Ezekiel 18
Key Verse: Ezekiel 18:4
The Bible
teaches us that God is just. He holds every person accountable for his own sins.
Finally, as
Our society has not encouraged the
principle of personal responsibility. Instead we have taught people to blame
someone else, or something else, for their problems. So we have now a
generation of people who hold other persons responsible for their errant
behavior.
The more we study the Bible, the
more we comprehend the fairness of God. In our ignorance we may presume God is
not fair. When we do so, we are wrong.
God reveals in Holy Scripture
certain principles of the Kingdom. They are true for one person anywhere. They
are true for all people everywhere.
These principles are not subject
our amendment. In our great wisdom we often think foolishly that we can
instruct God. We cannot. He is the instructor; we are his children. We have a
choice. We can live well by God’s kingdom principles, or we can break ourselves
by ignoring these principles. What are they?
1. God
desires and expects that each of us obey him.
2. God
blesses us in response to our obedience.
3. God
will punish us for our disobedience.
4. God
holds each of us accountable for our sins.
5. He
does not punish us because of the sins of another person.
6. God
takes no pleasure in punishing us for our sins.
7. God’s
mercy never ends; it is everlasting.
8. God
will forgive us when we repent and turn away from our sins.
9. God
promises life to those who repent.
10. Those who
refuse to repent have chosen death instead of life.
I grew up with and loved very much
a cousin whose parents were alcoholics. He and his siblings suffered because of
the behavior of his parents. But God did not inflict this suffering upon them;
their parents did.
My cousin could have excused
himself from righteous living by blaming his parents for his misdoings. But he
did not. He chose to be responsible for his own life. He rose above his
circumstances, lived a godly life, and became a compassionate Presbyterian
pastor. God honored his obedience and blessed him with a wonderful wife and
family.
It all boils down to the question:
am I willing to do my best to obey God. None of us can do that perfectly, but
all of us can want to do it.
When I went to watch my grandson
Jake play football, I tried to get his attention from the sidelines to no
avail. Finally it dawned on me that his eyes were on only one person, his dad.
He was playing his heart out for his dad, consumed by a desire to please his
dad.
That is how we need to live our
lives: with a consuming desire to please our heavenly Father by obeying his
principles for living.
When we weary of living for our own
pleasure, God is more than ready to welcome us with open, loving arms. He waits
for us to repent and turn from our sinful ways so that he can give us life, and
life abundant! +++