Regeneration: How and Why God Saves His People

Regeneration: How and Why God Saves His People

Ezekiel 35:1–36:38

Main Idea: God refuses to leave His people in the condition He finds them but provides all that is necessary to conform those He loves to the image of Christ.

The question has been asked in a folk song, “What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?” The suggestions offered include putting him in a long boat, locking him in the guard room, tying him to the taffrail, giving him a dose of salt and water, and sticking a mustard plaster on his back. I’m not even sure what a mustard plaster is, but I’m certain I would not want it on my back. The problem with these suggestions is they deal only with the result of the sailor’s actions and not the cause. The focus is on the immediate consequences of his decision rather than preventing the situation from being repeated. We have our own suggestions for helping people too: Alcoholics Anonymous, Weight Watchers, anger management courses, etc.

How often have you said, “I will never do again?” When did you end up doing again? Maybe even before the ink dried on your commitment card? Resolutions have no power in themselves, and worse, those who make them are encouraged to look within for the potential to keep them. Looking within is the problem. What we do is driven by who we are, and our heart determines both of these. Our decisions and choices flow from what we love and desire, which is driven by our heart (Tripp and Tripp, Instructing, 52). Like the drunken sailor we do not need mere behavior modification but also heart surgery.

The admonition to get our act together is a death sentence if it is not accompanied by heart transformation. The form of Christianity I was discipled in emphasized doing better and being better but without connecting me with the power of the gospel to achieve either goal. Obedience to the imperatives in the biblical text was called for, but the imperatives were never partnered with the gospel indicatives. It was like receiving Ephesians 4–6 without founding its commands on Ephesians 1–3. Or more specifically, I was called to live Ephesians 6:1-3 without understanding that the ability to obey and honor my parents could only flow from Ephesians 5:18 and being filled with the Spirit. As a result, I struggled with behavior modification because willpower alone is not sufficient. Ask most dieters.

Concerning Ezekiel 35–36 we must ask, Is God setting Israel up for failure? With the exile of His people, did He only treat the decisions of Israel rather than their desires? He’s going to give them a new leader (ch. 34) and a renewed land (ch. 36), but will He send the same old Israelites back home? God can change the location of His people, but if He does not change their sin-sick situation, then He will only continue to experience frustration.

All along we have been given clues that God’s aim is never just the behavior of His people but their heart. In chapter 11 we were told,

I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. (vv. 19-20)

Do not miss the phrase so they may. The new heart is what will enable His people to follow His statutes and keep His ordinances.

On the refrigerator of my childhood home, a magnet had these words painted on it: “God loves you just the way you are, but too much to let you stay that way.” In the depth of our depravity, God loved us (Rom 5:6,8). But His love transforms. He does not leave us in the condition He finds us. His ultimate aim is that we will be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). Ezekiel 35–36 contains a magnificent picture of God not leaving the people He loves in the same condition. Not only will they have the best leader (ch. 34) and a renewed land, but they themselves will also be saved from all their uncleanness (36:29). God is going to act for their good and His glory (36:22).

For The Sake of His Name, God Is Going to Transform His People

For many years people believed the sun revolved around the earth. They also believed you could sail to the end of the world and fall off, but that is another lesson. We know now that the earth and the other planets in our galaxy (including the rock formerly known as a planet—Pluto) revolve around the sun. At one time we lacked proper knowledge and perspective to possess a right understanding of how our galaxy worked. We do this with God as well. For some reason we are prone to view ourselves as the center of the universe and God revolves around us doing our bidding like a genie. In particular He is supposed to give us a good marriage, a fulfilling job, and an amazing house, and He is supposed to protect us from dreaded diseases. Of course, in our self-absorbed worlds, God is not the only one who is to follow our agenda but also everyone else around us.

When God acts, He always does so primarily for His glory and secondarily for our good. God wanted Israel to have a proper perspective on the actions He would take in Ezekiel 36. He was not rescuing them because they were great but because He is. He is not even delivering Judah because they have repented but so that He might lead them to repentance.

Because we tend to be dull-minded people, God clearly articulated His primary purpose. He said, “It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went.” This should not have been a new thought for His people (2 Kgs 19:34; 20:6). Israel’s special relationship with God was not because of anything inherent but because of what God imputed to them. He always acts for the glory of His renown.

