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Matthew 5:33-37 (ESV)
³³  “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’
³⁴  But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
³⁵  or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
³⁶  And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
³⁷  Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

The passage we are considering is about oaths and vows. It may seem a little anticlimactic after all the discussion in 5:21-32 about murder, adultery, eye-plucking and hand-lopping. But the issue Jesus is addressing here goes to the very core of a person’s character – to the heart of what it means to live as a child of God.

We live in a culture in which the truth is often the first casualty of interactions between men. We have an incredibly elaborate system of lawyers and contracts and notaries and binding signatures to ensure that we do what we say we will do, at least when it’s perceived to be important enough.

And none of it makes people any more truthful. In fact, most people don’t even believe truth is an objective reality!

Changes in Moral Standards

• Biblical Morality (1800s-early 1900s) “Certain things are right and wrong, and I know why.”
• Abiblical Morality (1900-1950s)      “Certain things are right and wrong, but I don’t know why.”

Changes in Moral Standards

• Immorality (1960-early 1970s)         “Certain things are right and wrong, but I don’t care.”
• Amorality (late 1900s)                            “There’s no such things as right and wrong!”

(Fran Sciacca, Generation at Risk, 117.)

A study by Barna Research found that only 22% of adults in America believe there is even such a thing as absolute moral truth.

But the real kicker was what the study found related to those who profess to be “born again” Christians. They defined “born again” Christians as “people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus as their savior.”

Among that specific group, only 32% of adults and only 9% of teenagers said they believe moral truth is unchanging or absolute.

The study was entitled “Americans Are Most Likely to Base Truth on Feelings”

Less than one out of three born again Christians adopt the notion of absolute moral truth. The surveys also found that few Americans turn to their faith as the primary guide for their moral and ethical decisions.

Truth Is Relative, Say Americans

In two national surveys conducted by Barna Research, one among adults and one among teenagers, people were asked if they believe that there are moral absolutes that are unchanging or that moral truth is relative to the circumstances.

By a 3-to-1 margin (64% vs. 22%) adults said truth is always relative to the person and their situation. The perspective was even more lopsided among teenagers, 83% of whom said moral truth depends on the circumstances, and only 6% of whom said moral truth is absolute.

The gap between teen and adult views was not surprising, however, when the adult views are considered by generation. While six out of ten people 36 and older embraced moral relativism, 75% of the adults 18 to 35 did so. Thus, it appears that relativism is gaining ground, largely because relativism appears to have taken root with the generation that preceded today’s teens.

Moral Decision-Making

The surveys also asked people to indicate the basis on which they make their moral and ethical decisions. Six different approaches were listed by at least 5% of the teenagers interviewed, and eight approaches were listed by at least 5% of adults. In spite of the variety communicated, there was a clear pattern within both groups. By far the most common basis for moral decision-making was doing whatever feels right or comfortable in a situation. Nearly four out of ten teens (38%) and three out of ten adults (31%) described that as their primary consideration.

Among adults, other popular means of moral decision-making were on the basis of the values they had learned from their parents (15%), on the basis of principles taught in the Bible (13%), and based on whatever outcome would produce the most personally beneficial results (10%).

Teenagers were slightly different in their approach. One out of six (16%) said they made their choices on the basis of whatever would produce the most beneficial results for them. Three alternative foundations were each identified by one out of ten teens: whatever would make the most people happy, whatever they thought their family and friends expected of them, and on the basis of the values taught by their parents. Just 7% of teenagers said their moral choices were based on biblical principles.

What It Means

These figures were cited by George Barna, whose firm conducted the research, as a major reason underlying the data he released in a controversial recent public presentation about the moral views and behaviors of Christians.

