Is God Fair? He is More than Fair

Scripture: Ezekiel 18: 23-32

Sermon: Is God Fair? He is More than Fair

Topics: fairness, justice, repentance, grace

Preached: November 1, 2020

Rev. Mike Abma

Ezekiel 18

²³Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? 

²⁴But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die.

25 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? ²⁶When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. ²⁷Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. ²⁸Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die. ²⁹Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. ³¹Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 

³²For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION — NOT FAIR

There was an old apple tree on the farm I grew up on.

The great temptation during the summer months was to eat those apples before they were ripe — to eat them when they were still green, and hard, and sour. I can tell you from experience that eating green and unripe apples will give you a stomach ache.

Now imagine this proverb:

The parents have eaten sour apples, and the children’s stomachs are sore.

That is basically the proverb that begins this chapter of Ezekiel,

only it is grapes, not apples:

“The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth ache.”

Why does this proverb begin Ezekiel chapter 18?

Because the exiles living in Babylon thought it was true.

We need to remember that the exiles were not older people,

they were younger people mainly 30 years and younger.

All these rather young exiles in Babylon thought,

“Why do we deserve this?

This is all the fault of our parents and our grandparents.

They are the ones who got us into this mess.

It is because of them that we are living like this.

All this is their fault, not our fault.

And that simply is not Fair!”

That is not such a strange way to think about things.

Just talk to some 30 year olds or younger today.

Ask them to comment on their life and the world they are inheriting.

They may very well say

“Well look around you.

Look at all the hurricanes down south.

Look at all the fires out west.

Look at all the droughts, the floods, the weather extremes.

For years and years,

generation after generation has been pumping

CO2 into the atmosphere.

And now we, the young people,

are going to have to pay for the behavior

of our parents and grand-parents.

That is not fair!

Or they may say, “Have you taken a look at the National Debt lately?

It has always been high,

but in the last little while it has sky-rocketed.

It is now astronomically high.

How is it that we are getting saddled with this

when it is previous generations who got us into this mess?

That just isn’t fair.

That is pretty much how these young exiles in Babylon talked.

They knew the previous generations had made a mess of things,

and now they were living in that mess.

They were mad,

because that did not seem fair, not fair at all.

GOD’S ANSWER — REPENT

In this chapter, God gives a pretty blunt answer.

He basically says,

“Stop.

Stop talking like this.

Blaming others really does not do a lot of good.

The only thing that really helps

is when each generation takes responsibility for their own life.

The only thing that really helps

is when each person takes responsibility for their own sin.

The answer to this crisis is repentance.

The answer to this crisis is

turning away from the way of death

and turning to the way of life.

The answer to this crisis is a return to God.

Calling the exiles living in Babylon to repentance

is a great and deep theme of the prophet Ezekiel.

Calling people to repentance was also a great theme of the Protestant Reformation.

This is the time of year – end of October, beginning of November — when we remember what happened way back in 1517.

We remember when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church on October 31.

Do you happen to know what the very first thesis was of those 95?

The very first one is that

“The entire life of a Christian must be a life of repentance.”

The very first thesis: The entire life of a Christian must be a life of repentance.

Clearly for Martin Luther

if we don’t get repentance right

we don’t get the Christian life right.

REPENTANCE

So what is repentance?

Some people think it is the same as regret.

Some people think it is motivated by fear – the fear of being punished.

But both of these miss the essence of repentance,

and let me try explain why.

Through the years there have been times I have had husbands and wives in my office talking about a marriage that is in trouble.

Sometimes the one spouse is simply hard to live with —

they are hurtful, inconsiderate, in a word, rather selfish.

The other spouse has dutifully suffered along,

but has come to the point of ending it all.

They can’t take it anymore.

They want to end the marriage.

Suddenly the one who is hard to live with regrets taking their spouse for granted.

Suddenly they are afraid…afraid they will lose their spouse.

Struck by both regret and fear,

they agree to do almost anything —

“just tell me how I can be a better person,

and I will do it” they plead.

And for a while, maybe weeks, maybe even months,

that person is a better person.

But over time, once it becomes clear the marriage is surviving,

once the person is no longer afraid,

then that changed spouse starts to slip back to old and harmful habits.

That is because there was no real change –

no real change of heart; no real change of life.

Real repentance is motivated by love, not fear.

In real repentance, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and our hearts

to the reality that we are living in ways

that are against God,

and against the goodness and love of God.

Real repentance takes personal responsibility.

Real repentance does not try to blame someone else,

or to make excuses for wrong behavior.

Real repentance says, in the words of Psalm 51:

“Against you, and you alone, have I sinned, O Lord.”

And real repentance does this turning to the Lord

not out of fear – being afraid of God

but out of love – desiring to be re-connected to God.

MORE THAN FAIR

We sometimes assume that God in the Old Testament is

a rather strict disciplinarian,

quick to punish and slow to forgive.

But that simply is not true.

Look at the beginning of our passage, verse 23.

Look at the end of our passage, verse 32.

In verse 23, God asks, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?”

In verse 32 God states bluntly, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone.”

This is who God is.

God is merciful.

God is gracious.

God never wants to punish;

God always wants to pardon.

That is who God is.

Out of his deep desire to forgive,

God actually turns the fairness complaint –

that we are living with a mess we do not deserve –

upside-down.

He turns the fairness complaint upside-down

by sending his Son to us,

then having Jesus, this one spotless, sinless individual,

take on the punishment for the whole world.

Now, is that fair?

It is more than fair — it is merciful.

It is the mercy of not receiving a punishment we actually do deserve.

And our heavenly Father turns fairness upside-down

in giving us sinners what we do not deserve:

we are given Christ’s life, Christ’s love,

even Christ’s righteousness as if it were our own righteousness.

Now is that fair?

It is more than fair – it is gracious.

It is the grace of receiving gifts, heavenly gifts, that we do not deserve.

If God was only being “fair” to us sinners, we would be “dead ducks.”

But God, in and through his Son Jesus,

and what Jesus accomplished on the cross

is more….so much more than fair to us.

CONCLUSION

We live in a world,

in a nation,

in a city,

maybe even in a family,

where everything that is wrong is someone else’s fault;

where we are just fed up with how misguided other people are;

where our list of grievances against others is long and detailed.

This morning God,

through the prophet Ezekiel

comes to us all and says,

“Stop.

Just stop.

Stop blaming others for whatever mess you are in.

Stop being mad at whoever you blame for the troubles of the world.

That really helps nothing and no one.

Things can only begin to change for the better

when you are accountable for your own life;

when you are accountable for your own sins.

So turn. Repent. And truly believe the good news of the gospel.”

So this morning we stop –

We stop to turn to the Lord.

We stop to stand beneath the cross and admit,

“Lord, forgive me, for I have sinned.”

And we stop to come to this table

to take bread in our hands

and to raise cups to our mouths

knowing that

the Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve.

That the Lord is more than fair to us:

He loves us.

He forgives us.

He wants us to follow him all the days of our life.

Amen