God Will Have Mercy on Whom He Will Have Mercy

How God Treats His Enemies: Repayment and Removal (35:1-15)

Just as you might have been missing God’s pronouncements of judgments, Ezekiel 35 pops onto the scene. The presence of this chapter is one more opportunity to crush any universalism that might be rolling around in our hearts with the foolish notion everything is going to turn out well for everyone, including God’s enemies. Edom, or Mount Seir, was guilty of maintaining an ancient hatred and handing over the Israelites to the power of the sword in the time of their disaster (v. 5). The Edomites also failed to hate bloodshed (v. 6), they declared Israel would be their possession (vv. 10,12), and, worst of all, they boasted against God and spoke many words against Him (v. 13). Of course, God heard it Himself (v. 15). He did not need anyone else to let Him know what Edom was doing and saying.

Instead of extending mercy, God is going to treat Edom according to the anger and jealousy they showed in their hatred of God’s people (v. 11). As a result Mount Seir will be made a desolate waste forever (vv. 3-4,7,9,14-15). Through His judgment the Edomites will know He is Yahweh (v. 15). In all these actions God will be completely fair.

One might be led to ask, Why does Edom receive judgment but Israel receive mercy? Both nations clearly deserved God’s wrath. One will receive it in such a way that it ruins them, and the other will walk through the discipline and be restored. Why God extends mercy to some but not to all is determined within His own counsel. The most important question we should be asking is, How can I not be God’s enemy? The answer has been provided all along the way. Turn from your sin and live. Stop walking in wickedness and walk in His righteousness. Edom is being repaid for their sin and removed from their land because they lacked repentance. If we do not want the same to happen to us, then we should heed Christ’s words: “Unless you repent, you will all perish as well” (Luke 13:3,5).

How God Treats His People

Israel deserved to be treated in the same manner as Edom (36:16-21). They were just as guilty of rebellion and of lacking repentance. God’s people polluted their land with bloodshed and idolatry (v. 18), and they profaned God’s name everywhere they were scattered (v. 20). Their exile caused the nations to question God’s goodness and sovereignty. Every other nation knew Israel was the people of Yahweh; yet they had to leave His land in exile (v. 20).

Yes, Israel deserved to be treated in the same manner as Edom, but they would not be. Like Edom they would be punished, but unlike Edom they would be preserved. While Edom received only judgment, Israel would receive mercy. Their discipline would not lead to ruin but restoration because God had concern for His holy name (v. 21).

In the salvation of His people, God is not passive. If He were, we would all perish. In Ezekiel 36 God’s active participation in the salvation of His people is seen clearly. Yahweh will gather His people from all the countries and bring them into their own land (v. 24). He will sprinkle clean water on them and cleanse them from all their impurities and idols (v. 25). He will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; He will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh (v. 26). Yahweh will place His Spirit within His people and cause them to follow His statutes and carefully observe His ordinances (v. 27). He will save them from all their uncleanness and summon the grain and make it plentiful (v. 29). God will also make the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field plentiful, so that His people will no longer experience reproach among the nations on account of famine (v. 30). Over and over, Yahweh says, “I will,” “I will,” “I will.” Nothing in this paragraph is what Israel will do for itself but all that He will do for them. God is not sitting back and hoping for the salvation of His people; He is accomplishing it. Let’s take a closer look now at how God treats His children differently from how He treats His enemies.

God restores and gathers His people (36:24). I’ve heard it said what seems like a setback can be a setup for an impressive comeback. This was never truer than for the people of God. In discipline God sent His people into exile, but He would not leave them there. He was frustrated by their actions but He was not finished with them as His people. He was going to take them from the nations and gather them from all the countries, and bring His people into their own land. He can “take” them from the nations because He gave them to the nations. The other countries host Israel only as long as God wills it and not one second longer. Even if the nations or their rulers wanted to stop God from gathering His people, they could not. Just ask the pharaoh in Exodus and the one in Ezekiel.

I love that God gathers those who cannot assemble themselves. He does not tell His people, “Come to Me,” but, “I will come to you. I will come and get you (which means He knows exactly where they all are), and I will lead you out of captivity.” He has experience with this (see Exodus). Of course, the greatest exodus will be when He leads His people out of captivity from sin and death. What occurs in Ezekiel with God’s people and the nations pales in comparison to when God will set His people free from the clutches and sting of death (1 Cor 15:55-57).

