Ezekiel 18[:21]: “But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins,” etc., “he will live.”
Ezekiel 18[:21]: “But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins,” etc., “he will live.”
§ 25. Bellarmine takes the fourth part of his proof from the teaching of the prophet: “Conditions are added to the prophetic promises about the forgiveness of sins, conditions of repentance and of obedience to God’s Commandments. ‘But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins and does justice and judgment, he will live’ ” (Ezek. 18:21).
We respond. The Gospel teaches that eternal life is the free gift of God which believers obtain through and because of Christ, as will be shown in detail in its own place [cf. On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 31–63]. Therefore its promise cannot depend upon being penitent and doing what is right as if upon a meritorious condition. But true conversion to God is being described, whose most important part is faith in Christ, and this description is on the basis of conversion’s fruits and consequences, namely, a turning away from wickedness and obedience to God’s commands. In the same way, these are connected in Scripture: to turn away from evil and to do good [Ps. 34:14], to hate sin and to pursue justice [Isa. 1:16–17], to put off the old man and to put on the new [Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 3:9–10], to put aside the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light [Rom. 13:12]. True conversion to God can be separated from these fruits as little as heat from fire or brightness from the sun. Yet no merit for the remission of sins or for eternal life can be attributed to these fruits, since they are obtained only through faith in Christ.