Love them. Share the truth with them. “25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 2Tim.2:25,26
What we’ve learned so far over the last few messages in this study is that Ez.18 is God’s rebuke of the doctrine of original sin. And therefore a rebuke toward all who believe and teach it. I sure wouldn’t want to be in their shoes when they stand before God.
We learned also that the answer to why men die is that they have no access to the tree of life. And has nothing to do with Adam’s sin being imputed to him or anyone else.
Now I want to show you how this reveals for us man’s mortality from the very beginning. That even Adam was made mortal. And the only reason he did not experience death before he sinned is because he was eating from the tree of life. And that this is how death was kept at bay for them.
Which shows us also that Adam must have been created mortal. Because only one who is mortal would need access to the tree of life. This is why access to the tree was denied them after they ate the fruit. Because God can not lie. And in Gen.2:17 God told Adam that in the day you eat thereof beginning to die you will die. Or as the KJV says, “thou shalt surely die.”
Hence Paul’s words in Rom.5:12-14 explaining that “death passed upon all men because of which all who have sinned have sinned”. Literal translation. And in vs.14 that this even happened to those who did not sin as Adam did. Once again destroying the pagan myth that is original sin.
Ezekiel wrote this thousands of years before God worked through Paul to institute the ministry Paul referred to in Eph.3 as the “dispensation of the grace of God.” He called it a mystery that had been hidden from all ages past. A mystery revealed only through Paul and the other apostles.
A mystery that says that because of Jesus the promise of salvation to Israel was now extended also to the rest of the nations. That all men now have access to eternal life and immortality through faith in Jesus and His resurrection. And that the only sin imputed to men in this dispensation is the sin of unbelief.
Ezekiel could never have known this while under the law. Because under the law any violation of any of it was imputed by the penalty the law prescribed being brought to bear on the violator. But, only to the one who violated the law. Not to his progeny as original sin says happened to us through Adam’s sin.
Do you believe Ezekiel, Paul, and God? Or do you believe Augustine’s pagan philosophy known as original sin? I hope you are seeing that the two do not agree. This is a question everyone who has been taught to believe the doctrine of original sin must ask and answer for themselves.
Because the answer to this question will determine whether you have believed in the true gospel. Or a false one. In the truth that God has not punished you for Adam’s or anyone else’s sins. But, in this dispensation of the grace of God you are only held accountable for your own unbelief.
Unbelief that Jesus said in John16:8,9 is the only sin for which the Holy Spirit is in the world reproving men. Saying “8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me…”
Ezekiel says that the unbeliever is not an unbeliever because sin his parents committed was imputed to him. He is an unbeliever by his own free will choice. And he also makes it clear that this sin is imputed to him alone. And that his children will not have his sin imputed to them.
Paul says the remedy for this imputation of the sin of unbelief is to repent. A repentance that is turning from idols to believing in Jesus and His resurrection. By confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believing in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
When we do this we are born again. Born from above by the Spirit of God creating a spirit in us that we never had before. A spirit that makes us His children. And as children heirs also to His kingdom.
Ezekiel was dealing with sins as they related to the law because that was the dispensation of which he and the rest of Israel were a part. Ez.18 making sure that the Jew understood only his sins would ever be imputed to him.
In this dispensation sin is still only imputed to the one who commits the sin. But, sin that is imputed in this dispensation is solely the sin of unbelief. Why? Because we are not under law but under grace.
In Gal.3:19 Paul tells us the only reason the law was given to Israel was to preserve Israel until Jesus came. And because it was only until Jesus came, and since He has come, the only sin God imputes to men today is “they believe not on me.” As Jesus said in John16:9.
This is the only sin that will keep men from going to heaven when they die. Because this is the only sin that has ever separated men from God.
God told Israel through Ezekiel that they were set free from the notion that children are held accountable and punished by God for their parent’s sins. Showing that the reading of Rom.5:12 to mean that all men were punished with death because of Adam’s sin is a lie. The doctrine of original sin is a lie.
The fact that Adam was created mortal, and that the sins of the father are not imputed to his progeny, leads to only one conclusion. That our problem with going to heaven or not is that we are only flesh and blood like Adam was when he was made. “Not spiritual, but natural” as Paul says in 1Cor.15:45-48.
For which the only remedy is to be made spiritual and immortal. Something that is only possible by putting our faith in Jesus and His resurrection. Because the natural man can not perceive the things of the Spirit of God. And those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Ez.18 frees us from the notion that imputed sin from Adam is why we die. And Jesus frees us from the notion that we are held accountable by God for violating the “Mosaic/royal/moral” law. Or whatever label you want to use for it.
First by teaching Israel in Mt.5:17,18 that His fulfilling the law caused its passing away. To bring to an end the administration in which sins defined by the law were imputed to the one who violated the law. And by showing us plainly in His teaching in John3:1-8 that we must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. And in John15 by showing Israel that the fruit they must bear, and that we all must bear to be in the vine, is a true and saving faith in Him.
If you will have eternal life now. And immortality at the resurrection. You must confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead. This is why in Pr.18:21 we are told that “Life and death are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” I implore you to choose life. If you will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!
This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v7awxgq-tell-them-we-dont-want-to-be-in-their-shoes-on-judgment-day-ez.18.html