God regenerates His people (36:25-27). God does not just gather His people but also cleanses and changes them. He says, “I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean” (v. 25). He is not washing away sickness they acquired while in the other nations but sins they carried there with them. He says, “I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.” Please note: God does not say, “Clean yourself up and then come to Me.” I’m afraid this is exactly what some believe they have to do to become a Christian. If that were the case, then no one would ever be clean or come to God. No, He says, “I will gather you in all of your wretchedness and I will wash you and make you new.” He does the same for us (John 13:8; Eph 2:1-10).

Why the sprinkling and washing? We do not need to be just forgiven of our sin but also cleansed and healed from it (Muller, Honor and Shame, 56–68). There are no little sins, and no one has just a little bit of dirt on them. We are filthy, and we are sick. We need to be forgiven. We need to be healed. We need to be cleansed. Toplady said so rightly, “Wash me, Savior, or I die” (Augustus Toplady, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” 1763). While our baptism is a remarkable picture of this cleansing, water can never do for us what the blood of Christ does.

The author of Hebrews contends,

If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? . . . Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. (Heb 9:13-14; 10:22)

Likewise, John says, “If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Only Christ’s blood can “be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure” (Augustus Toplady, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” 1763).

We do not need just to be cleansed but also changed. Salvation is not just information but also transformation. God does not leave His people in the condition that He gathers them. He gives them a new heart, and He places His Spirit within them (33:26-27; cf. Eph 1:13-14; Titus 3:4-7). The heart surgery God performs produces a change of desire in His people, which leads to a change in deeds. Having been purified and now empowered by His presence, God’s people follow His statutes and observe His ordinances (36:27). What Solomon prayed for (1 Kgs 8:57-58) we know in reality (Phil 2:13; Titus 2:11-14). In bringing His people back to His land, God was not interested in business as usual but business as it had never been.

God reconciles His people (36:28). The point of the first exodus is the point of the second exodus in Ezekiel and the point of the greatest exodus through the cross of Christ: “You will be my people, and I will be your God.” The purpose of reconciliation is relationship. I fear many people are more excited about the secondary blessings of heaven, such as seeing loved ones, than they are about the primary blessing of dwelling with God. The point of the gospel is not that we get heaven or streets of gold but that we get God. Yahweh gathers and changes His people that He might dwell with them in a special manner.

Considering reconciliation, we often think of two parties who disagree and move in opposite directions. In God’s reconciling the people of Israel, however, they walked away from Him, but He never walked away from them. In fact, He goes and gets them while they are away and brings them back into a right relationship with Himself. He will not be unfaithful though they have been repeatedly. They will be His people, and He will be their God.

How is the reconciliation of God’s people achieved? There is but one means—Christ. Paul informs us, “Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). The only way for us to be His people and for Him to be our God is through Christ. What God declares in Ezekiel was achieved at the cross of Christ and will be ultimately experienced in the new Jerusalem (Rev 21:3).

God commands His people to remember (36:31-32). While God forgives our sins, He does not necessarily want us to forget them. Even after they are restored to their land, God commands Israel to “remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and detestable practices.” He also tells them to “be ashamed and humiliated because of your ways, house of Israel.”

God has a twofold purpose in commanding His people not to forget their evil ways and deeds. The first purpose is that remembering will hopefully prevent repetition. He wants them to loathe the way they used to live. Only after God gives us a new heart does the possibility exist for us to hate sin. After reconciliation and regeneration, God’s people should be described as running from sin and not toward it. John contends that once we have yielded our lives to Christ we cannot continue in our previous ways. He says, “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with Him,’ yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth” (1 John 1:6). Those who claim to have met Christ but do not forsake their evil ways and deeds have been only informed of the gospel but not transformed by it.

The second purpose God has in commanding His people not to forget their iniquities is so their only boast of rescue will be in God. They are constantly to remember that it was not their goodness that achieved their deliverance but His. Paul never forgot who he was prior to his conversion, which is why his only boast was in Christ. Duguid notes, “As we grow in the gospel we do not view ourselves in a better and better light” (Ezekiel, 423–24). To prevent spiritual amnesia, God wants His people to remember that He loved them in their worst state and still chose to rescue them. He alone deserves all the glory and praise.

God renews the place for His people (36:8-12,30,33-36). God alone brings beauty from ashes. He will see that the ruins are rebuilt (vv. 10,33) and that the land is replanted (v. 8). He will remove the curse of famine and cause the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field to be plentiful (v. 30). He will provide for His people, and the nations that remain around them will know that He alone has replanted what was desolate (v. 36).