In that forum Barna noted that substantial numbers of Christians believe that activities such as abortion, gay sex, sexual fantasies, cohabitation, drunkenness and viewing pornography are morally acceptable. “Without some firm and compelling basis for suggesting that such acts are inappropriate, people are left with philosophies such as ‘if it feels good, do it,’ ‘everyone else is doing it’ or ‘as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, it’s permissible.’ In fact, the alarmingly fast decline of moral foundations among our young people has culminated in a one-word worldview: ‘whatever.’ The result is a mentality that esteems pluralism, relativism, tolerance, and diversity without critical reflection of the implications of particular views and actions.”

Barna emphasized the importance of the data related to the views of teenagers and the born again population. “Just one out of ten of our country’s born again teenagers believe in absolute moral truth – a statistic that is nearly identical to that of non-born again teens. Christian families, educators and churches must prioritize this matter if the Christian community hopes to have any distinctiveness in our culture. The virtual disappearance of this cornerstone of the Christian faith – that is, God has communicated a series of moral principles in the Bible that are meant to be the basis of our thoughts and actions, regardless of our preferences, feelings or situations – is probably the best indicator of the waning strength of the Christian Church in America today.”

The researcher stated that the difference in truth views between born again and non-born again adults was statistically significant, but not much to cheer about. “When a majority of Christian adults, including three out of four born again Baby Busters, as well as three out of four born again teens proudly cast their vote for moral relativism, the Church is in trouble. Continuing to preach more sermons, teach more Sunday school classes and enroll more people in Bible study groups won’t solve the problem since most of these people don’t accept the basis of the principles being taught in those venues. The failure to address this issue at its root, and to do so quickly and persuasively, will undermine the strength of the church for at least another generation, and probably longer.”

Barna also reported that compared to a similar study his firm conducted a decade ago, the basis of people’s moral and ethical decisions these days is more likely to be feelings and less likely to be the Bible.

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The words we are considering were spoken by the One who declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) – The One whose Word IS TRUTH (Psalm 119:160). And He presents us with a standard of truthfulness that is infinitely higher than the standards of men.

James seems to echo the words of our Lord in his epistle, and he puts special emphasis on this command, introducing it with the words, “above all.”

James 5:12 (ESV) ¹²  But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Our Lord’s approach to teaching does not often hand us His essential point without any mental effort on our part. Jesus uses forceful words – words that pierce into us and turn our traditions and assumptions on their heads, and He makes us think about things as we would never think about them apart from the influence of His Word.

As the writer of Hebrews says, God’s Word is… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:12-13).

Some Christians have taken Matthew 5:33-37 to teach that we must not, under any circumstances, utter an oath or vow. So they refuse to take an oath in a court of law, in a marriage ceremony, or in any other situation. Is that our Lord’s point here – to create a new prohibition that didn’t exist under the Law of Moses and thereby to overcome men’s tendency to be untruthful? Part of me would love for it to be that simple, but I do not think it is.

Oaths and vows show up remarkably often in both testaments, and the Law addresses them a great many times. It is strikingly consistent that, aside from this passage and James 5:12, the rest of the Scriptures does not prohibit oaths. Indeed, the Law specifically commanded God’s people to swear their oaths in His name.

Deuteronomy 6:13-14 (the “Hear, O Israel” passage): “You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him, and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you” (emphasis mine).

Deuteronomy 10:20: “You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.”

These commands have in view the first and second commandments of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:1-5 (ESV) ¹  And God spoke all these words, saying, ²  “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³  “You shall have no other gods before me. ⁴  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

God’s people were to worship and serve Him alone, and were to swear by His name alone, because He is the One True God. God’s people were never to create or bow down to any image in the form of any created thing, because God alone is sovereign over all. To worship or serve anyone or anything except YAHWEH, the One True God, is to put that person or thing in God’s place. And to swear by any created thing is to make it an idol.

Leviticus 19:12 says, “And you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.”

This prohibition against swearing falsely by the name of God is critically tied to the third commandment of the Ten Commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7).

