Ezekiel 33 - Grace is by faith, not works, in the OT
 12 “Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.’ 13 If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done. 14 And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right- 15 if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. 16 None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.
 17 “Yet your countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. 18 If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. 19 And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. 20 Yet, O house of Israel, you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his own ways.”
Righteousness does not save. In other words, you are not guaranteed eternal salvation from the moment you turn to righteousness. Rather, you are saved if you die righteous. However, a man can choose which path he follows. He can choose righteousness or wickedness, and he can change his mind… until he dies anyway. And this is just. Why?
Before talking about why this is just, it is interesting to note how man expects God to view things. First, mankind expects God to judge our overall lives on balance. So, if someone lives a wicked life, they should not expect to go to Heaven just because they turn to righteousness at the last second. After all, they still did all that evil, right? Don’t they deserve to go to Hell for it? Well, answers are yes and yes, but justice isn’t always about what someone deserves. It is not about how we live, but about how we die.
Well then, why not live a life of sin, and then begin living righteously when we get old? Well, first of all, you might die before go turn back to righeousness. Second of all, suppose life goes according to plan… and you now turn to doing righteous deeds. Well, tell me. With what kind of heart would you be doing them? With a righteouss heart? I mean, with such a person, even their “righteouss” deeds are evil, because they’re trying to game God. But, don’t just take my own word for it.
Verse 14 above explains that a man has to turn away from his sin and do what is just and right. “Turning away” and “doing” are two separate actions here. The man can what is “just and right” from a strictly legal perspective, and many people have lived out their religion exactly like that… but did they first turn away from their sin? Even an evil man is capable of loving his child in between crimes. When he decides he’s stolen enough to live on for the rest of his life, and lives a life of philanthropy for his “retirement”, has he really turned away from his sin? Well, perhaps, but that turning away isn’t an action one can see, because it’s an action of the heart. But if parsing a verse is not convincing, then let us see what King David had to say about this topic Psalm 51…
 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
      you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
      a broken and contrite heart,
      O God, you will not despise. 18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
      build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
      whole burnt offerings to delight you;
      then bulls will be offered on your altar.
If “turning from our sin” meant simply changing our actions, then David would offered that burnt offering, and it would have pleased God. But, look at what David knows God really wants: “a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart”. A person whose turns from wickedness to righteousness, for the simple reason that he wants to go to Heaven, and he thinks that finishing his life by doing good things will get him there, is not righteouss in his heart. Such a man’s spirit is not broken, because he didn’t turn from wickedness out of conviction… his heart has not turned from his sin. Not at all! Such a man only stops “sinning” because it was part of his plan! He’s no different at all.
Now let us suppose that this man does get toward the end of his life, and during his “good” works realizes the emptiness in his heart. He realizes how wrong he was, and that he is still condemned to Hell, because he was simply gaming God. And at that moment, he falls to his knees and begs God for forgives, because he realizes the truth of Isaiah 64:6, which reads, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” He repents of his sins, he repents of his scheming, and repents of his heart, and then begins to do his good works out of a love for God. As unlikely and as unfair as that sounds to many people, that man will have now turned from his sins… finally, and will be living in true righteousness. That man will now go to Heaven when he dies.
So, righteousness is not about your works per se, the heart with which you work them. It isn’t about the evil you have done, but the heart with you judge even yourself. The Old Testament calls this just; Paul wrote of it, and called it grace.
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