Of course the Tiger Woods scandal is disappointing.
Adultery always is. When marital betrayal occurs, it isn't just the spouse who tastes the bitterness.
Think of the children, the close family friends, the business partners, the neighbors.
Adultery is like that. It's foulness isn't confined.
One website carried this statement about Tiger and his views on being a role model.
As a role model: Tiger thinks that being a good role model to others is even more important than his golf.
He thinks his golf is just a vehicle for him to influence people.
He wants to influence kids in a positive way.
Tiger feels that's what it's all about.
It's not hard to say that Tiger has let down a lot of people.
Even those that do not follow golf have looked to him as a hero.
One that was clean cut, wholesome, a model to have your kids to aspire to be. It leaves one wondering if indeed there exists any heroes.
Who are your heroes?
Each generation has it's heroes.
Some are heroes because of their heroic actions, others because they had enough courage to challenge the system.
Some are because they "made it" in something, in this particular generation it is often those who make it in the "Pop" music industry.
What about historical figures though? Napoleon, Nelson, Spartacus, Wellington, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr.?
It is the hero followers, the ones that look up to heroes that set themselves up for disappointment.
They see the good in a person and wish they could be like them, or wish their kids would be that way, but they often forget that all heroes have another side to them.
Some heroes are able to hide their other side better than some.
No one is void of sin. In fact if you take your hero that you have set-up and closely check up on them, you would find that they too have areas that you don't care for.
If nothing else, Tiger Woods' fall from grace may help bring down insane websites such as "Tiger Woods is God.com" and "First Church of Tiger Woods," where the tag-line is, "Welcome to the First Church of Tiger Woods, Celebrating the emergence of the true messiah."
Such fan following thought to be funny, is nothing but blaspheming.
Those that set up such sites should worry more about their standing before God.
Tiger Woods is a good man. But good men sin. Good men can go to Hell.
Tiger needs to ask for forgiveness not just from his wife and fans, but from God.
It's called the total depravity of man.
When we speak of man's depravity we mean man's natural condition apart from any grace exerted by God to restrain or transform man. Therefore we will chose sin, or more attractive sins rather than God.
Apart from the grace of God there is no delight in the holiness of God.
The totality of our rebellion is seen in Romans 3:9-11 and 18. ".... we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. ......There is no fear of God before their eyes."
It is a myth that man in his natural state is genuinely seeking God. Men do seek God. But they do not seek Him for who He is.
They seek Him in a pinch as one who might preserve them from death or enhance their worldly enjoyments.
Apart from conversion, no one comes to the light of God.
In Romans 14:23 Paul says, "Whatever is not from faith is sin." Therefore, if all men are in total rebellion, everything they do is the product of rebellion and cannot be an honor to God, but only part of their sinful rebellion.
Man does many things which he can only do because he is created in the image of God and which in the service of God could be praised.
Tiger is a good golfer because God gave him a special gift at birth.
In other words, your good deeds mean nothing special to God, because God gave you the ability to do what you do.
A Bible hero, Paul, said in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."
This is a radical confession of the truth, that in our rebellion nothing we think or feel is good. It is all part of our rebellion. "Flesh" refers to man in his natural state apart from the work of God's Spirit. So what Paul is saying in Romans 7:18 is that apart from the work of God's Spirit all we think and feel and do is not good.
I recognize that the word "good" has a broad range of meanings.
We will have to say that it is good that most unbelievers do not kill and that some unbelievers perform acts of benevolence.
What we mean when we call such actions good is that they more or less conform to the external pattern of life that God has commanded in Scripture.
However, such outward conformity to God's will is not righteousness in relation to God.
It is not done out of reliance on Him or for His glory.
He is not trusted for the resources, though He gives them all.
In fact when we do good deeds, we want to take the glory ourselves.
We feel it is us that have done the good and forget that God has given us the means to do good. Therefore even these "good" acts are part of our rebellion and are not "good" in the sense that really counts in the end in relation to God.
What am I saying?
Are we not to have heroes?
No, we will always have heroes, but we will always have heroes that fall in the end.
Sinfulness brings man down. Even in good works, our pride will get in our way.
Our main focus should always be on our relationship with God. By the way, how is your relationship with God?