Open to Suggestions
“The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.” Ezekiel 18:20 NASB
Person who sins – It’s not good English, but maybe it’s necessary. The phrase han-nepeš ha-ḥote’t really reads something like “the person the sinning.” In other words, the participle of ḥāṭāʾ (“to miss, sin, incur guilt, miss the way”) acts like an adjective of nepeš. It describes this person. So it’s not “the sinner,” that is, someone who has sinned. This is the sinning person, the one who is continually disobeying. Does that make a difference? Well, yes, and no. Yes, it makes a difference because the next few verses tell us that God does not want those who have disobeyed to be lost. It makes a difference because God is ready to forgive and restore. But it doesn’t make a difference if we think we are somehow not accountable once we have been forgiven. As we discovered yesterday, returning to the vomit is possible.
But here the focus is on something else. Here the focus is on the transfer of guilt from one who is being disobedient to one who is not. Ezekiel’s words make it abundantly clear that punishment is not distributed from the guilty to the innocent. Every person stands on his own. The son does not bear the punishment of the father. The father does not bear the punishment of the son.
Perhaps we need to read that again—slowly. It has some remarkable implications. First, of course, is the complete dismissal of the idea that we are punished because of Adam’s failure. “No way,” says Ezekiel. We stand according to what we have done, not according to what someone else did. So you can kiss “federal headship” and “original sin” goodbye.
Second, this statement seems to put a nail in the coffin of generational sins. According to Ezekiel, the punishment of a subsequent generation for the guilt of a prior generation is a myth. It just isn’t right. Of course, we already had a sense that generational curses were “unfair,” but it’s hard to overcome apparent evidence without biblical reference. So now you have it. God says one man shall not carry (nāśāʾ) the load of another. It’s not just “punishment.” It’s suffering. One man’s misdeeds will not result in another man’s suffering, at least not from God’s perspective. But this is just counterintuitive. Of course one man’s iniquity results in harm to another man. We see it all the time. So Ezekiel cannot mean that there are no consequences passed on. What he means is that God does not distribute guilt and as a result treat the second party as if he had sinned.
Third, and perhaps much more uncomfortable, is the application of the prophet’s words to the crucifixion. Does Yeshua bear the punishment of the wicked? That’s how we usually understand the idea of death on the cross. But then how do we reconcile God’s proclamation in Ezekiel? One man does not bear the punishment that another man deserves, even in God’s court. We may have to rethink the whole idea of the penal theory of atonement. That theory claims that Yeshua died in order to satisfy the legal conditions placed upon the guilty. His death was the substitute for ours. But Ezekiel says that’s impossible. An innocent man cannot be punished for a guilty man.
Maybe something else is happening on the cross. Or maybe Ezekiel just got it wrong (or we don’t understand him). I’m open to suggestions.
Then there’s Leviticus 26:39 which seems to say exactly the opposite of Ezekiel. And Exodus 34:7, which properly interpreted, supports what Ezekiel says. It’s just so confusing. Maybe the whole idea of sin is a lot more malleable than we wish.
Finally, there’s this:
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord God. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live” (Ezekiel 18:30-32).
Topical Index: nāśāʾ, to carry, to lift away, ḥāṭā, sin, miss, generational curse, atonement, original sin, Ezekiel 18:20
My first cent: “The person who sins will die”… This statement is what Paul refers to when he writes “The law of death”… Same way of expressing when we refer to the common saying about the “law of gravitation”… “what goes up, must come down”. In other words, when Paul writes “The law of death”, he is NOT referring to Torah.
Here goes my second cent: “Maybe something else is happening on the cross.” I believe that Yeshua is the only man that has been able to do what Adam was supposed to do… “Do not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”… Yeshua didn’t. He never decided what was good or what was evil. He did not take that role. That is God’s prerogative, not man’s (we all have transgressed that instruction from God).
