“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.” (Ezra 9:6)
How can a Christian sin? Easily. Can someone be “away from the Lord” for dozens of years and still be saved? You get that idea in some churches. The testimonies from the baptimal waters seem to indicate early baptisms and good upbringings and then the wheels fall off. Years later a light clicks on and they climb back into the tub to “rededicate” themselves after years of wanton sin. My theory is this. If you sin after salvation you feel and talk like Ezra does here on behalf of his people. He’s embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed, and suffering from great guilt. You are definitely not skipping merrily along in denial but you are in bondage.
A child of God when he or she sins does what the remnant did here. When Ezra looked up from his prostrate position in the dust before the house of God, he saw “a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly.” (Ezra 10:1)
Yes, we all sin, but a child of God can’t live with himself in that state without it eating him alive. Being miserable after a slip and wanting to immediately restore the relationship with your Father in heaven is a clear sign you are definitely one of his. There are no dozens of years.
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