So what gives? Didn’t God commission Moses to set in stone the
small print following the second commandment? “I the Lord your God am
a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and
the fourth generation of those who reject me.” (Exodus 20:5 & Deuteronomy 5:9)
Or what about the good news / bad news of Numbers 14:18? “The Lord is
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, BUT he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.” On the
flip side of the covenant coin both Jeremiah (31:29-30) and Ezekiel preach
personal responsibility. Whoever does the crime does the time. So which is it? Jesus
trumps both sides in favor of neither (the man born blind story in John 9 – “whose
sin is it?”) and negates the conditional clause (neither this man nor his
parents sinned) in favor of the gift of sight revealing the works of God. The
work of God is this: the One who knew no sin (and I’m just guessing here but
his Abba was pretty much perfect too) was made to be sin so that those who are
in bondage to sin (parent and child) might be set free. So turn to the God who
takes no pleasure in the death of anyone and live.
2011 post
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