“Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” declares the Lord God. “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruined. Cast away from you all the transgressions you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For have no pleasure in the death of anyone,” declares the Lord God. “So turn and live.”
– Ezekiel 18:30–32
These are the final verses at the end of a chapter that started out saying from the very beginning that God is the judge of sin and sinners and that every single individual person, you, me, every single person in history, every single person in the world today … Look at every face you see today, and every single one of us will one day stand before God as judge. Each one of us.
God is calling his people to repent from their sin because everyone will eventually stand before the judge.
Ezekiel 18:30–32 Reminds Us to Confess and Repent
This is as Ezekiel 18:4. “The soul who sins shall die.” In other words, every one of us is accountable to God for sins in our lives, for every sin in our lives. Which is why at the end of this chapter then, God says, “I will judge you, every single one of you, according to your ways. So repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.”
I just wanted to encourage us today with this word to exhort us, to exhort you individually, even as I’m seeing this in my own life, even as I’m applying this to my own life. I repent. Like any sin, every sin that you’re toying with, tempted toward, repent. Turn from it. Run from it. Confess it to God, lest your iniquity be your ruin.
Ultimately repent and turn to Jesus. If you’ve never trusted in Jesus to cover over your sin, let today be the day where you do that. For all who trust in Jesus, who have placed their faith in him to forgive them of their sins, then turn from the sin that you’ve been saved from on a day by day, moment by moment basis. Repent and turn from transgression every single day, lest sin have its way in your life when you’ve been saved from it.
A Prayer Based on Ezekiel 18:30–32
O God, we pray. We pray that you’d help us to hate sin and run from it. God, we pray for that in each one of our lives. Right now, I pray for that in my life. I pray that over every single person listening right now. Make us holy, we pray. Make us holy. Help us to turn from sin, to repent, to run from sin, not to toy with it, not to justify it, not to excuse it. God, to come before you honestly with it, to ask for your forgiveness, to receive your forgiveness through faith in Jesus, to know that we’re forgiven of our sins, and to live in victory over sin.
God, we praise you that inequity doesn’t have to be our ruin all because of your grace, all because of what you’ve done on the cross for us, Jesus. We praise you that inequity will not be our ruin, because you have conquered sin, and you’ve conquered death, and you’ve conquered the grave. God, we trust in you. We rest in you. God we want to live in you. We want to live in your daily victory over sin. God, we praise you. You never sinned once. You overcame sin every time you were tempted.
Living for Jesus
God, we pray that you would help us to live in that today, that we would live in the fullness of your Spirit, like in Ezekiel 18:30–32, in the fullness of the life you’ve called us to, as we turn from sin continually, trust in you, and experience your life and your love in all the ways you’ve designed us to. Oh, may that be the story of our life today, a running from sin, a resting in you, and an experience of the life that you’ve called us to live, a life in union with you, a life in love for you and enjoying your love for us in perfect fullness. God, we pray for that today.
Help us. Help us to walk faithfully with you today. Keep us from evil. Just as you taught us to pray, Jesus, deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation, that we might experience life to the full in you today, free from sin to experience all that you’ve bought for us by your grace. May it be so we pray. In Jesus’ name, the only one who can save us from sin. In His name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
