I noted something interesting some time back when I was reading John 9. In verse 2, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
In Ezekiel 18 verses 20, the Scripture says: "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him".
I believe this portion of the Scripture is not only talking about dying for the sin of others but also include suffering because of the sins of others. Humanly, it is diffucult putting this to the right perspective. The reason is that, for example, someone makes a mistake in the traffic and you find the innocent dying and the one who made the mistake surviving. In this case, it is "understandable" that sometimes we blame someone for the misfortunes of others. To this extent, the disciples were just human to think that the man born blind might have been paying the penalty for the sins of the parents.
Nevertheless, when they (the disciples) attempted to attribute the sin to the man born blind, it was interesting. Look at it again! "... who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" If there was the possibility that the man was born blind because of his own sin, then the following questions beg to be answered:
Based on the fact that he was already blind when he was born...
i) ... how can a man sin in the womb (before birth) so as to mature for punishment at birth?
ii) ...how can someone be punished in advance?
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