Ezekiel 30:30-32

Look Closely, Repent and Live

God’s chosen people had been taken into captivity in a foreign country. They were complaining that God wasn’t fair. Their fathers and mothers and grandpas and grandmas had sinned so terribly. No way should they be suffering for the wicked things their ancestors had done. That was the complaint of the Jewish exiles living in far away Babylon.

They had a sight problem. They were far-sighted. They could see into the past and view the sins of those who had lived before them. But they seemed unwilling to look closely at themselves and see their own sinfulness which made them just as deserving of God’s wrath.

It’s a problem we all have when it comes to sin. Look at that terrible murderer; he deserves a death sentence. That woman having an affair deserves the scorn of the community. Notice that speeding teenager? He deserves to have his license taken away.

But when we look closely at ourselves, what we see isn’t pretty either. We see envy and greed, hatred and vengeance, dirty thoughts and ugly complaining. We see our tendency to love the things of this world more than God. Upon closer inspection we see ourselves just as deserving of God’s punishment. Compared to others maybe we don’t look so bad. But compared with our holy Lord, we are deserving of eternal punishment. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

There’s only one way to deal with this problem. “Repent!  Turn away from your offenses…get a new heart and a new spirit.” How does one get a new heart and spirit? After looking closely at ourselves and seeing how sinful and deserving of hell we are, look to Jesus. See him lovingly living a perfect life in our place. See him mercifully dying on a cross to take the punishment of hell we deserved. See him rising gloriously from the dead to assure us that there is new life for us now and in heaven.

Look to the Lord and you will see a God who is not unfair, but a very loving God who encourages you, “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone,” and then pleads with you, “Repent and live!”