The Soul That Sees: A Covenantal Antithesis Text: Ezekiel 18:14-18
Introduction: The Sour Grapes of Individualism
We live in an age that is fiercely democratic in its approach to sin. Every man wants to be his own Adam. We want the right to choose our own sins, thank you very much, and we certainly don't want to be saddled with the consequences of anyone else's poor decisions, least of all our fathers'. This sentiment finds what appears to be scriptural support in Ezekiel 18, a chapter that has become a favorite proof text for those who wish to dismantle a covenantal understanding of the world. The Israelites in exile had a proverb: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." In other words, "We are being punished for what our fathers did. This isn't fair."
God's response through Ezekiel is a thunderous refutation of their fatalistic blame-shifting. He declares, "The soul who sins shall die." This is the bedrock of individual accountability before God. But our modern, anti-covenantal age hears this and immediately misunderstands it. They take it to mean that there is no connection between the generations, no federal headship, no corporate responsibility. They use it to argue against the imputation of Adam's sin. They want to atomize humanity, to make every man an island, responsible only for what he does in the isolated vacuum of his own life. But this is not what Ezekiel is teaching. To read this chapter as a repudiation of covenant theology is to misread it entirely.
God is not canceling the principle of generational consequences. The Ten Commandments are clear: God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, and shows steadfast love to thousands of generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments (Ex. 20:5-6). This is the fabric of a moral universe. Actions have consequences that ripple through time. What God is confronting here is the abuse of this principle. He is confronting those who would use their father's sin as an excuse for their own. He is dismantling the refuge of victimhood. You cannot blame your father for the sin that you yourself are committing and enjoying.
The passage before us today presents a glorious counter-example. It is a portrait of a righteous son who breaks the wicked pattern of his father. This is not a man who is saved from the covenant, but a man who is saved within the covenant by clinging to the covenant God his father rejected. He demonstrates that a sinful heritage is not an inescapable destiny. Grace can interrupt the bleakest of lineages. This passage teaches us about the nature of true repentance, the character of genuine righteousness, and the beautiful, discriminating justice of God.
The Text
"Now behold, he has a son who has seen all his father's sins which he has done. And he saw this but does not do likewise. He does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife or mistreat anyone, or retain a pledge or commit robbery, but he gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing; he turns his hand away from the afflicted, does not take interest or increase, but does My judgments and walks in My statutes; he will not die for his father's iniquity; he will surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity."
(Ezekiel 18:14-18 LSB)
The Son Who Sees and Rejects (v. 14-15)
The scene is set with a striking contrast. God has just described a wicked man who will surely die for his sin. Now, He presents that man's son.
"Now behold, he has a son who has seen all his father's sins which he has done. And he saw this but does not do likewise. He does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife" (Ezekiel 18:14-15)
The first and most crucial action of this son is that he "has seen." He is not ignorant of his father's legacy. He has observed the idolatry, the violence, the corruption. He grew up in a house where sin was the norm. He saw it all. But seeing is not the same as consenting. The text emphasizes this: "And he saw this but does not do likewise." This is the great point of separation. He makes a conscious, deliberate break from the family business of rebellion.
This is what true repentance looks like. It is not a vague feeling of sorrow. It is a clear-eyed assessment of sin for what it is, followed by a decisive turn in the opposite direction. He saw the ugliness of his father's sin and was repulsed by it. He did not make excuses for it. He did not say, "Well, that's just how Dad was." He saw it as God sees it, and he refused to imitate it.
Ezekiel then gives us a specific, negative list of the sins the son rejects. First on the list is idolatry: "He does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel." This is always where sin begins. All sin is a violation of the first commandment. The father's sin flowed from a heart that had enthroned something other than Yahweh. The son's righteousness flows from a heart that refuses to give glory to another. He will not participate in the pagan feasts. He will not even "lift up his eyes" to the idols. His gaze is fixed elsewhere. This is a picture of guarding the heart, of refusing to even entertain temptation.
Next comes sexual purity: he does not "defile his neighbor's wife." The worship of false gods and sexual immorality are constant companions in Scripture. When you abandon the true God, you abandon His design for everything, including marriage. This son understands that covenant faithfulness to God requires covenant faithfulness to his neighbor.
The Fruit of True Faith (v. 16-17a)
Righteousness is not merely the absence of evil; it is the active presence of good. Having listed what the son does not do, Ezekiel now describes what he does do.
