Day 5: Generational Sins

God is just, and he is faithful to his promises. But does that really mean he will visit “the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation?"

The answer is kind of, but not really. Ezekiel 18:20 says, “that a child will not share the guilt of a parent. Every person is punished or disciplined for their own sin. The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”

We are not under a curse. Can we inherit tendencies toward certain sins? Yes. But, the responsibility is ultimately on us. Salvation and continued obedience is an individual choice, and we choose whether we continue in the sin that we might be predisposed to because of previous generations. But we are not under a curse; we are made new when we confess that the Lord is our Savior, and we are given the Holy Spirit’s power and guidance to put to death sin (Rom. 8:9–14). Praise God!

Then what is this passage of Scripture saying? Consequences rather than curses are passed down. If a parent practices a sinful behavior many times, the child and possibly future generations will reap the consequences of that behavior. If a father is an alcoholic, his choices will naturally affect his child, as he will be checking out, aloof, acting out in anger, or being aggressive when intoxicated. An individual’s sin can impact generations.

This should make us pause to consider that we might harm many people by our sinful choices. That is the seriousness of sin. We are individually responsible for our anger, self-centered behavior, lack of faith, and so forth, yet this Scripture tells us that we cannot just selfishly say that we are making our choices and no one else will be hurt. No, sin is visited upon others and impacts generations.

Our God is a God who knows how serious sin is, not just for the individual, but for generations of people. Knowing this character quality of God, we see he is generous with his forgiveness yet also just in his judgment.

If we see that we have been hurt and harmed by generational sin, we can bring this to our loving Father who is abounding in steadfast love and compassion towards us. Or suppose we have participated and perpetuated generational sin in our family. In that case, we can pray for God to work in our lives and hearts to find freedom by his powerful Spirit from these sins and to break that generational sin. Because we are united with Christ, we have so much hope and so much steadfast love, faithfulness, and forgiveness to be able to rely on! What a good God!