Deuteronomy 24-27

God is righteous and does not take pleasure in bringing destruction upon mankind, because he is holy and just wrongdoing deserves death. 

Deuteronomy 24:16 (NIV) "Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin."

Earlier in the news this week I read that the state of California is proposing legislation to convict parents of their minor children's truancy, while admittedly this is a complex and deeply layered legal governance issue it loosely relates to this verse in today's reading. The phrase, 'each will die for their own sin' poses a stark contrast to a worldly understanding of morality in how some sin is better or worse than other types. Moses makes the moral standard of God abundantly clear: the wages of sin is death and every person will die for the sins they commit. God is consistent in this all throughout scripture, in Ezekiel 18 the Sovereign LORD himself declares, "the one who sins is the one who will die" there is no way to argue otherwise except that God is also full of grace, compassionate, slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness so much that God sends His own Son Jesus to die just to set us free from the stranglehold and condemnation of sin. God Himself declares His own good character to Moses face:

Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV) "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."

What a paradox! God the Father, the Creator of the universe sends His one and only Son Jesus die for the sin of all Creation. The deep meaning of this love is profound and captured by Paul in his letter to the Roman church:

Romans 5:7-8 (NIV) "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

O what a savior we serve! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so for salvation is here and available to all who humble themselves and repent from sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness and orgies. Instead let us enter into the freedom and transformation of heart found in Christ alone and be filled with the Holy Spirit to yield love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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