Free Grace

Nothing short of the deepest conviction—both that what I share here is the truth as it is in Jesus, and that I am under a sacred obligation to declare it to the entire world—could have compelled me to publicly oppose the views of friends whom I deeply esteem for their tireless labor in the gospel. May I be found seated at their feet in the day of our Lord Jesus! If anyone feels called to respond to this message, I make only one earnest request: let whatever you write or say be done in genuine Christian love and in a gentle spirit. Let the very way you disagree prove that you have clothed yourselves, as God's chosen people, with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, and patience, so that people today may once again say: “See how these Christians love one another!”

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Since a pamphlet titled “Free Grace Indeed” has been published in response to this sermon, I wish to inform the publisher that I cannot reply to his tract until he shows that he is genuinely in earnest. I simply cannot treat the deep things of God as though they were material for a boxing match or theatrical entertainment.

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also, together with him, freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

1How freely and generously God loves the world! While we were still helpless sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were dead in our sins, God did not spare even his own Son, but handed him over for us all. And how lavishly, together with Christ, does he give us everything we need! Truly, free grace is everything!

2The grace and love of God, from which our salvation springs, is free IN ALL and free FOR ALL.

3First, God's grace is free IN ALL to whom it is given. It does not depend on any human ability or merit whatsoever—not in the least measure, neither in whole nor in part. It does not depend in any way upon the good deeds or moral righteousness of the person who receives it; it does not rest on anything we have done or anything we are. It does not depend on human striving. It does not even depend on our good inward dispositions, our holy desires, or our noble intentions; for all of these flow from God's free grace. They are the streams, not the fountainhead. They are the fruit of free grace, not the root. They are the effect of grace, not its cause. Whatever good exists in any person or is accomplished by anyone, God alone is the author and source of it. In this way his grace is free in all—wholly independent of human power or merit, resting entirely upon God alone, who freely gave us his own Son and with him graciously gives us all things.

4But is God’s grace free FOR ALL, as well as in all? To this question, some people answer: “No. It is free only for those whom God has predestined to life, and they are only a small flock. The greater part of humanity God has predestined to eternal death, and grace is not free for them. God hates them, and therefore, before they were even born, he decreed that they would perish forever. He decreed this unconditionally, simply because it was his sovereign pleasure and will. Consequently, they were born for this very purpose: to be destroyed, body and soul, in hell. They grow up under God’s unalterable curse, without any hope of redemption; and whatever grace God gives them is given only to increase their guilt and damnation, not to prevent it.”

5This is the doctrine of absolute predestination. But I hear someone object: “That is not the predestination I believe in. I hold only to the election of grace. All I believe is simply this: before the creation of the world, God chose a specific number of individuals to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. Every one of these chosen people will certainly be saved, and no one else. As for the rest of humanity, God simply leaves them to themselves. Left to their own desires, their hearts remain continually bent toward evil; they grow worse and worse, and in the end they are justly punished with everlasting destruction.”

6Is this truly all the predestination you believe? Think carefully about it—perhaps that is not the whole story. Don’t you also believe that God appointed them to this very destiny? If so, you believe the entire decree; you hold to predestination in the full sense I just described. Even if you think you do not, ask yourself: Don’t you believe that God hardens the hearts of those who perish? Don’t you believe that he literally hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and that he raised him up, or created him, for that very purpose? This comes down to the exact same thing. If you believe that Pharaoh, or any person on earth, was created for the express purpose of being damned, you hold everything I have described about predestination. It makes no difference whether you add that God executes his unchangeable, irresistible decree by actively hardening the hearts of those “vessels of wrath” whom his decree had already prepared for destruction.

7Perhaps you reply that you do not believe even that much. You say you reject any decree of reprobation; you do not think God decrees anyone to be damned, nor that he irresistibly shapes them for hell. You simply say: “Because all people were dead in sin, God eternally decided to say to some dry bones, ‘Live!’ and to others he chose not to speak. Consequently, the chosen are brought to life while the others remain in death—the first group glorifies God through their salvation, and the second group glorifies him through their destruction.”

