Ezekiel 18:26-28 - Homiletics.

Reversals of character.

We have here an instance of man's misjudgment of God, and wrongful accusation of injustice against him. People who have borne good characters are punished by God, and others who have earned themselves odious reputations are spared. This is the stumbling block. But our text supplies the explanation of the apparent inconsistency. The good men have fallen into sin, and the bad men have repented and mended their lives. Therefore it is not unjust in God to treat them no longer according to their old characters.

I. GOD JUDGES ACCORDING TO PRESENT CHARACTER . Human judgment is stiff and blunt. Having formed our estimate of a man, we hold it after all justification for it has vanished. We are blind to those traits in his character which do not agree with our theory; or, if we are forced to recognize them, our first impulse is to twist them into harmony with the theory. Thus men's characters in the world outlive the facts on which they are founded. They are not all equal in this respect. A good character is more easily lost than a bad character. If a man has once earned an evil name, it is almost impossible for him to divest himself of it. People will not believe in his thorough conversion. This suspicion is partly due to ignorance of the hearts of men, and to a consequent danger of being imposed upon by hypocrisy. But God knows hearts. He is not bound by names and reputations. He sees present facts, and he judges men as they are. Then he judges according to present condition. He does not spare the fallen man on account of past goodness, and he does not rake up old charges against the penitent. We must not suppose, however, that God judges by a man's latest act. This would throw in an element of chance. A man is not condemned because he happens to be doing wrong at the moment of death, or saved because death finds him on his knees in prayer. But when the whole life is turned round, God judges by its present character, and not by its former state.

II. REVERSALS OF CHARACTER ARE POSSIBLE . We are not arguing on hypothetical cases. The ways of God to men are to be justified in part by the knowledge that such cases exist.

1 . The good man may fall away into sin. When this happens, the world lifts up its hands in horror at what it supposes to be a revelation of monstrous and long continued hypocrisy; but there may be no hypocrisy in the case. The fallen man may have been sincere in his earlier life of goodness. But he has turned aside from it. Here is a terrible warning. No character is crystalline; all characters are more or less mobile. The best man may fall. Then all his former goodness will not save him. We have reason for watchfulness, diffidence, and prayer for God's protection.

2 . The bad man may be recovered. The stern and changeless judgment of the world dooms one who has fallen to lifelong ignominy. This is cruel and murderous. If we lend a helping hand, the fallen may be lifted up. By the grace of Christ the most hardened sinner may be softened to penitence and turned into the ways of goodness. Then his former sin will not hang like a millstone about his neck to keep him forever down. God forgives it, and never mentions it again. It is the elder son, not the father, who refers to the former sins of the returned prodigal ( Luke 15:30 ).