Galatians 3:23-26
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
This week the breaking news concerned the Los Vegas Raiders head football coach, Jon Gruden. The world, at least the NFL world, lost its mind over the racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language Gruden used in emails over ten years ago. I read the emails posted online, and they are filled with off-color comments and tasteless rhetoric disparaging other human beings. This is not right. And it certainly should not be the language Christians use concerning anyone (Prov. 16:24; Eph. 4:29).
Then there is the question, “Okay, this is bad. Gruden is a scumbag for talking about others this way. But is what he said enough to warrant firing?” Those who support Gruden conspire that it is a hit job by the Raiders’ owner Mark Davis, so he does not have to pay a buyout because he wanted to fire Gruden for poor performance anyway. Other opinions include private emails sent between friends a long time ago, and anyone can change. Finally, there is the argument that Gruden was not even working for the Raiders organization when he wrote those things. He was working for another company, ESPN, “so why should one organization fire him for something he did a long time ago for another organization?”
I do not watch much NFL anymore. In fact, I boycotted it for several years when the whole Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem issue arose. I watch a little now as some of my friends and family members like the entire Fantasy Football thing. But this whole Gruden issue has been interesting to follow. The many opinions of his transgressions should make one wonder how one will react when their sins are found out. The righteousness of those who want to burn Jon Gruden at the stake smells worse than the metaphorical tar and feathers they already inflicted upon him. So, this blog is not about whether Gruden did something wrong or sinned. He certainly did. It is not even about whether he should have been fired because I do not care. That is between his lawyers and the lawyers of the owner of the privately-owned Las Vegas Raiders franchise. I want to share with you how we should look at these issues through the lens of Scripture.
The world will always look at circumstances through its own lens. Gruden has found himself the brunt of Social Justice Warriors mentality. His emails include some disparaging remarks that cover several segments of our culture. He used vulgar words to describe the then commissioner of the NFL. The problem is those throwing rocks, and wish they were throwing hand grenades, view their lives as righteously good. Their purpose is to root out all the evils of white supremacy and homophobia at all costs.
R.C. Sproul addressed the coming of our current situation in his book Lifeviews: Make a Christian Impact on Culture and Society when he stated:
Nineteenth-century liberalism saw a shift of concern from personal, supernatural redemption from sin and alienation from God to what was called the “social gospel.” The social gospel extrapolated the ethical teachings of Jesus from the supernatural background of the biblical documents. Those who accepted the social gospel said, “We don’t believe in the supernatural, but we still believe in the values and the ethics of the New Testament. The church still has a reason to exist. The church still has a viable ministry to carry on. All we have to do is change the message and change the culture.” (p. 67-68)
Dr. Sproul explains the various controversies that arose between the social gospel view and humanism and how they both are rooted in Satan’s words to Eve, you will be like God (Gen. 3:5). The complexity we are witnessing with the Gruden emails is the world that believes it is like God, who thinks it is god and deems a person a heretic and unsavable. They believe there is no sin in their world, and there is no sin in Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ+, or the Black Lives Matter organization. We are much more righteous than Jon Gruden.
Paul certainly did not see issues this way. He rightly saw them through the lens of Scripture. And for Paul, the “world” was an issue. He teaches us in our passage that when we stack our hearts, theories, and organizations up to God’s Word, we find a lot of transgressions.
I love this quote by CH Spurgeon:
Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the Gospel of its ablest auxiliary when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ…. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.
And this one from John R.W. Stott:
We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we have first come to Moses to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses and acknowledged our sin, guilt and condemnation, we must not stay there.
The point is this; we must say to the world what David said concerning sin, Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no one living is righteous (Psalm 143:2). The Law of God is a schoolmaster that tells the world what sin is and how wrong we are. We must hold this mirror before the world, as it was held before us, to reveal how filthy we are and how we need cleansing by the power of the blood of Christ. And no matter how hard it tries, no matter how many fingers the world points at others, it will never reach the ideal it sets. It still is a lost sinner.
Oh, how we must tell the world there is salvation in Christ. They need to know that by faith, we become children of God instead of children of wrath. When we are a part of the covenant, we begin to live with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), which becomes the way of communication and union with one another under Christ our Head, rather than spewing vitriol and careless words. We need revival in our country, and I am convinced that it only will come when Christians show forth Christ by preaching Law and Gospel.
Andrews PCA 