8Isn’t this what you mean by the election of grace? If so, let me ask you a question or two: Can anyone who is not chosen in this way be saved? Has anyone ever been saved apart from this election since the creation of the world? Is it possible for anyone to be saved unless they are among this elect group? If you answer “No,” then you are right back where you started. You have not moved forward by a single hair’s breadth. You still believe that, because of an unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, the majority of humanity remains in death without any possibility of rescue—since no one can save them except God, and he refuses to save them! You believe he has unconditionally decreed not to save them; and what is that but decreeing to damn them? In practical terms, it is precisely the same thing. For if you are spiritually dead and completely powerless to give yourself life, and God has unconditionally decreed that he will give life to others but never to you, he has effectively decreed your eternal death. You are irrevocably consigned to hell. So even though you soften your language, you mean the very same thing. What you call the “election of grace” amounts to nothing more nor less than what others frankly call the decree of reprobation.

9Call it by whatever label you prefer—election, preterition (passing over), predestination, or reprobation—it all leads to the exact same conclusion. The plain meaning is simply this: by an eternal, unchangeable, and irresistible decree of God, one portion of humanity is guaranteed salvation, while the rest are inescapably damned—with no possibility that any of the chosen could ever be lost, or that any of the passed-over could ever be saved.

10But if this doctrine is true, then all preaching is pointless! Preaching is unnecessary for the elect, because with or without it they will inevitably be saved. Therefore, the true purpose of preaching—to save souls—is rendered meaningless for them. And preaching is utterly useless for those who are not elect, because they cannot possibly be saved; with or without preaching, they will certainly be damned. The purpose of preaching is completely nullified for them as well. So in either case, our preaching is completely in vain, and your listening is just as useless.

11This provides clear proof that unconditional predestination is not a doctrine of God, because it makes God’s own appointed means of grace pointless—and God does not work against himself. A second proof is that it directly tends to destroy personal holiness, which is the very goal of all God's appointed religious practices. I am not saying that no one who holds this view is holy; God is rich in mercy to those who are unintentionally caught in theological errors. But the doctrine itself—that every person is irrevocably chosen or rejected from eternity, with one group inevitably saved and the other inevitably damned—tends to undermine holiness altogether. It strips away the primary biblical motives for pursuing a holy life: the hope of eternal reward and the dread of punishment, the longing for heaven and the warning of hell. The biblical declaration that the wicked will go away into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life offers no motivation to someone who believes their destiny is already cast in stone. Why should anyone strive if they believe they are unalterably assigned to life or death? You might answer, “Ah, but a person doesn’t know whether they are chosen for life or death.” But that does not resolve the dilemma! If a sick man knows he will either certainly die or certainly recover, even though he doesn’t know which outcome is fixed, it would be pointless for him to take any medicine. He might say—as I have heard people say concerning both physical illness and their souls—“If I am destined to live, I will live; if I am destined to die, I will die; so why bother doing anything?” In this way, the doctrine slams shut the door to holiness, preventing people from ever striving to enter in.

12In the same way, this doctrine tends to undermine specific aspects of Christian holiness—especially gentleness and love; and I mean love for our enemies, for the ungrateful and the wicked. Again, I do not say that everyone who believes this doctrine lacks gentleness and love, for God’s mercy is as vast as his power. But the teaching naturally fosters a harsh, combative spirit that is entirely contrary to the gentleness of Christ—as becomes painfully obvious whenever this topic is debated. It also naturally breeds coldness or subtle contempt toward those we suspect may be excluded from God’s grace. You may object, “I never regard any specific individual as reprobate!” You may try not to, but you cannot entirely stop yourself from applying your theology to real people around you. The enemy of our souls will happily make that application for you. You know how often that thought has crossed your mind! Even if you pushed it away with horror as quickly as you could, how did it sour and harden your heart in that moment? You know deep down that it was not the spirit of love you felt toward that poor sinner whom you secretly suspected God had hated from all eternity.

