Tiger Apologizes

Reprinted from EmbraceGrace.org:

Tiger Woods told the world he was sorry yesterday.  His infidelity has turned his life upside down.  His family has been torn apart.  He has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals.  He has left the game that he loves so much and that God has gifted him so well to play.

Reaction to Tiger’s apology are generally favorable, although there are still many taking shots at him.  So what is God’s perspective on all of this?

First of all I think it’s pretty evident to all that sin has consequences and those consequences can be painful.  The Bible is clear, ALL fall short of God’s standards.  NO ONE seeks Him, not even one.  In other words.  We are ALL guilty.  We can’t help it.  We were born that way.  All of us suffering the consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Our sin nature is evident.  We lie, cheat, steal, sleep around.  This is the nature of man left to his own devices.  Sin is wrong.  Transgressions are wrong.  We pay a price for the mistakes we make.  The bigger the mistake, the more damage to ourselves and those around us.

What’s worse, even the slightest mistake makes us unworthy of living in God’s presence forever.  Want to go to Heaven?  Live a perfect life.  Good luck with that.  It can’t be done by mere men and women.

Of course the good news is we don’t have to live a perfect life!  Jesus did that for us.  Since He is God, He was able to pay the price of sin for us.  Death.  Jesus died so we could live.  God cannot lie.  He promised that the penalty for sin is death.  God also promised that He loves us.  This apparent contradiction is resolved at the cross.  The price for sin is paid for by His son.  God’s love is now available to those who can’t live a perfect life.

There is only one catch.  You can’t receive an awesome gift unless you, you know, receive it.  In other words, the Bible says that we have to believe that Jesus is God, that He died for us, and rose from the dead.  If we do that then we are saved.  Romans 10:9 and 10.

Tiger made a huge mistake and he is paying a huge price for it.  I think it is right for Christians to extend love and forgiveness to a hurting person who is suffering as a result of his mistakes.  God gives us second and third  (and fourth and fifth and sixth…) chances.  We should do the same for Tiger.  Even as we hate the sin we can show love to the man.  All of us are just as guilty (maybe not of exactly the same thing, but we all have our issues).  The difference is we are now forgiven and that allows us to share God’s love with others.

The ultimate show of love is to share the good news of God’s gift available to Tiger and to anyone else who will accept it.  That’s what Brit Hume did awhile back.  It created quite a reaction, but to Brit’s credit he stuck by his words because they were true and they were spoken in love.

What about Tiger’s marriage?  Should Tiger’s wife divorce him?  The Bible is clear that infidelity is grounds for divorce.  She is well within her rights to leave Tiger if she chooses.  Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.  Forgiveness is given, trust is earned.  Tiger is right when he says that his right actions over time are the only way that he has a chance to regain the trust of his wife.  I pray that that happens.

I, for one, will still be a Tiger Woods fan.  I hope that he has a successful life and a successful career.  Of course the ultimate success is measured by our relationship with God.  That relationship starts by accepting His free gift.  I pray that someday Tiger embraces grace.

It’s not a term you hear a lot. But I think it should be. The word “salvific” means pertaining to the power of salvation or redemption. As in, “What theological issues are actually salvific?”
As Christians it seems that sometimes we are more focused on being right than righteous. This is an understandable dilemma as we are called to “Earnestly content for the faith.” But what issues are we allowed to disagree with each other on and which ones are points where there can be no compromise, the sticking points… the dare I say issues in which we can call someone a “heretic” for disagreeing with us?
These are the salvific issues.
Salvific issues have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Two non-salvific issues which Christians often differ on are: “How does the Christian life look?” – socialist, communist, anarchist, capitalist. And “How do we do Church?” – Pentecostal, Brethren, Baptist, Emergent. These are important issues, but are not in themselves salvific.
When having a disagreement with someone about a spiritual issue, it is important to ask, “Is this a salvific issue?”
Some things in the Christian faith are negotiable, however the Gospel is nonnegotiable!

I want revenge. If not for myself, I want it for the person who is wronged in the movie I’m watching or I want it for the friend who has been mistreated or I want it for the oppressed people I’m reading about… I want revenge!

I don’t think that I’m alone. Many of my friends are like me in that we love a good revenge movie. I often call it justice, but it seems there can be a thing line between justice and revenge. When I think about revenge a few sayings come to mind. “I want revenge.” “I will have my revenge.” “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Oh yeah, and then there’s that “Vengeance is the Lord’s” one.

Of all the revenge-deserving events possible, none stands out more clearly to me than that of having your innocent child murdered. If anything calls out for revenge that would be it. And yet it was that very event that is the greatest example not of revenge, but of love, a love that leads to redemption and ultimately to resolution.

When Jesus Christ was murdered, His father had the ability to take revenge on a level that we can’t even imagine. Yet it was through that act that God sought not revenge, but instead opened the door of redemption. Christ’s death on the cross was the single most revenge-deserving moment in all of human history and God instead used it as the greatest gift to mankind. Through belief in the work that was done on the cross by Jesus, we have been given full access to God. We have been given a means to come before the father and have forgiveness for our sins.

Not only did God the father not take revenge on us, but the innocent Jesus who we murdered said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus could have called down a whole army of angels, when one would have been more than enough, but he didn’t.

I want revenge. God wants us to be redeemed and to have resolution with us. How can I put this into practice in my life? How can I be more like Jesus? How can I see those whom I believe have wronged me or wronged the ones I love and instead of seeking revenge, seek redemption and resolution? The answer is easy, I can’t. I’m not a good enough person to do it. But God can do it through me and only if I’m reminded of the cross and what was done there for me.