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What’s all this “Generational”Stuff?

by Dr. Paul L. Cox

Exodus 20:5

You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them [idols]; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to athousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

We believe the issue of generational iniquity is best illustrated in the familiar story of Cain.Let’s review. Cain and his brother Abel brought a sacrifice to the Lord; Abel’s sacrifice wasfound worthy in God’s eyes, while Cain’s was not. This story marks an important distinctionbetween sin, rebellion and iniquity. When Cain became angry, sad and dejected, the Lordsaid to Cain, “Sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Inresponse to this, Cain did three things. First, and perhaps most profoundly, he departed fromthe presence of the Lord. Next, he convinced his brother to come out to the fields, where hekilled him. Lastly, when the Lord asked him where his brother was, Cain replied, “Am I mybrother’s keeper?” And after this answer, the Lord cursed Cain.We may define sin simply as separation from God, and Cain’s “departing from the presenceof the Lord” exemplifies this. In the Old Testament, the law required sin offerings for suchthings as coming in contact with a dead animal carcass or a dead body, so we can see thatsin occurs from actions as simple as taking our eyes off God and going astray; there is notnecessarily any malicious intent. Rebellion, on the other hand, occurs when we knowingly dothat which God has commanded us and charged us not to do, when we “do it anyway.”For generational issues, however, iniquity becomes our primary concern, and Cain’s answer to God exemplifies iniquity. The Lord asks Cain, “Where is your brother?” and Cain does notsay, “Lord, I have sinned greatly, for I have committed murder upon my own brother.” Hedoes not even respond rebelliously, “Listen, I know it’s against the rules, but I killed Abel, socould we just get this punishment thing over with, Lord?” Instead, he replies, “Am I mybrother’s keeper?” Cain gives an answer that distorts the truth; he chooses not to confess thetruth with contrition, nor to tell the truth, albeit without remorse (like the second exampleresponse), but his response is crafted to cover his sin and rebellion, and thus evadeconsequences altogether. Thus, we may define iniquity as a twisted response to God. TheHebrew word avown is translated here as iniquity, and this word comes from the root wordavah, which Strong’s translates as “do amiss, bow down, make crooked, pervert.” God cursesCain for his actions, and Cain replies, “My punishment is too great!” The word translated as“punishment” is actually avown; so Cain is quite literally saying, “My crookedness is toogreat,” where ‘crookedness’ may refer to either his own crooked ways, the punishment thatcomes with them, or both. Thus, it is quite literally this crookedness, this twisting of thefather’s that is visited upon the sons in the sense of the curse, the punishment, but also in thesense of the distorted response.

Let’s get some perspective. The Father sent His Son Jesus to atone once and for all for our sins on the cross. He bore the weight of all our sins, and He became a curse for us, so thatwe might have freedom. He has conquered sin once and for all. He alone could bear it. Thevictory is His. If we can become as Paul described, so that “it is not me who lives, but Christ inme,” then we can carry His victory in us. We believe the Father “visits the iniquity of thefathers on the sons” not because He has a heart to burden people, but so that they may beconfronted with this twisting of the truth, rise to the challenge and overcome it, not through our own righteousness, but through the righteous sacrifice of the One Who lives in us (that is,Jesus). We believe this occurs so that the sons may be presented with this wrong response,perceive this sin, and be given the opportunity to “master it” that their fathers squandered.Rev 3:5 says the following:Thus shall he who conquers be clad in white garments, and I will not erase or blot out hisname from the Book of Life; I will acknowledge him as Mine, and I will confess his nameopenly before My Father and before His angels.The reward is promised to be great for those who persevere and learn to overcome.

That’s So Old Testament!

Yes. That is exactly where it is.Consider this question: What is a Testament? The American Heritage Dictionary defines itthis way: Something that serves as tangible proof or evidence. It comes from the Latin wordtestis, which can be translated roughly to mean “witness.” Who or what does the OldTestament give evidence of? Who or What is it a witness to? You’re probably already rollingyour eyes, because of course it is God that the Old Testament gives witness to. But don’tshrug this aside; it’s the reason we still carry all those pages around in our Bibles. Thetestament may be old, but as for the God it testifies of, HE IS still the same. He does notchange. If doubt still lingers about the relevance of the Old Testament, consider Luke 16:31,wherein Jesus gave us some stunning words in His parable about the rich man and thebeggar, Lazarus:

But Abraham said, “If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.”

Those are probably not particularly comforting words.Those who find themselves echoing the objection about generational iniquity being confinedto the Old Testament probably consider Gal 5:3-4, which says this:

If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey all of theregulations in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s

grace.

Much of the Old Testament (though not all by any means) describes God’s commands to theIsraelites, in other words, the law. Paul exhorts us here not to try and work out our salvationthrough the law. But even in the Old Testament, God expresses contempt for songs, offeringsand festivals because of the people’s attitude. All of these were in keeping with the law. TheLord almost killed Balaam for having a wrong attitude and being spiritually insensitive, eventhough he was following the command of the Lord.The law was created to give witness to God, to His holiness. It was created to guard us fromsin before we put faith in Jesus (Gal 3:24). It was also created to produce guilt in us, whichwould, in turn, reveal to us our inability to produce right standing with God through our ownefforts (Gal 3:19). For that, we need a Savior. Jesus lived his life in perfect submission to thelaw, so that we would not place our faith in the law, but in the One who fulfilled it. Again, Hesaid, “I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” Through Him, we can live in harmony asPaul describes in Eph 2:20:

We are His house, built on the foundation of the

apostles

and the

prophets.

And thecornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself.

(Bold added for emphasis)God can change and has changed His commands in keeping with His time or season. Acts 11describes how He repealed the commands to only eat the flesh of certain animals just beforethe first Gentiles received the Spirit. In the verse above, Paul fervently urges the brethrenagainst circumcision. To use an exaggerated example, we would certainly strain ourselves if we tried to simultaneously worship the Lord with joyous shouts and clapping, mourn with loudcrying and moaning, and receive Him in quietness and rest.But the part of Exodus 20:5 describing generational iniquity has no command. It’s not the law.It is not even an impersonal, categorical description of how God’s legal system works, suchas, “The wages of sin are death.” Exodus 20:5 describes God! Read it again:

…for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon thechildren to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

This describes not the law, but a characteristic of God’s ways and His justice. The Lord lovesrighteousness right now just as much as He did in the days of Adam. He still does not despisethose with a contrite heart and a broken spirit. And although He sent Jesus to be a friend tosinners and release us from its bondage, He still hates sin. What He tells us to do maydepend on context, but His character does not change.Lest there be any confusion about the subject of generational sin in our New Covenant times,consider the words of the Lord in Luke 11:47-51 (Amplified):

Woe to you! For you are rebuilding and repairing the tombs of the prophets, whom your fathers killed. So you bear witness and give your full approval and consent to the deeds of