13Third, this doctrine tends to destroy the comfort and deep joy of the Christian faith. This is tragically clear for anyone who believes they are reprobate, or who even fears they might be. All the magnificent and precious promises of Scripture are lost to them; those promises cannot offer them a single ray of hope. If they are not among God’s chosen, they have no share or inheritance in Christ’s blessings. This belief creates an insurmountable barrier against finding peace or joy in a faith whose ways were meant to be pleasant and whose paths lead to peace.

14And what about those of you who believe you are among God’s elect—what is the true source of your joy? I pray it is not a mere intellectual theory, a theological concept, or an abstract opinion! True joy comes from experiencing the living presence of God within your heart, worked in you by the Holy Spirit—the inner witness of God’s Spirit with your spirit that you are indeed a child of God. This living reality, also described as the full assurance of faith, is the genuine foundation of Christian happiness. It brings a deep, settled confidence that your past sins are forgiven and that you are right now a beloved child of God. Yet it does not necessarily include full assurance of our future perseverance. I am not saying that assurance of continuing to the end never accompanies it, but that it is not necessarily included in it; for many have the one assurance without the other.

15Experience shows that this doctrine greatly obstructs the witness of the Spirit. This happens not only in those who believe themselves reprobate and so push that witness far from them, but even in those who have tasted this good gift, only to lose it again and fall back into doubts, fears, and darkness—terrible darkness that can almost be felt! I appeal to any of you who hold this doctrine: answer before God and in your own hearts whether doubts and fears about your election or perseverance have not often returned. If you ask, “Who has not experienced this?” I answer: very few who hold this doctrine have escaped it, but many—very many—who do not hold it, in every part of the world, have done so. They know and feel that they are in Christ today and “take no anxious thought for tomorrow.” They remain in him by faith from hour to hour, or rather from moment to moment. Many of these have enjoyed the uninterrupted witness of his Spirit, the continual light of his countenance, from the moment they first believed, for many months or years right up to this day.

16The assurance of faith these believers enjoy excludes all doubt and fear. It excludes every kind of doubt and fear about their future perseverance, although, as already explained, it is not strictly an assurance of what will happen in the future, but only of what is true now. It needs no support from a speculative belief that whoever is once appointed to life must live, because it is produced hour by hour by the mighty power of God, “by the Holy Spirit who has been given to them.” Therefore this doctrine is not from God, because it tends to obstruct, if not destroy, this great work of the Holy Spirit—the source of the chief comfort of religion and the happiness of Christianity.

17Furthermore, what a deeply distressing thought it is that millions upon millions of human beings, through no prior fault or choice of their own, were irrevocably condemned to eternal torment! How terribly heartbreaking this must be to anyone who has clothed themselves with Christ—anyone filled with tender mercy, kindness, and genuine compassion, who could almost echo Paul in wishing they were cursed for the sake of their brothers and sisters!

18Fourth, this distressing doctrine directly tends to destroy our passion for good works. It does this, first, because it naturally erodes our love for the vast majority of our fellow human beings—the wicked and ungrateful. Whatever diminishes our love inevitably weakens our desire to do them good. Second, it cuts the nerve of one of our strongest motives for showing physical mercy—such as feeding the hungry and clothing the naked—which is the hope of winning their souls for eternity. For what is the point of easing temporary physical distress for people who are about to plunge into everlasting fire? You might say, “Hurry and snatch them like brands from the fire!” But according to your system, that is impossible. You believe they were doomed from eternity, before they had done right or wrong. You believe it is God’s sovereign will that they perish, and who can resist his will? You may answer that you do not know whether a particular person is elect or not. What difference does that make? If you know they must be one or the other, your efforts are pointless in either case. Your counsel, correction, and warnings are as useless as preaching: unnecessary for the elect, who will certainly be saved without them; and useless for the non-elect, who will certainly be damned regardless. You cannot logically put forth effort for their salvation without contradicting your own theology. Consequently, these beliefs stifle your zeal for all good works, and especially for the greatest good work of all: rescuing souls from eternal death.

