(31) Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.
This is in the great passage where the Lord promises to restore Israel. It is the basis of the idea of monergism, which states that God is the one who effects salvation in the believer. Even those who are not soteriologically reformed rejoice in the idea of having a heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh. It takes God to do this in us, whether it is preevninent grace or the traditional reformed view.
I thought that this verse was very interesting. It certainly goes against the grain of much in American evangelicalism. We have this idea of a happy-clappy joyous relationship with Jesus. That is certainly a part of it and to ignore that would be to thumb my nose at a good bit of the New Testament. However, there is something that must happen first. We must repent.
This verse makes it clear that there will be a time when we remember our sin. We will realize just how badly we need grace for our salvation. We will realize that we cannot do this on our own. This will lead to joy, but first it must bring us low.
The good news is that we do not need to stay low. As we realize our own wretchedness we can find joy in the salvation that comes in Christ. He saves us from our state once we realize the hopelessness of it in ourselves. Turn to Jesus!
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