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Corporate Repentance - Robert J. Wieland

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everything right, but who has a son who does<br />

everything wrong. Then he discusses how the<br />

wicked man's son "seeth all his father's sins . . . and<br />

doeth not such like ... He shall not die for the<br />

iniquity of his father" (verses 14-17). Sin and guilt<br />

are not passed on genetically. The prophet's point<br />

is to recognize the principle of personal<br />

responsibility. The son need not repeat his father's<br />

sins unless he chooses to. He can break the cycle of<br />

corporate guilt by means of repentance.<br />

But Ezekiel does not suggest that any righteous<br />

man is righteous of himself, nor does he deny the<br />

Bible truth of justification by faith. Any righteous<br />

man must be righteous by faith; apart from Christ<br />

he has no righteousness of his own. The wicked<br />

man is the one who rejects such righteousness by<br />

faith. The prophet does not deny that "all have<br />

sinned,' and "all the world … [is] guilty before<br />

God" (Romans 3:23, 19). Apart from the imputed<br />

righteousness of Christ, therefore, all the world is<br />

alike guilty before God.<br />

The son who saw his father's sins and repented<br />

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