As a result of Yeshua’s obedience, the Way to the Tree of Life was opened to Him. Remember? Mankind was not allowed to reach the fruit of the Tree of Life as it is written in Genesis 3:22-24:
And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So, that is what I think that happened on the cross. He was obedient to the extend that he never decided what was good or what was evil. (As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. Mark 10:17-18) So, “the law of death” didn’t have any effect on Yeshua… it couldn’t. When Yeshua died on the cross, there was no way death could win… He didn’t deserved it. He was the only one that have lived without transgressing any Torah instruction. So he streched out his hand, and took the fruit from the Tree of Life. In other words, the “Tree of Life” might as well be called the “Tree of Obedience”.
In Revelation 5:1-5, we read about this same concept, when John writes:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Here, the visión uses a scroll (Torah scroll) that is sealed, meaning that no man has been able to fullfiled it. But Yeshua reaches out and opens it.
Shalom!
Alfredo,
Here’s my two cents: I agree with you!
Thanks for your insight.
My two cents; G-d doesn’t change His “Laws”. NO human sacrifice, (Human sacrifice is an abomination, sacrifice was used to show what the cost was required for sin, life’s blood. ATONEMENT (to cover) not forgiveness, an animals life for that of a human.) Hashem says over and over in the TaNaKah that we are given grace and IF we Obey and follow that which He has already given we will be forgiven. No one takes another’s sin. Yeshua IS Torah, the “Truth” the “Life” the “Way”. Yeshua died by political murder, BUT the need for his death was to set the building stone for the Kingdom to come (the Kingdom is near) and the Resurrection. The Resurrection is Hashem’s gift of life. WE make things hard. G-d made it simple. Follow what I’ve said for a GOOD life, Love Me and that which I created as you love yourself. (Torah) I wasn’t a Christian, then I was, now I’m not, Not Jewish either or anything other then Believing that G-d Created EVERTHING. I like to think of myself as a member of the “Way”. HE loves us, (which is beyond my understanding) and His Creation. IF you read the Scripture and NOT just read the Scripture His Truth is there. He didn’t make it hard. He opened my ears to hear and my understanding to see. HE, has lead me to where I am. Praise and Blessing be His Holy name! “THERE IS NO OTHER”! Duet. 4:39b.
Shalom Aliechem
The difference between guilt and punishment: there is one because Love made one. There is even more of a difference between consequences and remediation (repair) of the fracture sin causes. Therefore, suffering consequences does NOT ‘fix’ the problem! Why? Because God has mercy on us. He has found a way to give us another chance AND to fix the problem; to satisfy both mercy and justice. His death accomplishes both in a profound mystery.
Death is a CONSEQUENCE of sin; which is to say the fracture of annihilation is the natural result of sin; but what we know of as death does not ‘fix’ the problem because it is not really annihilation; it is merely sleep. (If that were the case, people who commit suicide because of sin would be right in doing so.) Now, how somebody decided that the experience of the fracture sin causes (suffering) would somehow ‘fix’ the fracture I don’t know, but, y’all, that don’t make no sense (which makes it an evil surmise). Guilt is not the same as suffering, either. Suffering does not ‘pay’ for sin. Yeshua made that clear in the incident of the healing of the man blind from birth. You are so right; it is time to start over with this subject!
Beginning questions:
1. What is sin; I mean, what is the pathology of sin; what constitutes the thing we call sin? Sin is the negation of love; sin is a break in the line of love. That break is experienced (pathologically) as death.
2. If sin causes death, why are sinners walking around today? Short answer, of course, is grace, but, again, I am asking about the pathology of grace. How is grace experienced? Most often, I have decided, we experience grace as curses. The curses were instituted as substitutes for instant death; they give us time to choose again, as well as incentive. The suffering of curses does NOT ‘pay’ for sin, however; they just reset the choice playing field. The wages of sin is still death.
3. What is guilt? Again, there are, I think, two answers. The legal definition, of course, is about responsibility, but the pathological answer (how is guilt experienced) is that we were given consciences. Unfortunately, the more guilt we incur, the more the conscience gets “seared”; therefore, it is unreliable to let us know when we have sinned. That is why we need the Law to tell us where we are messing up – to be guilt for us. When we are conscious of our guilt (because of our schoolmaster, the Law) , we can then make new choices about it; we can take responsibility again. BUT, because none of us have the ability to actually handle our own guilt – to take that responsibility – the best we can do is to acknowledge the sin and repent. God has to handle our guilt for us because we lack the capacity to do that.
