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,
God has already passed sentence on the wicked man. Yet He tells Ezekiel to announce that a real turning can still undo it. The exiles were blaming God's ways, and the verse raises two questions. Why warn a man at all if judgment is fixed? And what is the "life" promised to the one who turns?
Why God warns before He strikes
God repeats His own verdict on the wicked man, then offers him a way out. One writer finds the purpose of such a warning in God's dealings with the city of Nineveh:
J. N. DarbyNineveh has listened to God. Now, if God threatens, it is so that man may turn from his iniquity and be spared. Why else should He warn the sinner? Why not leave him to ripen unwarned for judgment? But these are not the ways of God.
The answer to a people who had given up
The exiles had sunk into despair. One commentator sums up what God's answer says to it:
William KellyIt was a day of judgment, not of grace, which some strangely confuse with it. Despair would achieve nothing; repentance would. Past righteousness should not shield present sin. Past sin should not block a present turning away from it.
Turning that shows in conduct
The promise hangs not on the turning alone but on doing what is just and right. Commentators treat that visible change as the test of a real turning:
F. B. HoleIf a man claims to have repented, we can rightly require the change to show in his daily life before we fully accept his claim. But this has nothing to do with preaching good works as an aid to our justification.
What the death and the life mean here
Much depends on what "you shall surely die" and "he shall surely live" refer to. One writer sets the passage on the level of God's dealings with men on earth, not eternity:
Numerical Bible NotesNotice that in all this we are on the level of God's outward, visible government. That government stands out clearly in the prophecy of Ezekiel, and it fits there. So the death threatened to the wicked is not simply the death we all live under. Nor is it eternal death as the doom of every unrepentant soul, as many suppose. It is a removal from earth, under the government of God, which even now works for the blessing of the upright with Him, as the apostle also tells us, that "godliness holds promise for the present life" as well as "for the life to come."
Another writer keeps that government apart from grace:
C. H. MackintoshTo be merely a subject of God's government is one thing; to be a subject of His unchangeable grace is another. We should never confuse them.
Mercy offered to the worst, one man at a time
Judgment had fallen on the nation. Yet the door stayed open for each person inside it, and one writer shows what that open door rested on:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe answer Jehovah sends them shows the principles by which He will deal with each one as a just God… Judgment rested on them as a nation, but the individual could still turn to the Lord in repentance… The wicked man who confessed and gave up his sin would find mercy and forgiveness, while the unrepentant would surely die and not live. This gracious promise looked ahead to the work of the cross, the redemption by the blood of Christ. That is how God could pass over the sins of Old Testament believers who turned to Him and still be shown righteous (Romans 3:25).
Set beside the case of the righteous man who falls, the weight of the section rests on the other side:
Numerical Bible NotesBut what is emphasised more is the mercy that awaits even the worst and most wicked who turn to God. Yet the people would lay all the blame on the Lord's ways, as if they were not equal. It was their own ways that were unequal, and their conscience must surely testify against them.
Summary
- Warning — God announces death to the wicked so that the man may turn and live. Silence would leave him to ripen for judgment unwarned.
- Turning — despair achieves nothing; repentance does. Past sin is no barrier to turning from it now.
- Doing — daily life tests a claimed change. The works prove repentance; they do not help to justify.
- Living — the life and death here belong to God's visible government on earth. Commentators keep that apart from His unchangeable grace.
- Mercy — the stress of the passage falls on mercy for the worst. The nation stood judged, yet one man in it could turn and live, on the ground of a redemption still to come.