In April of 2010 I wrote about two of the greatest liars in Sport – Success and Failure. I spent a lot of time exposing their lies, half-truths and a little about the truth of their whispers, shouts and snide remarks. Here is some Truth about our worth to God, the security of our identity in Christ and our freedom from condemnation.
All these lies gnaw at our souls, impeding our progress as lovers of God and hindering our Lord's gift of fulfilling enjoyment of sport. Both Success and Failure speak these lies with equally damaging consequences to our hearts, minds and souls.
The truth is that we have infinite value to Christ. The true value of something is determined by what another is willing to pay for it. In our case, God paid an infinite price to redeem us from our hopeless state of sin and rebellion. Romans 5:8 states, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!” Such a strong, consistent and unmistakable expression of worth counters the sports liars’ assertions that our value is measured in wins and losses.
The truth is that our identity is inextricably in Christ Jesus. On our worst days, Ephesians 1:3-14 is true and these verses remind us of who we are.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ; 4 for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love 5 He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, 6 to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him 10 for the administration of the days of fulfillment —to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him.
11 In Him we were also made His inheritance, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.
13 In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—in Him when you believed—were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.
On the day of our worst performance and in our least successful seasons, the truth is that “He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.”
The truth is that we are totally without condemnation before Him. Romans 8:1 states, “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus…” Even when our own minds condemn us because of our weaknesses, our sinful habits and our persistent flesh, the Spirit of Christ whispers to our hearts and encourages us with the Truth. Our Advocate speaks courage and confidence into our formerly condemned minds, enabling us to boldly seek God’s strength for the next practice or competition.
There is powerful wisdom to be found by focusing our hearts and minds on the process of training, competition, personal and team development in sport. Take care to listen wisely to the reports of success and failure. Understand that statistics, win/loss ratios and other measurements of sporting achievement speak truthfully about performance, but they lie about identity, worth and significance. The truth about these issues can only be found in an abiding relationship with Christ Jesus.
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