Who is Responsible?

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32

What kind of people are your parents and your children?  Are they good, upstanding people, or are either one scoundrels?  Maybe one of them is even worse than that, and is a reprobate criminal.  Or perhaps you are the one that has lived a questionable life.  Who should bear the responsibility or carry some or all of the guilt for the infractions of the other?  Or in the case of an exemplary life, who should receive the accolades?  Should parents be held responsible for their adult children’s actions, or children for their parents' faults?  Likewise, should children receive halos for how their parents were?  This was an issue during the time of the prophet Ezekiel, and has been among some people even today.  Let’s see what the Word of God has to say about this.

As our Scripture opens, Ezekiel recounted a saying that many of the people would say and believe, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” (vs. 1-2).  This saying implied that the children were paying the punishment for what the parents did, the guilt of the parents was transferred to their children.  Immediately God confronted their thinking.  He declared that this proverb should no longer be used, as each generation bears the responsibility of their actions.  One cannot put the blame of their actions on either the previous or the next generation, either personally nor nationally.

It is true that children sometimes experience the consequences of their parents’ actions.  If a parent drinks or gambles away their paycheck, the children will suffer.  If one or both of the parents commit crimes and are sent to prison, the children will suffer.  However, sometimes people seem to want to punish children, even adult children, for what their parents, grandparents, or even further back did.  They punish them by words or their actions.  God said that this was not acceptable to Him (vs. 3-4).  He said “the soul who sins shall die.”

God deals with people as moral agents, responsible for their own choices.  We cannot pass the blame for our behavior and our sins onto a previous generation, nor the punishment onto our children.  Every individual is personally accountable before God for his own sin.  While we may inherit circumstances from previous generations, we do not inherit guilt before God.  Each soul stands before Him personally.

As our Scripture continues further down, some of the people that Ezekiel preached to objected to this.  They felt that children should bear the guilt of the sins of the father (vs. 19).  Some today continue to feel that way.  However, God said that if the one person sins, and their offspring doesn’t, but instead follow His ways, they should not bear the punishment.  Sons are not condemned for the fathers’ sins, and fathers are not condemned for sons’ sins.  Each person stands accountable before God.

Our culture today encourages adult children to blame their parents for their failures, and parents often accept that blame.  That is not Biblical.  The Bible teaches that we are responsible to God for how we raise our children, but we are not responsible for our children’s adult choices.  Similarly some say that we should pay for the faults and sins of previous generations.  However, God makes it clear in this passage that he does not condemn a righteous person simply because of his parents’ sins.

In the same way we cannot claim our parents’ or grandparents’ righteousness for our own.  Each person must personally respond to God.  No one is saved because his parents were Christians or he came from a good and godly family.  No one is either blessed or condemned because of family background.  Every person must stand before God individually.

The sinful man is not hopeless, though (vs. 21-23).  If he turns to God, there is mercy.  Repentance brings forgiveness, and God is forgiving.  He is holy and must judge sin, but He does not delight in judgment.  He delights in repentance.  God desires that sinners turn from sin and live.

There is also a danger for a righteous person to turn away from God (vs. 24-29).  Just as a wicked man may repent, a righteous man may abandon his godly life and turn to sin.  When that happens, if they were genuinely saved, they do not lose eternal salvation, but God will bring judgment and punishment upon them.  Past righteousness does not justify present rebellion.

There are still people who argue that this is not right, that people should be responsible for the wrongs of previous generations.  God’s answer is simple: the problem is not His ways, the problem is their ways (vs. 29).  Whenever people accuse God of injustice, Scripture consistently demonstrates that God’s judgments are perfectly righteous.  Ezekiel closed with a call to repentance (vs. 30-32).  Agree with God about sin, turn from it, and turn towards a life of obedience to Him.  Each person must answer to God for his own sin.