19Fifth, this doctrine not only tends to undermine Christian holiness, joy, and good works, but it also directly tends to overthrow the entire Christian revelation. The primary argument that skeptical thinkers labor so hard to prove is that divine revelation—the Christian gospel—is entirely unnecessary. They know that if they can establish that single point, their conclusion follows effortlessly: if the gospel is not necessary, it is not true! By holding to unconditional predestination, you surrender that very ground to the skeptic. For under an absolute decree, the elect would be saved even if the gospel had never existed, while the non-elect will be damned regardless of what Christ revealed. What more could an unbeliever ask for? You concede their entire argument! By rendering the gospel unnecessary for all people, you surrender the entire Christian cause. Don't speak of it in Gath! Don't proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the enemies of God celebrate and the skeptics triumph!

20Just as this doctrine clearly undermines the Christian revelation as a whole, it does the very same thing by forcing Scripture to contradict itself. It relies on interpretations of some verses—whether many or few does not matter— that flatly oppose the rest of the Bible and contradict the entire message of God's Word. For example, proponents of this view interpret the passage, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau,” as meaning that God literally hated Esau—and every other reprobate soul—from all eternity. But what could contradict Scripture more directly than this, not only violating its overall message, but openly defying the explicit declaration that “God is love”? Furthermore, from the verse, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose,” (Romans 9:15), they deduce that God loves only a select few—the elect—and reserves his mercy for them alone. Yet the entire Bible opposes this, specifically declaring: “The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation” (Psalm 145:9). Again, from verses like, “It does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy,” they conclude that God shows mercy only to those he favored from eternity past. But who is really talking back to God here? You are contradicting the entire testimony of Scripture, which repeatedly proclaims that “God shows no favoritism” (Acts 10:34) and that “there is no favoritism with him” (Romans 2:11). In the same way, from the story of Jacob and Esau—where before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, “so that God’s purpose according to election might stand—not on the basis of works, but of the one who calls,” Rebecca was told, “The older will serve the younger”—you argue that election does not depend on God's foreknowledge. Yet this flatly contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, especially passages like: “Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Peter 1:2) and “Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined” (Romans 8:29).

21Scripture declares that “the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12). But you insist, “No, he is rich in mercy only to those for whom Christ died; and those are not all people, but only a chosen few—for Christ did not die for everyone, but only for those who were ‘chosen in him before the creation of the world’” (Ephesians 1:4). Yet the entire tenor of the New Testament flatly contradicts your interpretation, as do these specific passages: “Do not destroy with your food someone for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15)—which proves unmistakably that Christ died not only for those who are saved, but also for those who perish. Jesus is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42); he is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2); the living God is “the Savior of all people” (1 Timothy 4:10); “He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone” (1 Timothy 2:6); and by God’s grace Jesus “tasted death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

22If you ask, “Why then are not all people saved?” the whole body of Scripture answers clearly: First, it is never because of an unconditional decree of God, nor because God takes any pleasure in their death. As the Sovereign Lord declares: “As surely as I live, I take no pleasure in the death of anyone!” (Ezekiel 18:3, 32). Whatever the reason for their ruin, it cannot be God's will, if the Scriptures are true; for they explicitly affirm: “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9); he wants all people to be saved and to understand the truth. Second, Scripture reveals the real reason why people are not saved: they refuse to be saved! As our Lord plainly said: “You refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). The healing power of the Lord is present, but they refuse to be healed. Like their stubborn ancestors before them, they reject God's gracious purpose for their lives. Therefore they are completely without excuse, because God longed to save them, but they would not have it. This is the heart of the tragic verdict: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).

