sentenced to hell?” (v. 33). Clearly, was
unimpressed—even repulsed—by the
idea of “practice makes perfect” and
works-based religion.
On the cross, Jesus made propitiation
for every believer—turning God’s just
wrath against sin into favor (Romans
3:25)—through his sinless life. When
we trust in Jesus’ sacrifice, his
righteousness is imputed (credited) to
us, since God had already imputed the
guilt of our sins to Christ on the cross
(2 Corinthians 5:21).
The crushing weight of merit-based
salvation is abolished! You don’t need
religious practice to be perfect. Christ
already purchased your perfection
before God. Ephesians 2:8–9 affirms:
“For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result
of works, so that no one may boast.”
When you fully embrace “justification
by grace through faith,” it will transform
the way you live and compete.
tension: To achieve lofty individual and/
or team goals, athletes must practice
ad infinitum , and consistently exert
great effort to reach their goals. In any
sport, performance does matter.
“The football player mentality is that if
I do—if I work hard, if I lift weights—I’m
going to get stronger. If I put more work
in on the field, I’m going to get better,”
Ertz says. “Whereas the [spiritual]
works are something that you should
love doing in order to glorify God. It’s
not ‘faith plus works is salvation.’ It’s
knowing Christ.”
How can Christian athletes reconcile
these seemingly disparate realities?
How can God-glorifying competitors
exist, even excel, in the performance-
based environment of athletics—
while understanding that, spiritually
speaking, their performance doesn’t
add or subtract anything from their
standing before God? It’s harder than it
sounds.
“I know for a lot of athletes it can be
WHEN PERFORMANCE MATTERS
difficult—just thinking of how bad
you have been and not accepting the
But here we must acknowledge a glaring grace,” Hicks says. “It’s hard. We’ve all
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