Ezekiel 18:4 - Homiletics.

The death penalty.

I. THE PENALTY OF SIN IS DEATH . This is taken for granted in the present passage. The prophet is not now describing the kind of punishment that follows sin; he is indicating the persons on whom that punishment shall fall. When asked who is to die, he answers—The sinner; not his child, but the sinner himself. But the very fact that the nature of the death penalty is taken for granted makes it the more apparent that the prophet had no doubt about it. Now, we cannot say that Ezekiel's language about the dying of the soul had any reference to a second death in Hades in which the conscious personality is annihilated. We should be missing the historical perspective if we supposed that any such idea would occur to a Hebrew prophet of the Old Testament. The Old Testament religion was concerned with this present life, and its sanctions were secular. The penalty of transgressions of the Law was to be "cut off" from among the people, i.e. to be killed—stoned or stabbed. The soul is the life, and to the ancient Hebrew for the soul to die is just for the man to have his earthly death. Still, there is in this no hope of a glorious resurrection for the sinner. His doom is final as far as man can follow it. Moreover, dying, not merely suffering, is the penalty of the impenitent, while wholesome pain is the chastisement of the penitent ( Hebrews 12:6 ). Sin destroys body, character, faculty, affection. It is a killing influence in all respects ( Romans 6:23 ).

II. THE DEATH PENALTY OF SIN FALLS ONLY ON THE SINNER . Other consequences of sin reach the innocent; but not this. Herein lies the solution of the terrible enigma presented by the spectacle of children suffering for the sins of their fathers—or rather, a partial solution of it. The real punishment of the sin does not fall upon them When the guilty father is drowned in his own wickedness, he sprinkles some of the foul spray on his children, and it burns them like spots of fire; but he does not drag them down with him to his dismal doom unless they freely choose to follow his bad example. Now, for the guilty man there is this dark prospect—he cannot shirk his responsibility and cast his punishment upon another. There is an awful loneliness in guilt. Every one must bear the load of his own sin.

III. THIS JUST ARRANGEMENT IS SECURED BY GOD 'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS . All belong to God; therefore he will not permit final injustice. The discarded proverb (verse 2) rested on a sense of fatalism. The idea it contained was not just, but it seemed to be inevitable. The tragedies of AE schylus and Sophocles exhibit the operation of a Nemesis pursuing the descendants of a guilty man until the original crime of their ancestor is expiated. Physically, something of the kind does often occur; but in the higher moral and spiritual realm it is impossible, so long as a personal God takes personal interest in individual souls. The modern Nemesis is physical law. We can only escape from some form of unjust fatalism by a belief in a personal God and his direct dealings with souls.

IV. CHRIST DIES FOR THE SINS OF OTHERS .

1 . Here is a grand exception to the order of punishment. The soul that does not sin dies for the souls that do sin. But with this fact we are in a new order. Christ's death is not a consequence of moral law.

2 . Here is the hope of our deliverance from death. We have all sinned. Therefore we all deserve death, for there is no exception to the law, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But not only has Christ died for us; he dies in us, we are crucified in him, and dying to sin through his grace we are spared the fearful dying for sin.