“Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, Oh house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh, “For which reason turn yourselves and live.”
These remarkable verses must be seen in the light of Ezekiel 36:26 (see also Jeremiah 32:39). The call of God assumes His willingness to work in them what is required. If they were willing to turn from their sins, God was willing to work in them a new heart and a new spirit. What would later be promised for the future, was here promised in the present if they would respond. They could be born from above by the Spirit of God. They could be inwardly renewed. But it required a change of heart and mind about their rebellion against the covenant, and about their sinfulness and abominations.
God's plea was heartfelt. He did not want them to have to die. He did not want to bring His judgment on them. ‘Why will you die?', He pleaded, as only the strong could. ‘I have no pleasure in it.' He was waiting and ready to forgive. He was waiting to receive them again and make them fully His own.
‘Cast away your rebellion.' The words are strong. At the root of the word for ‘transgressions' lies the thought of rebellion. So they are to fling from them their rebellion of heart, and the acts that reveal that rebellion.
And it is always the same. God is longsuffering and merciful. Until the moment when it is too late He is always ready to accept our repentance and forgive. But what would follow in Ezekiel also reminds us that at some time the point is reached when it is too late. Then there can only be wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is not a question of whether a man can be saved and then lost. It is the question of the test as to whether a man is truly saved. For the man who is truly saved will persevere to the end.
These pleas of God in Ezekiel reveal the human side of salvation. It is up to Israel whether they will repent or not. The choice is theirs. They must exercise their wills and respond, believing that God on His side will renew them and put His Spirit within them, or they must receive the consequences of a failure to do so. It was the same call to believe as would be exercised in the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles.
Yet the whole book reveals that only within the sovereignty of God would they respond. That is why this great movement of the Spirit awaited the future. Though He called them they would not respond. Jerusalem would be destroyed. In the end it is only when God makes the first move and brings about His will on those whom He will call, that response will come.