Ezekiel 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, said the Lord GOD: why turn yourselves, and live you. "Turn yourselves!" We may ask, Is this the Christian doctrine of conversion? are we not taught to depend on a converting grace? Is not our helplessness in default of grace a commonplace of theologians and preachers? Well, is not that truth indicated by the Psalmist's language about "the law of the Lord," or the Lord Himself as "restoring the soul," or by Elijah's prayer on Carmel, "Hear me, that this people may know that Thou hast turned their heart back again," and yet more touchingly, perhaps, by the prayer which Jeremiah puts into Ephraim's mouth, "Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned"? When, in the light of such words, we read Ezekiel's exhortation, we understand that when a penitent turns himself to God, he is in fact responding to a movement from God, and using a power which that movement has supplied. So it is that two elements concur in conversion: a Saul replies duteously to the remonstrance, "Why persecutest thou Me?" an , having "taken up and read" the Pauline summary of a Christian's moral obligations, surrenders his will absolutely to the practical requirements of the creed which his mind had become ready to accept. We all of us may hear, if we do not wilfully shut our ears, the voice which would draw us to the Christ of apostles and all saints; if we listen, we shall receive strength to obey. (Canon Bright.). Parallel Verses KJV: For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. |
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