Furthermore, we should not be surprised to see one wicked act bring down the celebrated story of a football hero, or any man esteemed so widely.
The Lord spoke the prophet Ezekiel about the heinous nature of transgression:
"Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth." (Ezekiel 33:12)
The prophet Ezekiel makes it clear -- a good man who then does evil cannot be saved by his previous righteous acts.
Seems rather stern and uncompromising, yet the Lord clarifies this judgment:
" When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. (Ezekiel 33:13)
We cannot trust in our own righteousness, no matter how many good things that we do. No matter what good JoePa, or anyone of us, may do, our evil deeds, our wrongdoing will undo all the good that we have done.
On the weakness of “our righteousnesses”, we can also refer to Isaiah:
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. “ (Isaiah 64:6)
The Lord also condemned such self-righteousness in the mouth of the prophet Habakkuk:
"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4)
One could certainly argue that JoePa, the Nittany Lions, and Penn State became very lifted up, presumptuous of themselves. Enough that they did not feel compelled to stop child predation.
Ezekiel continues:
"Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
"If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die." (Ezekiel 22: 14-15)
We must hold boldly to this solemn, saving promise. To the Lord, no one is beyond salvation; yet this salvation will not be achieved by man's doing, for the Lord had promised earlier through Ezekiel:
“And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
“That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:18-20)
When Ezekiel writes that the Lord will replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh, he is writing not just of a human heart, but a soft heart, one imbued with good-tidings, tidings of grace to come. "To walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity" is an impossible demand, unless the Lord has performed an essential transformation by faith within a person!
Hence, like Habakkuk, every believer may declare:
"The just shall live by faith!"
No comments:
Post a Comment