06/03/2026
"Son of man, say to the Israelites, 'This is what you are saying: "Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?"' Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?'
- Ezekiel 33:10-11
Dear friends in Christ, "This is living," says the man on his boat, enjoying the serenity of the morning on the lake. "This is living," says the mom, looking into the crib at his sleeping baby. "This is living," says the seven-year-old running free after school lets out for the summer.
"This is living," said the Israelites as they were living in exile, far from their land, remembering everything they had lost. Not the same sort of living, is it?
The Israelites weren't looking at joyful lives. They were looking at the reality their sinfulness had gotten them. Their idolatry led to them being conquered by the Assyrians.
And now, the Israelites were crying out because they felt the weight of their sin. They saw what it had done to them. Their version of living wasn't something enjoyable. It was painful. That was life for them.
It couldn't have been a fun existence, knowing that everything going on was their own faults. But that's an existence we know all too well. I don't think we've been through the sort of physical exile Israel faced, but their feelings about sin are more than familiar to us.
How can we find any sort of joy in our lives when we know how awful we are? The guilt of past failures weigh me down. And then, I read God's law--these reminders of what's right and wrong--and I'm reminded of how rotten I am all over again.
No wonder the Israelites asked how they could live. No wonder we feel so crushed and dead when we see our own sinfulness. But we have a living God.
Where we are dead, our God is alive and active. And he says he doesn't enjoy the death of the wicked. Yes, the wicked receive their just punishment, but God has a greater desire for them.
God wants the wicked to turn away from their wickedness, the thing that makes them dead. He wants them to turn and live! Does that sound like the sort of thing an angry God would say?
Of course not! Because our God loves sinners like you and me. And he isn't telling us to turn simply because it's the right thing for us. He tells us to turn to him because he comes with words of comfort.
God comes to us with the words he doesn't desire our deaths. So, he didn't put us to death. Instead, he put Jesus to death for the sins of the entire world. He put Jesus to death for our sins.
Where sin kills, God brings life. He has brought us to life through the message that we have forgiveness. It doesn't come because we have earned it. It comes because we have a Savior who already died in our place.
And just like our Savior was brought back to life, now we have been brought to life. What was once dead in sin has been raised to life in forgiveness. God has made us righteous through his undeserved love.
Now, this is living! We no longer live in the sins of our past. We are not defined by our guilty conscience. We are defined by our Savior. We are defined by a cross and an empty tomb.
Since those are the things that define us, we live in accordance with them. Rather than living in our sinfulness, we turn to our God. We look at his commands, not as something harsh, but as ways to worship.
And when we fail or feel guilty, God is right there to point us back to himself. He has made us alive through Jesus. He keeps us alive through Jesus. And now, we get to go and live. Amen.
