Should We Be Punished for the Sins of Others?

2020 has brought many issues some may have thought were only existing in the culture, into the ring of the Church. Many pastors, churches, and ‘Christian organizations’ affirm many sinful and worldly ideologies.

One such ideology is the idea of white people (people with light skin with ancestors from Europe) are inherently racist, and should pay for the sins of their fathers; as they claim, ‘restitutions’ for slavery and other sin. This is an extension of Critical Theory, a race based Marxist ideology, which in short, places all importance on skin color and ethnic background, establishing all the world's problems on oppressors (white people) vs victims (color people).

While there are many reasons this ideology / framing is evil and devoid of actual truth, I want to address that of ethnic sin / guilt.

God’s Justice

God calls for Man to operate in this way; Every man must pay for their own sin, not the sin of another.

Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. (ESV)

I’ve seen others go against this, however, they fail to actually deal with the quotes from God saying this.

Typically, people will try to combat this by saying that the Hebrew people or others faced the wrath of God because of the sins of others, like in the book of Jeremiah, but with this point, they illustrate their lack of proficiency in the Word.

Let’s go back to the book of Genesis quickly. In Genesis 18, Abraham is pleading for the life of his relative living in Sodom, which God was going to destroy. This place was an abomination, and deserved the wrath of God. However, there was one ‘righteous’ man living there, Lot, Abraham’s relative. Abraham was praying to God, that for the sake of the righteous, would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 18:32–33
Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. (ESV)

As we see, not only would God not destroy Sodom for the sake of 10 righteous men living there, but for the sake of one righteous man. So, God rescued them, and then destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

God doesn’t pour out his wrath for sin on people who didn’t commit that sin. This is also true for the book of Jeremiah. God sent Jeremiah to his people to warn them of God’s impending wrath to come. He pleaded with them, but they hated his message.

Jeremiah 3:12–13
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
“ ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD.
I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD;
I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the LORD your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,
and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. (ESV)

God wants to extend mercy to his people. All we must do is repent. In short, that’s the Gospel message. We have the wrath of God stored against us because of our sinful lives, and if we repent and believe in who God is, we will be united with him in eternity.

A Scattered People

Jeremiah 23:1–4
The Righteous Branch
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.

Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. (ESV)

God’s people scattered before the destruction (For further study, read Jeremiah 31). This is a narrative theme all throughout the bible. You can even see this before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. God’s people fled while foreign invaders destroyed it as God’s wrath. So to suggest that God punishes the innocent is ignorant of the actual bible.

Even if it was the case that God poured his wrath on righteous people, that still wouldn’t justify humans doing it as well. God clearly gives mankind a code of justice to follow. God is free to punish and take the life of anyone he sees fit. He’s GOD. He has that authority. We, however, don’t have the authority. The only authority Man has is the authority God gives us. And our God is clear about the kind of justice that is to be handled by man vs God.

I actually think the kind of thinking that if God does we can do it, is severe idolatry. This is the first sin committed by any creation; we could share the same authority as God. We don’t get to decide how justice works, who is worthy / unworthy of wrath. That is exclusively reserved for God and God alone.

God doing something in the bible doesn’t mean we also get to do that thing. That’s how all sorts of heretical teachings and churches crop up, like Bethel and the NAR movement.

I previously talked about Racism in the bible in another blog post, so go check that out here: https://attbible.blogspot.com/2020/07/racism-according-to-bible.html

God’s Judgement

According to God, we will all face judgement before God. We won’t be judged for what others have done, but for what we did with this life God gave us.  (Isaiah 45:22–23, Revelation 20:12–15)

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (ESV)

Romans 2:5–8
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (ESV)

Though we won’t be allowed to heaven because our good outweighs our bad (salvation is through faith in Jesus alone, through repentance of our sins: for further study, read John 3:16, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8–9), we will have to give an account for our own sins.

Like God said in Ezekiel, we each are ‘put to death’ for our own sins, not the sins of others.

Misunderstanding Exodus 34

Exodus 34:6–7

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (ESV)

 Another defense of "God punishing innocents on behalf of their fathers sins" would be the claim that Exodus 34:7 is saying that God will punish the next generations for what the fathers have done. This idea also gives way to the false idea of generational curses. 

This view isn't uncommon. Even the disciples appeared to have this false view, but Jesus corrects them in John 9.

John 9:1–3

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. (ESV)

The statement made by God in Exodus 34 is in reference to the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20:5-6

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

The phrase “the third and the fourth” is a Hebrew idiom for “however many” (Proverbs 30, Amos 2). So it means that as many as continue to practice this sin, I will punish. There's a great Bible Project podcast on this: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/does-god-curse-generations/

Forgiving Debts

One of the greatest things Jesus spoke was in his example of how to pray. He says this:

Matthew 6:12

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors. (ESV)

Jesus continues on that thought, forgiving others, right after he concluded the prayer.

Matthew 6:14–15

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (ESV)

It is our obligation to forgive those we believe who have wronged us. That's the thing I don't see at all from this crowd. They don't forgive people. They will hold this sin over their heads, never to be forgotten, always having to atone for this sin of racial prejudice. And with that they miss the mark completely. When we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us. That's a huge deal, and of course, it makes sense. Why would God forgive us when we won't let go of hatred in our hearts:

Matthew 7:21–23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (ESV)

1 John 4:18–21

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)

Conclusion

This is the takeaway. It’s unloving to hold people to sins they never committed. It’s wrong to claim someone is racist because of their skin color or place of origin. That’s, ironically, racist and xenophobic.

Matthew 7:1–5
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (ESV)

God always wants people to turn to him; even those who hate their own brother, of which racism is a form of. The World tells us that it’s impossible to repent of this ‘original sin’ of whiteness, or historical racism. However, that isn’t the message of the Bible at all. Repeatedly, YHWH begs people to repent and obey him, and if we repent, his wrath is no more. Our original sin isn’t our place of origin, but that of disobedience to God; idolatry, elevation of ourselves to the position of God.

But there is hope. God died for us, and took the wrath that we deserved! That’s the beauty of the Gospel; that God himself lived a perfect life, free from sin, and was punished in our place. All we must do is turn away from our wickedness, ask for forgiveness, and put our hope in Christ alone.

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (ESV)

John 6:35–40
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (ESV)

Romans 6:6–11
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)