Paid in Full

This post prepared by Diane Ward, who will be posting regularly on Tuesdays.

Ezekiel 18:20 (NIV)

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Our sin debt was paid in full at Calvary – According to Romans 3:25 the death of Christ applies even to those who lived before the Cross. That is, all who believed that the coming Messiah would take away their sins and give them eternal life obtained eternal life as a result of the Messiah's substitutionary work.

When Simeon saw the baby Jesus in the temple he rejoiced at having seen the salvation of Israel. He was looking for the One who would come to take away sins and give eternal life. Simeon is an example of an OT believer.

“Struggling against the legalism of simple obedience, we end by setting up the most dangerous law of all, the law of the world and the law of grace. In our effort to combat legalism, we land ourselves in the worst kind of legalism. The only way of overcoming this legalism is by real obedience to Christ when he calls us to follow him; for in Jesus the law is at once fulfilled and cancelled.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

If Ezekiel 18 is dealing with eternal life, then it teaches that eternal life can be gained and lost and gained again. For we find that God says both that if a wicked man turns from his wicked ways he will live (vv. 21-23) and that if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die (v. 24).

The soul that sins shall die. To put it another way, to save your soul, your life, you must live a godly life. The more we sin, the more we invite our own deaths. While death may well not be immediate, sin clearly never pays.