Say unto them, As I
live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but
that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11 KJV).
(I)
David J. Engelsma
[Source: Protestant
Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 47, no. 2 (April 2014), p. 69]
The correct, orthodox explanation of Ezekiel
18:23 and of Ezekiel 33:11 . . . is that God is not the kind of God who takes
pleasure in death, not even the death of impenitent sinners that He justly
inflicts, and that He has eternally decreed. God is the God who has delight in
life, life that is given by Him in the way of the sinner’s turning from sin
back to God in true repentance. That God is the God who is pleased with the
life of sinners in the way of repentance, and not a god who takes delight in
the death of sinners, is the truth that provides needful assurance to sinners
whose turning to God is hindered by the notion that God, after all, delights in
the death of sinners and, therefore, will not forgive and save the sinner
regardless of the sinner’s turning.
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