Ezekiel 18 and Responsible Grace

“I most certainly don’t want anyone to die! This is what the LORD God says. Change your ways, and live!”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭18‬:‭32‬ ‭CEB‬

As I read Ezekiel 18 this morning, it hit differently. It felt perhaps like the first time I’ve really read and considered the weight of the words. It is a master class on responsible grace.

Starting with verse 4: God says, “All lives are mine; the life of the parent and the life of the child belong to me. Only the one who sins will die.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭18‬:‭4‬ ‭CEB

Consider that this can be read two ways…

The one who sins will die physically and eternally, that’s the easy one to grasp, but could we also read that by God’s will, our response to grace can cause the sinner in each of us to die, revealing our new life in Christ…

This brought me to the familiar quote from C.S. Lewis:

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

The rest of chapter 18 drives this knowledge home… How we respond to God’s grace is a question of life and death.

Art by Christopher Powers. Used with permission - fullofeyes.com