“Therefore, I will judge you, oh, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die? Oh, House of Israel, for I have no pleasure in the death of anyone declares the Lord God. So turn and live.”
– Ezekiel 18:30–32
Oh, what a passage. God pleading for people to turn away from their sins, to not let their iniquity lead to their ruin, to throw sin aside, to have a new heart and a new spirit, to not die. Why will you die, oh house of Israel? I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. God, this is 2 Peter 3:9, does not want anyone to perish.
Ezekiel 18:30–32 Calls People to Repent and Trust in Christ
Think about that in your life, my life today. One, if you’ve never trusted in Jesus, if you’ve never confessed your sin before God, repented and turned and trust in Jesus to cover over your sin, god is saying to you right now, “I don’t want you to die in your sin. I want you to experience life in me.” Trust in Him, turn and live then for all who have trusted in Jesus to hear this invitation in a fresh way today. Turn from sin today. Don’t go back to that. What you’ve been saved from that leads to death.
Experience life with a new heart and a new spirit, a heart that loves God with all your heart and all your soul, and all your mind and all your strength. Live today, turning from sin and then hear the heart of God for every single person in the world, including every single person you and I will interact with today. God is calling them in His word to turn to His love and to live. Tell them that. Help us today, to tell this to somebody, to tell somebody to turn and live, to be a representation of your love for them.
Pray for the Unreached in India
God, in schools, in workplaces, in neighborhoods. God in our homes, through our churches. Please help us to faithfully say this to somebody today. Turn and live, experience new heart, a new life, a life that will last forever. God doesn’t want you to die. God doesn’t want you to experience judgment and ruin for your sin, for all of eternity. And God wants you to experience life forever. Help us to faithfully share that with somebody today. God help us to faithfully share that to the ends of the earth. We pray for the Marma people of India. Valley farmers, Buddhists, folk Buddhists, who believe in reincarnation, in spirits, and in ghosts who can make life miserable.
God, going back all the way to a history of Bengali pirates and sailors in Bangladesh. We pray for this small people group in India, the Marma, among whom there are no known followers of Jesus. We pray that the Marma would hear the good news of your love, that they would know you want to save them from their sin, that you have made a way for their salvation from sin. God, help us to proclaim this word to them. Got to help the gospel, cause the gospel to spread to them, we pray, so that the Marma might turn and live.
Ezekiel 18:30–32 Praises Us for the Love of God
God, we praise you for your love for us and for people around us, and for every single person in the world. For so loving the world that you gave your one and only son, for not desiring that anyone would perish, but that all would come to know eternal life in you. God, we praise you for your love, and we pray that you’d help us to spread that love to people around us today. Every single person in the world. In Jesus’ 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.
