A Slave to Righteousness

On a day that featured baseball’s great slugger Alex Rodriguez making an apology for his use of steroids, I was struck with the thought, “What brings these guys to use performance enhancers?”

Rodriguez was quoted in an interview with ESPN saying, “"Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know — and being one of the greatest players of all time."

The word that he used that stuck out to me the most was the word “Culture.” Sports have indeed created its own culture. The sports culture is completely driven by success. Be it statistical or monetary success, players are willing to go to whatever extent it takes to achieve it. It really makes one wonder how things got like this?

After reading Romans 6:15-23, it began making a whole lot of sense to me. Verse 19 says, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”

Whenever we make anything in life a god rather than God Himself, we expose ourselves to a very slippery slope of sin. In A-Rod’s case he made success a god and turning to drugs and cheating was just part of that slippery slope. Our only hope is Jesus Christ. We must allow His righteousness to blanket us so that we become slaves to Him. When we allow that, we invite the wonderful process of sanctification into our lives. The reward: salvation and eternal hope!

Brian Conklin
Omaha FCA Director