But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
But if the wicked shall turn from all his sins ... But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness ... Two last cases) showing the equity of God:
(1) The penitent sinner is dealt with according to his new obedience, not according to his former sins.
(2) The righteous man, who turns from righteousness to sin, shall be punished for the latter, and his former righteousness will be of no avail to him.
He shall surely live. Despair drives men into hardened recklessness: God therefore allures men to repentance by holding out hope (Calvin). (Psalms 138:4, "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.")
`To threats the stubborn sinner oft is hard, Wrapt in his crimes, against the storm prepared; But when the milder beams of mercy play, He melts, and throws the cumbrous cloak away.' Hitherto the cases had been of a change from bad to good, or vice versa, in one generation compared with another. Here it is such a change in one and the same individual. This, as practically affecting the persons here addressed, is properly put last. So far from God laying on men the penalty of others' sins, He will not oven punish them for their own, if they turn from sin to righteousness; but if they turn from righteousness to sin, they must expect in justice that their former goodness will not atone for subsequent sin (Hebrews 10:38-39; 2 Peter 2:20-22). The exile in Babylon gave a season for repentance of those sins which would have brought death on the perpetrator in Judea, while the law could be enforced; so it prepared the way for the Gospel (Grotius).
Verse 22. In his righteousness that he hath done he shall live - in it, not for it, as if that atoned for his former sins; but "in his righteousness" he shall live, as the evidence of his being already in favour with God through the merit of Messiah, who was to come. The Gospel clears up for us many such passages, which were dimly understood at the time, while men, however, had light enough for salvation (1 Peter 1:12).
Verse 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? - (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). If men perish, it is because they will not come to the Lord for salvation, not that the Lord is not willing to save them (John 5:40). They trample on not merely justice, but mercy: what further hope can there be for them when even mercy is against them? (Hebrews 10:26.)
Verse 24. When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness. "Righteous" - one apparently such; as in Matthew 9:13, "I came not to call the righteous," etc. - i:e., those who fancy themselves righteous, and who are so apparently and outwardly before men. Those alone are true saints who by the grace of God persevere (Matthew 24:13; 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall").
Turneth away from his righteousness - an utter apostasy; not like the exceptional offences of the godly through infirmity or heedlessness, which they afterward mourn over and repent of.
All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned - not he taken into account so as to save them.
In his trespass ... shall he die - i:e., in his utter apostasy.