It will come as no surprise that I am not a huge sports fan dude. Perhaps it is due to my constant need to move myself but it is hard for me to consider watching a 2-3 hour sports event as enjoyable, at least to me. However, I do workout in the mornings and notice all the time that the TV’s are tuned into the sportscast channels where they show highlights of prior games and evaluate the good and the bad of the effort. A frequent subject of these shows is a mistake in play due to the team or players own failure rather than skill or effort of the opponent, this is called an “Unforced error”.
Recently we were working on a project in Papua New Guinea with a team where I made an unforced error. During the week we battled with the heat and humidity, the mosquitos and more. Certainly there were spiritual forces at play. One of the first things I usually focus on is trying to get a clear understanding of the scope of the work and the abilities and pace of the team. The next step is distributing tasks and areas to the team that fit and are achievable. I did not realize at the time that my focus on this “best strategy to get to the goal” question was failing to affirm the positive things that were going on and that the whole team together was making good progress. By failing to affirm the most important true things I allowed some confusion to enter and this confusion brought instability and discouragement. Fortunately I have a great partner in Amy who helped me see that my unforced error was causing problems with the team. This unforced error was not on account of the team, not on account of the environment, or the challenges of the project, but it was entirely my failure to affirm the important things which were true.
Recently I listened to a preacher who was making some unforced errors as well. In speaking to the congregation he presented the idea that the main substance of the gospel is not “believe in Jesus for eternal life” but rather that a person in response to God’s love would “surrender” and “bow the knee”, God would “save you” and in eternity “bring you home”. This preacher then said strongly that repentance is a requirement for eternal life: “if you don’t repent you only know about God, you do not know God” and his idea of repentance was that a person “stop sinning and change your life”. Just to clarify, this preacher was saying that in order to be saved a person needed to repent by stopping sin, changing their life, and surrendering to God. This is nothing less than an unforced error.
From God’s word we understand that God has sent Jesus to be the propitiation (the full payment) for sin which is why when Jesus makes the offer of eternal life He can give it freely to the one who believes in Him for it. (See John 3:16)
We can be certain that this eternal life is not contingent on our stopping sinning or changing our lives in part because of reason John wrote the book (John 20:31) “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. Notably absent is extra language about cleaning up your life first. Another favorite of mine to reflect on is Romans 5:8 “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”.
When you are playing basketball in the driveway maybe it is more important to enjoy the time with friends but if you are competing in a national championship the details matter, you consider every movement and every play to make sure you don’t sacrifice points to the other team.
Inserting confusion or doubt into a relationship does not make it stronger but makes it less stable. This principle is true in team relationships as well as the gospel and allowing confusion to remain is an unforced error.
If you are interested in going deeper I would encourage you to consider starting by reading the gospel of John.