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? (Ezek. 33:11)
(I)
[Source: Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.24.15, pp. 982, 983,
emphasis added]
A
passage of Ezekiel’s is brought forward, that ‘God does not will the death of
the wicked but wills that the wicked turn back and live’ [Ezek. 33:11]. If it
pleases God to extend this to the whole human race, why does he not encourage to
repentance the very many whose minds are more amenable to obedience than the
minds of those who grow harder and harder at his daily invitations? Among the
people of Nineveh [cf. Matt. 12:41] and of Sodom, as Christ testifies, the
preaching of the gospel and miracles would have accomplished more than in Judea
[Matt. 11:23]. If
God wills that all be saved,
how does it come to pass that he does not open the door of repentance to the
miserable men who would be better prepared to receive grace? Hence we may see
that this passage is violently twisted if the will of God, mentioned by the
prophet, is opposed to his eternal plan, by which he has distinguished the
elect from the reprobate. Now if we are seeking the prophet’s true meaning, it is that he
would bring the hope of pardon to the penitent only.
The gist of it is that God is without doubt ready to forgive, as soon as the
sinner is converted ... Let us therefore regard the prophet’s instruction that the death of the sinner is not
pleasing to God as designed to assure believers that God is ready to pardon them as
soon as they are touched by repentance but to make the wicked feel that
their transgression is doubled because they do not respond to God’s great
kindness and goodness. God’s mercy will always, accordingly, go to meet
repentance, but all the prophets and
all the apostles, as well as Ezekiel himself, clearly teach to whom repentance
is given.
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