The Coach And The Umpire

We have been justified by faith.   Romans 5:1, ESV

A young monk named Martin Luther passionately desired to be right with God, so he poured his energy into fulfilling God’s law. But he found the burden of trying to maintain a spotless righteousness to be more than he could bear. When he thought of how he had blotted the spotless robe of righteousness, he confessed and did penance. But even during the act of penance, he would think of other ways in which he had sinned.

Luther began to study the New Testament in the original Greek, and as he did, he made a fascinating discovery: the original Greek word that we translate “justified” did not mean “make righteous” as he had been taught. It meant “declare righteous.” Justification has nothing to do with God making us righteous; it is about God declaring whether we’re righteous or not. These two things are entirely different.

Picture yourself in the afternoon sun at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field. The crowd is enjoying the game, even though the Cubs pitcher is struggling. To the great frustration of the crowd, he has thrown ten balls in a row, and he has already walked two batters. He’s looking defeated.

The umpire crouches behind the catcher, waiting for the pitch. The crowd groans as the umpire calls another ball. But then to everybody’s surprise, the umpire walks toward the mound. He puts his arm around the pitcher’s shoulder. “I know you’re having a bad day,” he says, “but I can help you with your pitching.”

The story is absurd—it’s not the umpire’s job to improve the pitcher’s performance. That job belongs to the coach. The umpire’s job is to score the pitcher’s performance. He calls balls and strikes, and he must do this with consistency, accuracy, and integrity. If he fails to do so, forty thousand fans will want to know why.

God acts as our coach and our umpire, but we must never confuse the two. The Holy Spirit leads us into an effective Christian life. The Bible calls this sanctification. But in justification, God acts as the umpire. He observes us and makes one of two calls: justified or condemned. Justification has nothing to do with making you a better person; it’s about God declaring your standing before him.

For further reading, see Luke 7