To take His name in vain means to invoke His name emptily, lightly, or profanely – to use it without humbly acknowledging the holy character of the One whose name you are invoking. To invoke the name of God in an oath or vow when your statement is false or when you do not intend to honor your words is a direct violation of the third commandment. And to invoke the name of God over a trivial or inconsequential matter is also a violation of the third commandment, because taking the name of the Lord in vain includes taking it lightly – treating it as common or trivial.

Hebrews 6:16 speaks of the first purpose of oaths, saying that with men, “an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.”

I find nothing in Matthew 5:33 that fails to match up with clear statements contained in the Law. The error of the Pharisees that Jesus is addressing here was not in misstating the Law; it is in mishandling the Law. They missed the point of the Law. We will come back to that shortly.

“But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:34-36).

What is the significance of swearing “by” someone or something?

In the Old Testament, when you swore by someone, you were invoking that person as: (1) a corroborating witness to attest to your words; and (2) a judge against you if your words were found to be untrue. You were invoking the name of one whose witness is reliable and trustworthy, to testify to the trustworthiness of your words. At the same time, you were acknowledging your accountability to that person, agreeing that you expected to be judged by Him if you were found to be speaking falsely. This is why, as Hebrews 6:16 says, “men swear by one greater than themselves” – i.e., one to whom they are accountable.

The Jews of Jesus’ day had put an interesting twist on all of this. They had trouble telling the truth consistently, just like you and I do, so in order to guard themselves against being found guilty of swearing falsely by the name of God, it seems that they had firmly established the habit of swearing by everything EXCEPT God. They wanted to add some kind of force to their promises to make their words more credible, but they didn’t want to incur the judgment of God by swearing something in His name when they didn’t fully intend to make it good or when it was not entirely true. They wanted to have their moldy cake and eat it, too. So they created what was in effect a lesser class of oaths – oaths that were bound to various parts of God’s creation rather than to God Himself. James Montgomery Boice refers to this practice as “evasive swearing.”[1]

As Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:34-36 point out, instead of swearing by God, they swore by “the heaven,” or by “the earth,” or by Jerusalem, or even by their own heads. Apparently, it got pretty silly. Oaths became like contests to see who could bind the most impressive object to his statements to give them the greatest force.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 23 show how absurd this all had become:

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’

17 “You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold?

18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering up on it, he is obligated.’

19 “You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering?

20 “Therefore, he who swears, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.

21 “And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it.

22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

Do you see where the scribes and Pharisees had taken this, and how Jesus stands their foolish logic on its head? They were coming up with all sorts of mental acrobatics to insulate themselves from accountability to God, and Jesus told them you cannot get away from your accountability to God by invoking things, because God is sovereign over all things!

You think that in swearing by the temple you avoid accountability to God to speak words of truth? It is the shekinah glory of God that makes the temple what it is – the dwelling place of God! You think that in swearing by heaven you insulate yourself from being seen by God in your lies? Heaven is the very throne of God!

Paul acknowledges that our “yes” must be “yes” and our “no” must be “no,” and yet, he employs an oath to affirm the genuineness of his motivation for changing his plans. From 2 Corinthians 1:

17 Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or that which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yes, yes and no, no at the same time?

18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

23 But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth (emphasis mine).

Verse 23 very much follows the pattern of the Old Testament oaths.

Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying (Galatians 1:20, emphasis mine).

For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:8, emphasis mine).

Paul repeatedly invokes God as his witness to emphasize the solemnity and the truthfulness of the things he is declaring, and he does so under the superintending of the Holy Spirit.

Was Paul violating the teaching of Jesus?

I don’t believe Jesus’ point in Matthew 5 is that oaths are evil or that an oath can never be legitimate. I believe His point is that the swearing of oaths as practiced by the scribes and Pharisees was evil, in its entirety – because they deliberately swore their oaths by everything EXCEPT God in a foolish effort to sidestep their accountability TO God!

