and on the nations. Even where He foretells those judgments in the most solemn terms, He speaks of rising up to do "His work, His strange work," and to bring about "His act, His strange act."
If that is true, then no one who is lost can ever say God was cold toward him.
No one will find at the end that the Father's heart has failed toward any of His creatures... No: men must tear themselves out of the arms that are ready to close around them. God has not turned away from us. He needs no reconciliation, though people's creeds may charge Him with it. "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20).
The verse does not stop at what God feels. It hands the hearer a command and, with it, the responsibility for the outcome.
The Lord replies, as He had declared many times before. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants them to turn from their wickedness and live. For anyone who truly turned to Him, God would remember none of his past wickedness against him... So only one choice was left. God still pleaded, as He had been pleading, for them to turn from their evil ways and live. Why would they die? Their death was of their own will and not His... But the emphasis falls on the mercy that awaits even the worst and vilest who turn to God.
Two roads lie open, and the choice is real.
God sets life and death before men — life, if they believe and keep His word; death, if they resist the truth to the very end.
This chapter presses the conscience. The promise of a new heart is a different word from God.
This is a call to conscience. It is not the call of grace, in which God promises that He will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. That grace shows itself in self-loathing, true repentance, and fitness for future blessing (Ezekiel 36).
God spoke these words to one nation. Jonah shows how far they reach. He preached judgment on the foreign city of Nineveh, and he wanted it to fall.
Why should God have given forty days' notice, unless He wanted to give time for repentance?... Suppose the Lord had dealt with Jonah's own nation as Jonah wanted Him to deal with Nineveh. Then no Israelite of any tribe would be left on earth today.
- Turn — the charge. Israel called God's dealings unfair. Only those who have never seen themselves in His light find fault with Him.
- Turn — the scope. Commentators differ. Some read Ezekiel 18 as God's government of His people here and now — each dying for his own sin, not his father's. Others hear in it God's heart toward all.
- Turn — the heart. Judgment is God's "strange work," not His delight; no one will ever prove the Father's heart failed toward him.
- Turn — the reach. God gave Nineveh forty days to repent. His patience does not stop at one nation's border.
- Turn — the result. God remembers no past wickedness against the one who turns. Those who die, die by their own will, not His.