God wants His people to request His help (36:37-38). Prayer is a privilege. God is not obligated to respond to every request. He is not even obligated to listen to requests (14:3). He wants His people to know, however, if they ask Him to multiply them in number then He will respond to the house of Israel and do this for them (36:37). They can know God will answer their prayer, but His answer is linked to their asking.

In His providence God has ordained our prayers to be part of the plan. If prayer is unimportant or ineffectual, then Jesus and Paul both wasted a lot of time. God wants us to ask because in prayer we admit our dependence on Him. In Ezekiel, when the ruined cities are filled with a flock of people, it will be because God has given the increase in response to His people’s intercessions (v. 38).

I fear we often do not ask God too much but too little. He delights to answer prayers according to His will, and the best way to know His will is to know His Word. The prayers of His people are not a burden to Him. The God of heaven wants us to cast all of our cares on Him (1 Pet 5:7). Your congressman may not want you to do this, but your God does. He wants you to rely on Him fully. For the generation restored to Israel, they will not have a lot of children just because they are fertile but because God is faithful.

Why God Saves in This Way

The purpose of Edom’s removal and Israel’s restoration is the same: God’s revelation. Both His people and His enemies will know He is Yahweh (35:4,9,12,15; 36:11,23,36,38). There will be no questioning who has brought about Israel’s deliverance and Edom’s destruction. Primarily, He does all things for the sake of His holy name (36:21-23,32). We can become egocentric and elevate God’s actions as mainly being about us, but they are really about Him. His restoration of Israel is not even driven most by His love for His people but in order to demonstrate His holiness through them (36:23).

Is it wrong for God to care primarily about His glory and secondarily about our good? Nothing God ever does is wrong. His holiness means that both His attitudes and His actions are always perfect and pure. For God to seek His own glory is right because He above all others and all things is worthy of such glory. Were He to seek someone else’s glory above His own, then this other would be more worthy of worship than God. So in punishing His enemies and in purifying His people, God is saying, “Look at Me.” Specifically, “Look at My holiness and consider My greatness. See the folly in your idols and turn to Me. Do not set your heart in unworthy places.”

Because God’s greatest pursuit is the glory of His name, this should be our aim in all things as well. In our homes, jobs, schools, cities, and the world, let all we do be for the sake of His renown. May no one doubt He is Yahweh by what they see and hear in us.

Don’t Miss the “Alls”

Ezekiel 36:29,33

Before closing Ezekiel 36, I want us to consider two final verses but one major point. In verse 29 God says He is going to save His people from all their uncleanness. In verse 33 God says He is going to cleanse His people from all their iniquities. Don’t miss the “alls.” What God sets out to do He does completely. God does not only have the power to take away some of our sin but all of it. Through the cross of Christ, God has saved us from sin’s entire penalty and has broken its power. The day is coming when the full measure of Ezekiel 36 will be experienced and God will remove sin’s presence from His people forever. We will never disappoint Him again or bring reproach on His name. We will never have to seek His forgiveness but fully live in obedience to Him and delight in Him. We will know then what we sing now:

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its pow’r

Till all the ransomed church of God

Be saved, to sin no more.

(William Cowper, “There is a Fountain,” 1772)

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why can true and lasting change never come from behavior modification alone?
2. Why do we so often try to deal with behavior rather than deal with the heart? How do you aim toward the heart of your children or those you are discipling and not just their actions?
3. Why is it good and right that God acts most for His name and not ours? If we considered your actions, then whose name would we think you lived for most?
4. Have you ever struggled with the truth that God is free to extend or withhold His mercy? How did the Lord bring you to peace on the issue?
5. How can we minimize causing people to doubt God’s goodness and power by the way we live our lives?
6. Why is God active in the salvation of His people instead of being passive? What evidences of His actions can be seen in your salvation?
7. Why do you think some people believe they have to clean themselves up before coming to God? Why is this impossible?
8. If the point of reconciliation is relationship, then how’s that going between you and God? Are you more excited about secondary blessings or the fact that God gives Himself to you?
9. Even though God forgives our sins, why does He not want us to fully forget them? How can we maintain a proper balance between remembering but also knowing they have been removed from us?
10. Is prayer a privilege to you? Are there any ways you believe you are asking for too little in prayer rather than too much? How can we pray according to His will?