Ezra 9:13

Ezra 9:13 says. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;  Ezra gives a warning to the people who had returned to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem.  He said that their past iniquities had led to their punishment of being exiled, but even that was less punishment than they deserved.  Now, they were being restored by God’s grace.  We all deserve punishment for our sins, and we can only avoid that by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and through faith in Him, we will never receive the punishment we deserve.  

Verse fourteen adds, Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?  Ezra then asked if the people of Israel once again sinned by breaking God’s commandments and enjoying the abominations of the people around them, would God not then be justified in not leaving a remnant of Israel.  Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we should never allow sin into our life again, but we likely will.  We certainly shouldn’t enjoy sinful actions that the world will tempt us with.  Still, even if we do sin again, though we need to acknowledge it to God and ask His forgiveness, we will never lose the gift of salvation, because God seals us to Himself forever.  

Verse fifteen continues, O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.  Just as Ezra said then, we cannot stand before the righteous God by our own worthiness, because sin has separated us from Him.  We can only stand before God by repenting of our sins and accepting His forgiveness through putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.