Our Lord emphatically points out in Matthew 5 that God alone is sovereign over all things – heaven, earth, Jerusalem, even the hairs on your head. And you – you are sovereign over nothing, not even your own hair. No matter what you choose to swear by, it is God to whom you and I and every other created thing are accountable, and you’re accountable to Him whether you swear an oath or don’t swear an oath. You’re accountable to Him every time you open your mouth.

It would be better to swear no oath at all than to think you can contrive a way to avoid accountability before God to be a truthful person.

Our “Yes” must be yes and our “No” must be no. No oath can make that so. Being believed is nothing. Being a truthful person in the eyes of our heavenly Father is everything.

For us who are His children, our Father’s words show us how to live. May we desire to turn the light of His truth upon our own hearts first and foremost.

As you contemplate our Lord’s teaching regarding oaths and vows, I ask that you won’t focus exclusively on hashing out examples of how we fall short of God’s standard of truthfulness. I ask that you devote some time and thought to consideration of how we become truthful people – truthful from the heart.

I’m not saying our behavior doesn’t count. As children, we all start by learning how we are required to behave, then we hopefully learn to internalize the principles we have been taught. So the behavior can feed the heart, and the heart certainly feeds the behavior. But let’s focus on the goal of godly lives from godly hearts. We will not speak truth in our hearts if we are not in love with the One who is Truth.

• Brothers and sisters, let us be truthful people because we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
• Let us be truthful people because God re-created us to be pure in heart.
• Let us be truthful people because we desire to be salt and light in a world that desperately needs our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
• Let us be truthful people because we long to live out the lovely character of the One who gave us life at the cost of His own life’s blood.
• Let us be truthful people because we are our Father’s children.

That’s reason enough.

[1] James Montgomery Boice, The Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2002), p. 131.

  

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1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.	Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.	Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.	Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.	Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.	Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds	Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs	Fight for a few underdogs   anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.	Build anyway.
9. People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them.	Help them anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.	Give the world the best you   have anyway.

David Augsberger, When Enough is Enough, (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1984), pp. 109-130

    

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We have always been curious about seeing the invisible, so we create great microscopes so that we might see microbes and even atoms. We create telescopes so we can see the galaxies and stars so far away. There are, however, some things we can never see, at least with physical eyes. Some things can only be seen with the eyes of faith.

So much of what is best about Christianity cannot be seen by human eyes. When we do develop our spiritual eyes and are enabled to see what is of the greatest value, then we see that the visible is not worth comparing with the invisible.

1.The visible decay is not worth comparing to the invisible renewal (v. 16).

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Eventually the human body stops growing. Eventually, little by little, the body ages. As we age, sickness becomes more common. As we age, the pain becomes more intense. This decline never has to happen to our spirit.

2. The visible affliction is not worth comparing to the invisible glory (v. 17).

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

    The affliction we must face here is light. The affliction we must face here is temporary.

3. The visible existence is not worth comparing to the invisible existence (v. 18).

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

   This life is not all there is. As beautiful as it sometimes can be, God has promised a better place. This life is temporary. Everything we experience here will someday fade, but that which is eternal only grows more beautiful.  This life is not the best God has for us.

Conclusion

In April of 1988, a TV cameraman jumped out of a plane with some other skydivers.  His goal was to record the exciting jump of the skydivers as they fell to the earth.  What’s more, this footage was shown on the local TV news, but not for the reasons why the cameraman had originally recorded the event.

After several minutes of “free fall,” the cameraman then filmed the skydivers as they one by one opened their parachutes. Of course, the final skydiver was the cameraman himself and the time came for him to pull his parachute ripcord.

However, when the cameraman reached for his ripcord, he realized to his horror and shock that he had no ripcord.  It turns out that he had completely forgotten to put on his parachute.

This story is not only tragic, but it is also ironic.  Ironic because the cameraman took a plunge into what appeared to be an exciting and thrilling jump.  But tragically, in a moment of foolish carelessness, he made the worst mistake of his entire life: he jumped to his own death.  Yes, his faith had been based upon a parachute — a life support — that wasn’t there.