23It is unmistakably clear that this doctrine tends to undermine the Christian revelation by forcing Scripture to contradict itself—placing a narrow reading of a few passages in direct opposition to all the other biblical texts and the overarching message of the Bible. That alone is overwhelming proof that it does not come from God. Yet even that is not the end of the matter. Seventh, it is a doctrine filled with blasphemy—blasphemies so dreadful that I would shrink from repeating them, were it not that the honor of our loving God and the cause of his truth compel me to speak. For God’s sake, and out of deep reverence for his holy name, I will name a few of the horrific blasphemies inherent in this dreadful doctrine. But first, I urge everyone listening, as you will answer before God on Judgment Day: do not accuse me (as some have done) of blaspheming merely because I am exposing the blasphemy of this teaching. And the more grieved you feel toward those who promote these ideas, make sure you double your love toward them! Let your heartfelt desire and continual prayer to God be: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

24With this in mind, consider how this doctrine portrays our blessed Lord—Jesus Christ the righteous, the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. It depicts him as a hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man devoid of ordinary sincerity! No one can deny that throughout his earthly ministry Jesus spoke as if he genuinely wanted all people to be saved. Therefore, to claim that he was not truly willing for everyone to be saved is to accuse him of being a disingenuous actor. No one can deny that the gracious words flowing from his lips were filled with open invitations to every sinner. To say, then, that he did not intend to save all sinners is to portray him as a gross deceiver of the people. You cannot deny that he said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens.” If you claim he invited people whom he knew could not come, people whom he had the power to enable but deliberately chose to leave helpless, what greater insincerity could you possibly describe? You portray Jesus as mocking his helpless creatures by holding out a gift he had no intention of giving them! You accuse him of saying one thing while meaning another, and pretending to possess a love he did not actually feel. You take the One in whose mouth was no deceit and make him utterly dishonest. This reaches its awful peak when Jesus approached Jerusalem, wept over it, and cried: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me!” (ēthelēsa — kai ouk ēthelēsate). If you turn around and say that they were willing to come but he was not, you portray Christ—horrible as it is to speak—as weeping crocodile tears, weeping over prey that he himself had predestined to destruction!

25Such blasphemy ought to make the ears of every Christian tingle with horror! But there is even more: just as this doctrine dishonors the Son, so it dishonors the Father. It dismantles all his divine attributes at a stroke, overturning his justice, his mercy, and his truth. Indeed, it depicts the holy God as worse than the devil—as more deceitful, more cruel, and more unjust! More deceitful, because the devil, liar that he is, has never made a promise that he wants all people to be saved. More unjust, because the devil could not, even if he wished, commit the monstrous injustice you attribute to God: claiming that God condemns millions of souls to eternal fire (originally prepared for the devil and his angels) for continuing in sins they could never avoid because God deliberately withheld the only grace that could rescue them! And more cruel, because Satan is a restless, tormented spirit seeking peace and finding none, so that his own misery drives him to tempt others. But God dwells in eternal peace, blessed in his high and holy place; to imagine that he, in his perfect happiness and purely out of his own sovereign pleasure, would doom his creatures to endless agony regardless of their choices, is to ascribe a malice to him that exceeds even that of the enemy of souls! It portrays the Most High God—let anyone with ears listen!—as more cruel, dishonest, and unjust than the devil himself!

26This is the blasphemy unmistakably contained in this terrible decree! And here is where I take my stand. On this ground I challenge everyone who defends it: your doctrine portrays God as worse than the devil—more deceitful, more cruel, and more unjust. You respond that you can prove your doctrine from Scripture. Stop right there! What do you intend to prove from Scripture? That God is worse than the devil? That is utterly impossible! Whatever a passage proves, it can never prove that. Whatever its true meaning is, this cannot possibly be what it means! If you ask, “What does the passage mean then?” and I answer, “I do not know,” you have gained nothing. There are many passages of Scripture whose full mystery neither you nor I will understand until death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know for certain: it would be better to say a text had no meaning at all than to give it a meaning like this! Whatever else it means, Scripture cannot mean that the God of truth is a liar. Whatever it means, it cannot mean that the Judge of all the earth is unjust. No scripture can ever mean that God is not love, or that his tender mercy is not over all his works. Whatever else the Bible proves, it can never prove unconditional predestination.