"or mistreat anyone, or retain a pledge or commit robbery, but he gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing; he turns his hand away from the afflicted, does not take interest or increase, but does My judgments and walks in My statutes" (Ezekiel 18:16-17a)
Here we see the horizontal outworking of his vertical commitment. Because he honors God, he honors his fellow man. He is a man of justice and mercy. He doesn't mistreat people, which is the baseline of decency. He doesn't abuse his power by keeping a poor man's collateral. He doesn't engage in outright theft.
But his righteousness is more than just avoiding overt sin. It is proactive. He "gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing." This is the religion that is pure and undefiled (James 1:27). He sees a need and he meets it. He is generous. His faith is not a dead, abstract assent; it is a living, active force that produces good works. This is what James talks about. We are not saved by these works, but we are not saved without them either, because they are the necessary fruit of a heart that has been made alive by God.
He "turns his hand away from the afflicted," which means he refrains from oppressing the poor. He doesn't take "interest or increase," which refers to the exploitative lending practices forbidden in the Law (Ex. 22:25). In short, he lives out the second great commandment. He loves his neighbor as himself. And the foundation for all of this is given at the end of the clause: he "does My judgments and walks in My statutes." His life is governed by the Word of God, not by the example of his father or the customs of the culture. He has submitted himself to God's authority.
The Verdict of God (v. 17b-18)
After describing the character of this righteous son, God delivers His verdict. And it is a verdict that cuts right through the fatalistic proverb of the exiles.
"he will not die for his father's iniquity; he will surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity." (Ezekiel 18:17b-18)
Here is the central point of the chapter, stated with divine clarity. The son will not be judicially condemned for his father's sin. The guilt is not transferred. He will "surely live." This life is not just the avoidance of physical death, but the enjoyment of God's covenant blessing and fellowship. His personal righteousness, which is the fruit of his faith in God, is the grounds upon which God declares him righteous.
This does not mean he escapes all the consequences of his father's sin. He may have grown up in a broken home. He may have inherited a bad reputation or a squandered fortune. The ripples of sin affect everyone. But what he will not inherit is the guilt. He will not stand before God and be condemned for crimes he did not commit. God's judgment is perfectly just and meticulously individual.
And the reverse is also true. The father's destiny is sealed by his own actions. "As for his father... he will die for his iniquity." The father's wickedness is summarized: extortion, robbery, and generally doing "what was not good among his people." His sin was both vertical (idolatry) and horizontal (injustice). He broke both tables of the law. And for that, he alone will bear the penalty. He cannot hide behind his ancestors, and he cannot be saved by the piety of his son. Each soul stands before God on its own two feet.
The Great Son Who Breaks the Pattern
This chapter is a powerful declaration of individual responsibility. But we must not stop there. We must see how this points us to the gospel. For in this story of a righteous son breaking the pattern of a wicked father, we see a faint shadow of the ultimate righteous Son.
We are all born into a broken lineage. We all have a father whose sin has profoundly affected us. That father's name is Adam. By his one act of disobedience, sin and death entered the world, and we were all constituted sinners in him (Romans 5:12, 19). We inherited his guilt, his corruption, and his condemnation. Unlike the son in Ezekiel's example, we did not merely see our father's sin; we ratified it. We did "likewise." We have all eaten the sour grapes, and our own teeth are set on edge because of our own sin.
Who could break this pattern? Who could be the righteous son of a fallen race? Only one. Jesus Christ, the second Adam. He was born into the human family, yet He did not do likewise. He saw all the sins of his kinsmen, yet He was without sin. He did not eat at the mountain shrines of idolatry. He did not defile his neighbor's wife. He gave His bread to the hungry. He clothed the naked. He did God's judgments and walked perfectly in His statutes.
And here is where the analogy in Ezekiel is gloriously shattered and reversed. The principle of Ezekiel 18 is that the righteous son will not die for the father's iniquity. But in the gospel, the perfectly righteous Son chose to die for the iniquity of His wicked brethren. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). The one who deserved to "surely live" willingly went to the cross to die. God took the iniquity of us all and laid it on Him (Isaiah 53:6).
The justice of God that declares "the soul who sins shall die" was not set aside at the cross. It was satisfied. The penalty was paid in full by our substitute. And because He died for our iniquity, we who trust in Him will "surely live." We will not die for our father Adam's iniquity, or for our own, because Christ has died in our place. He is the great pattern-breaker, the founder of a new family, a new lineage. And by faith in Him, we are cut off from the dead branch of Adam and grafted into Him, the true vine. We are no longer defined by our sinful heritage, but by His perfect righteousness.