Be Like Your Father
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?
- Ezekiel 18:23 -
Ezekiel 18 asks a painful question: Who should bear the guilt of sin? Many in Israel felt they were suffering because of the sins of earlier generations. But God corrects that thinking. Under His covenant justice, each person stands or falls for their own sin. The righteous father does not pay for the wicked son, nor the son for the father. Each soul Is responsible before God.
But this raises complicated situations. What about the man who begins well but ends in wickedness? And what about the wicked man who genuinely repents late in life? Our instinct is often to demand fairness as we define it—we want people to “pay” for the evil they’ve done.
Yet God’s response is startlingly different. He declares that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. His delight is in repentance. His joy is in the sinner turning and finding life.
This heart of God is what Jesus reveals so clearly in the New Testament. Jesus weeps over rebellious Jerusalem. He welcomes tax collectors. He loves His enemies. He tells us to pray for those who harm us because that’s exactly how our Father treats His enemies—He desires their salvation.
So when we encounter a wicked person, we should hate the wickedness, but we should never hope for their ruin. We imitate the Father when we long for their repentance. We should not be like the older brother, angry that mercy is offered. We should rejoice when someone who was far from God is restored.
This is the heart of the gospel:
God does not delight in judgment. He delights in showing mercy.