27This is the blasphemy for which—much as I love the dear individuals who defend it—I utterly reject the doctrine of unconditional predestination. If we could imagine such a doctrine to be true for even a single moment (call it election, reprobation, or whatever name you choose), we could say to our great adversary, the devil: “You fool, why do you bother prowling around roaring any longer? Your hunting for souls is just as useless as our preaching! Don't you hear? God has taken your evil work out of your hands, and he does it far more effectively than you ever could! You, with all your dark principalities and powers, can only tempt us with attacks we can resist through grace; but he can irresistibly crush both body and soul in hell! You can only entice; but his unalterable decree, leaving countless souls trapped in death, forces them to stay in their sin until they tumble into everlasting fire! You only tempt; he compels people to be damned, for no one can resist his will! You fool, why do you wander around looking for someone to devour? Don’t you hear that God himself is portrayed as the roaring lion, the destroyer of souls, the murderer of men? The ancient idol Moloch only required children to pass through physical flames, and that fire soon died down or their mortal bodies burned up, ending their agony. But God, you are told, by an eternal decree settled before they had done anything right or wrong, forces not only tiny infants but their parents as well through the fires of hell—the fire that will never be quenched—where their bodies, now made indestructible, burn continuously without being consumed, while the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever simply because it pleases him!”

28Oh, how the great enemy of God and humanity would celebrate if these claims were true! How he would shout at the top of his voice: “Back to your tents, Israel! Flee from the face of this God, or you will completely perish! But where can you run? Up into heaven? He is there. Down into the depths of hell? He is there as well! You cannot escape an all-powerful, omnipresent tyrant! And whether you run or stay, I call heaven and earth to witness that you will die an eternal death. Sing, O hell, and shout for joy, all you dark realms of the deep! For God, the Almighty God, has spoken and sentenced countless souls to death from sunrise to sunset! Here, O death, is your sting—they cannot possibly escape, for the mouth of the Lord has decreed it! Here, O grave, is your victory—nations yet unborn, before they have taken a breath of life or done right or wrong, are condemned never to see the light of life, and you will devour them forever! Sing together, all you fallen morning stars who fell with Lucifer, son of the dawn! Let every creature in hell shout for joy, for the decree is sealed, and who can ever overturn it?”

29Yes, a decree has been established, and it was settled before the foundation of the world! But what is that decree? It is this: “I set before the children of humanity life and death, blessing and curse; and the person who chooses life will live, just as the person who chooses death will die.” This divine decree—by which those whom God foreknew he also predestined—has indeed stood from all eternity. By this decree, all who yield to Christ to be made alive are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.” It stands forever secure, like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Though heaven and earth will disappear, this decree will never pass away, for it is as eternal and unchangeable as God himself. This decree provides the greatest possible encouragement to overflow with good deeds and holiness. It is an overflowing fountain of deep peace and happiness, bringing us endless comfort. This decree is worthy of God! It harmonizes beautifully with every perfection of his divine character, presenting the most radiant vision of his justice, mercy, and truth. The entire message of the gospel aligns with it, as does every individual part of Scripture. Moses and all the prophets bear witness to it, along with our blessed Lord and his apostles. Moses proclaimed in the name of the Lord: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live!” Ezekiel declared (representing all the prophets): “The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not”—eternally, in Wesley’s gloss—“bear the guilt of the parent. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them” (Ezekiel 18:20). Our blessed Lord cried out: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” (John 7:37). His apostle Paul declared: “God commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30)—yes, all people everywhere, without any exception of place or person. James wrote: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5). Peter affirmed: “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And John rejoiced: “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1–2).

30Listen to this, all you who have forgotten God: you cannot blame your death on him! “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” asks the Sovereign Lord (Ezekiel 18:23). “Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them be your downfall! Put all your rebellion behind you—why should you die, O people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Turn and live!” “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, O people of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11).