In the same way, if we based our lives upon anything other than faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will make the biggest mistake of our entire lives as well.  That is, faith other than in Christ will lead to our spiritual deaths!  What’s more, this spiritual death will be for all eternity — forever and ever!

The most important things in life are things we cannot see. We trust a book, whose original we have never seen, to help us learn about a man we have never met, to save us through an event we have never seen, and take us to a place we have never visited. Nevertheless, we believe.

    

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From the human point of view, nothing seems more permanent and durable than the planet on which we live. When we say that something is “as sure as the world,” we are echoing Solomon’s confidence in the permanence of planet Earth. With all of its diversity, nature is uniform enough in its operation that we can discover its “laws” and put them to work for us. In fact, it is this “dependability” that is the basis for modern science.

Nature is permanent, but man is transient, a mere pilgrim on earth. His pilgrimage is a brief one, for death finally claims him. At the very beginning of his book, Solomon introduced a topic frequently mentioned in Ecclesiastes: the brevity of life and the certainty of death.

Abraham Lincoln had ten guidelines by which he lived and governed his life. He followed these guidelines until the day he died:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

We must begin with some widely repeated verses from the Old Testament: Exodus 20:5 “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.”

Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Is God saying that the children and the grandchildren of the father would have to pay for the sins of their father?  What does God mean by this?  Especially since Deuteronomy 24:16 says “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin” and that “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” (Ez 18:20).

The idea that the sins of the father will be laid on the son, grandson, and other generations has long been understood and misunderstood by many Bible students.

Certainly, the lessons we teach by word or deeds are often repeated by family members, and that just reminds each of us to be careful what we teach AND do.

As the Father Goes, so Goes the Family

But we also need to listen to the repeated lessons from Ezekiel 18:1-32 (ESV).
As you read this chapter, you find the prophet answering the erroneous statements the Jewish exiles were making about God and their difficult situation (vv. 2, 19, 25, 29). God knew what His people were saying and so did His prophet. Ignoring the inspired Word of God, the people were building their case on a popular proverb: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” In other words, “Our fathers have sinned and we, their children, are being punished for it.” Their philosophy was a kind of irresponsible fatalism. “No matter what we do,” they argued, “we still have to suffer because of what the older generation did.” The Prophet Jeremiah quoted the same familiar proverb and preached the same truth that Ezekiel preached: God deals with us as individuals and punishes each of us justly for what we do (Jer. 31:29-30). He is a just and righteous God who shows no partiality (Deut. 10:17; 32:4). If He withholds punishment, it’s only because of His grace and merciful longsuffering. (from the Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) – Old Testament – The Bible Exposition Commentary – The Prophets.)

It seems that these ideas might have come from a proverb often repeated: “The word of the LORD came to me: ²  “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

A new time is now made known from God: “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. ⁴  Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. ⁵  “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— ⁶  if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, ⁷  does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, ⁸  does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, ⁹  walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁰  “If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things ¹¹  (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, ¹²  oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, ¹³  lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

¹⁴  “Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: ¹⁵  he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, ¹⁶  does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, ¹⁷  withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live.

¹⁸  As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity. ¹⁹  “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.

²⁰  The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. ²¹  “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²²  None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.

²³  Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? ²⁴  But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.

²⁵  “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? ²⁶  When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. ²⁷  Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. ²⁸  Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²⁹  Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?

³⁰  “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. ³¹  Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? ³²  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

The conclusion of this message was an invitation from the Lord for the people to repent (change their minds), turn from their sins, cast away their transgressions like filthy garments, and seek a new heart and a new spirit. God promised them a new heart if only they would seek Him by faith (Ezek. 11:19; see 36:26). This was one of the key themes in the letter Jeremiah had sent to the captives in Babylon (Jer. 29:10-14), but the people hadn’t taken it to heart. God made it clear that He found no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23, 32), but if the wicked found delight in their sinful ways and would not repent, there was nothing the Lord could do but obey His own covenant and punish them.