Articles
The Way of the Lord Is Not Fair
Judah has accused God of injustice regarding the severe judgments against them by the Babylonians. God calls upon Ezekiel to set forth a clear principle of transaction between heaven and men: “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezk 18:4, 20). The point is made throughout the chapter that God’s judgment is conditional, based upon the free will moral choices of each person.
Judah had coined a proverb that sought to escape responsibility for their troubles: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (18:2). “It’s not our fault!” cries Judah. “We’re not responsible! Our fathers sinned and we are the ones paying the price. God is not fair!”
God tells them that He will forever remove this sorry excuse that the people are hiding behind (18:3). He gives a scenario that brings the issue into clear focus:
The Just Man (18:5-9): God describes a man who is just and does what is lawful and right” (18:5). He gives a brief character sketch that highlights his rejection of idols, honest dealings, compassion on the poor and overall spiritual purity. God says, “He is just; he shall surely live!”
His Wicked Son (18:10-13): God then tells of this godly man raising a son who totally rejects the values of his father. He is an idolatrous, vicious thug who extorts money and takes advantage of the helpless. God’s verdict: “He shall die; his blood shall be upon him.”
The Righteous Grandson (18:14-18): God now considers a third-generation child who “sees all the sins which his father has done, and considers but does not do likewise.” He follows in the footsteps of his grandfather whom God declared just. “He shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live!”
To drive the point deeper, God declares: “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (18:20).
The Changed Man (18:21-24): What’s more, God contemplates a change during the lifetime of a man: “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statues, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live … None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live” (18:21-22). And the opposite is true of the good man who forsakes God and becomes a reprobate (18:24).
God Is the Fair One (18:25-29): In light of this divine principle of “reaping what we sow,” God challenges Israel: “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?” God is not punishing Judah for the sins of past generations. They need to face the fact that He is directly responding to their own moral and spiritual choices.
Some observations:
1. Though the specific doctrine of Calvinism didn’t exist in Ezekiel’s day, similar ideas were present. This passage completely refutes them. In His scenario God does not contemplate a depraved spiritual condition, inherited from Adam or otherwise, that makes a man incapable of choosing righteous behavior. He places responsibility for sin directly upon the perpetrator of it: “The soul who sins shall die.”
2. The Calvinistic concept of sovereignty, which holds that every act of man is predetermined before creation by God, is nowhere in sight. The subjects described by God are making free-will choices to obey or not. The “just” man “does what is lawful and right” (18:5). The grandson “sees all the sins which his father has done, and considers but does not do likewise” (18:14). What is this but choice? To say these are following a predetermined path twists the passage into nonsense.
3. Further, a good man can change and become bad. This does not mean he never really was good, for God said, “When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness …” (18:26). This is not a man who was “unconditionally elected” by God to be evil and thus his true colors finally came out. “It is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies” (18:26). God is responding to the chosen virtues or vices of man.
4. God declares His fairness, i.e, that He is consistent and accurate in dealing with men according to their response to Him. Here is Calvin’s concept of God’s “fairness”: “By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or to death” (Institutes 3:21:5).
Further, Calvin says: “Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment” (Institutes 3:21:7 via Elect in the Son 47).
In answer to such a monstrous distortion of His nature God simply says, “Is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?” How in any sense can a “just and blameless” God arbitrarily create some men to be saved and others to eternal damnation without any consideration of their free-will choices? God be thanked that He is not only fair but gracious and merciful and holds out to all mankind the hope of spiritual change and forgiveness: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2).
