“Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He spent the night there without eating or drinking anything. He was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned exiles.”
Ezra 10:6 NLT
Too often, we are taught that once we confess and repent, there is nothing left but for a mature Christian to be happy with God’s inevitable response of grace. But a truly mature Christian should actually be saddened by it. He should be saddened by the need for that grace. His emotions should reflect a deep understanding of the sacrifice that was made to provide that grace. Ultimately this should lead to a stronger attunement to God and a deeper relational voracity where the grace that is given is less about sin and more about ontological differences. Unfortunately many Christians either do not consider the difficulties to God enough or at all. This is why Christ’s visible and extreme sacrifice is useful to us. It helps us to remember that our freedom was only free to us and it reminds us that God’s love is costly to him. It is not enough to confess and be happy. When we repent, we turn back down the road we came from and admit our silly in the very step back. This should not be happy process but we should count it as joyful. We must Learn from the example of Ezra who knew how to hold the dichotomy.
JOSH McGARY. COM 