The Lord spoke to me, “Why do you say these words, ‘The fathers ate bitter grapes, but the children get the sour taste in their mouth?’ As I live, you will not say these words again in Israel. All people belong-to Me. The father and the son are mine. The person sinning will die.” Ezekiel 18:1-4
What would you think if I told you, “You will die!” You might be surprised, or offended, or angry. Especially if I tell you that as your pastor. You might tell me, “Pastor, wait! You are supposed to give me the Gospel, not the Law. Tell me about Jesus saving me.”
True enough. A pastor’s job is to preach about Jesus. But it is also true, the Law preaches about sin and announces God’s judgment against sin. We are not always eager to have the Law. We prefer the Gospel.
But honestly, sometimes we don’t want the Law or the Gospel. We prefer to feel comfortable with our sin. We don’t want to feel guilty. Then when the Law tells us about our sin, we avoid the Law and blame other people for our sin. We don’t want to take responsibility. My problems? Other people caused my problems. They caused my sin. It’s not my fault.
Adam and Eve did that when they sinned. Eve blamed the snake (devil) for her sin. Adam blamed Eve and he blamed God.
But blaming doesn’t help you. Think about this. Suppose you are driving foolishly and you get into an accident. You can blame the other driver. You can blame other people, the weather, etc. But that doesn’t fix your car. The same, even if we blame other people for our sin, that changes nothing. We are still stuck with our sin.
God’s Law accuses you. His law threatens you with death. Why is the Law so hard? God wants you to wake up and realize that sin is a problem. Sin is your problem. What do you do?
The Gospel says God took your sin and put it on Jesus. That sin, our sin, became His problem. Jesus died to take away your sin. That is His promise in the Gospel.
So we can ignore the Law? No. The message of the Law is still important. The Law still warns us and tells us to confess our sin, to admit we are wrong. We might be afraid to do that. We might be afraid what other people will think if we admit our sin. They might think we are weak.
That doesn’t matter. We don’t care what they think. We care what God thinks and what He says. If we are afraid of people, or if we are afraid of admitting our sin, that leads to judgment and death. But repentance and trusting God takes away our sin through Jesus, and God gives us forgiveness and life.
Don’t deny your sin. Don’t blame other people. Confess and repent, and believe the good news in Jesus. He gives you life! Don’t give that up.