4. What are the curses? Are they ‘punishment’ for sin; which is to say, if we suffer from them are we able to achieve innocence from guilt? The curses are not punishment; nowhere does the Bible say that. It tells us that DEATH is the punishment for sin. Death – total annihilation of existence – is the only thing that ‘fixes’ sin. Small problem: death takes us out along with our sin. No one survives the payment ( the first death is not death; it is “sleep” and therefore ‘pays’ for nothing). The curses are not payment, either; they are the DELAYING of that payment; therefore, suffering them does not ‘fix’ the problem, either.
5. What is repentance? Is is payment for guilt? No. Only death is payment; only death can remove guilt. Where does repentance come in, then? Repentance (pathologically) resets us back to the starting line, but the legal aspects of repentance – which is about actually erasing guilt – we cannot do. Repentance is a gift of God because He vicariously accomplishes what we merely choose for Him to accomplish. We repent – the guilt disappears, but our end of repentance did not ‘pay’ for the sin; that payment occurred on the other end – the other half of that gift. God turns us around and returns us to innocence; we just choose to let Him.
There may be surface corollaries between justice found in the world and God’s justice, but, in practice, they could not be more different, because the world has no basis to dispense of grace (pompous claims of Popes notwithstanding). The justice of God is dispensed entirely through grace, and so therefore is unrecognizable by us as justice because we do not understand what Christ did for us. We simply do not know. But I revel in that mystery, for in my (pathological) experience, I have encountered the results of that justice by means of that grace, and I DO know what that freedom feels like. Which brings me to my final question of the day:
6. What basis does grace have in satisfying justice? As far as I have been able to understand (not that far) I think I know a few things about sin, and the chief thing is that sin is a liar; I was lied to. Now, I fell for the lie, but only because I believed it to be true. Here is where justice comes in. Justice decrees that I get another chance – by means of the curses – to see exactly WHY the lie is a lie so that I can choose better next time. Grace creates that chance – again, by means of the curses, or, suffering – for me to see the truth. Suffering is not about paying for sin; suffering is about seeing sin for what it is. That, y’all, is justice! Halleluah!
Thank you for sharing your in depth view with us, I really appreciate it.
One aspect the cross seems to confront is an emotional space that YHVH has appealed to and seems to be a central theme; the ability to distinguish dread from reverence. In my experience these are the same feeling. Its my choices, my experience and my understanding that effect my response. Reverence is the foundation for the awe of YHVH.
Abraham engaged and kept all of torah, mishpat and commandments long before they were given. He shared this with Issac. Its the theme of Passover; on and on. The giving of the torah seems as the framework to facilitate this where in Deuteronomy YHVH longs for a people who will fear Him as Moshe fears him.
The image of the rowboat has helped me as I enter this yet a bit differently than we discussed so far. Hebrew is phenomenological ( lol I cooldn’t spell this before Skip’s writings). The image of receiving from behind as you move forwards seems for me to describe the difference between natural discernment and connections vs relational bonding / joined in the spirit. What is coming to me and what is coming through me; the latter seemingly coming from behind. The ability to connect to dread while joined in reverence is one of the hardest spaces I have and continue to struggle with. The ability to be as a weaned child and as a child weaned (Psalm 131:2) is part of this.
My understanding is that God wants our contrite, repentant heart. That was always the case in the OT. The repentant heart was required for the intentional sins. The sacrifices were offered up for the unintentional sins, as well as fellowship, Olah, a pleasing aroma to God etc., so we could enter into fellowship with Him. They also provided a way to cleanse the Temple, where God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. I’ve never considered that perhaps Yeshua died for our unintentional sins only…as well as the Olah, the fellowship wave offering and pleasing to God. Perhaps the repentant heart is still the ONLY way to receive forgiveness for our intentional sins. Of course, the consequences still stand. The Church has always taught that Yeshua’s death, along with repentance, covered all sin, intended or not. Guess I’m going to have to do a little more research…and “be open to suggestions.”
Well put Judy
Hi Michelle…Thanks! ?