Some doctrines are better than other ones. Some are more flexible; some are better at offence; some at defence. Some are just great at covering sinfulness.
I preached Ezekiel 18 last week. It’s a straightforward chapter. The people have a complaint: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (v. 2). Ezekiel’s answer is simple: “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek 18:4). The only problem in understanding the chapter is verse 19. If the people genuinely believe that God is unfair in punishing the children for the parent’s sin, then why on earth do they ask, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?”?
The answer is they’ve got their doctrine, and they’re sticking to it. The Israelites have read and believed the Ten Commandments:
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exod 20:5-6).
They know what God is like: he’s a God who punishes the children for their parents’ sin. And so they are right to be angry at him; after all, they’re the ones with the edgy teeth because of their parents’ predilection for seriously acidic grapes. And no matter what God says to them through Ezekiel, they’ve got their excuse, and nobody’s budging. It’s easier to believe God is unjust, and excuse their sin, rather than listening to the prophet and repenting.
So here’s the question: what’s your favourite doctrinal excuse? Christian freedom covers over all sorts of hardness of heart. God’s a forgiving sort of guy; he won’t really mind. Or maybe if something is truly loving, then it doesn’t matter if God speaks against it in another place.
The deep terror of Ezekiel 18 is that the chapter was written to people who knew their Bibles well—so well, they had theological arguments for ignoring their sin. As a Bible-believing, Scripture-preaching pastor, it’s a terrifying prospect: have I stopped listening to God because of my system? I pray not. But may God show me if it is true.
