A “Repentant” Lance Armstrong “Would Do it Again!”

January 27, 2015  David Murray   2 comments

Imagine someone deceived you, lied to you, and stole from you for ten years, but was eventually caught and, a few years later, asked for your forgiveness. Would you give it?

You’d probably ask some questions first, like:

“Are you sorry for what you did?”

“Will you do it again?”

But what if the answers were:

“I’m not sorry for what I did, but I am sorry for the painful consequences.”

“I would do it again in the same situation.”

Well, you’re probably not going to forgive are you?

Yet, that’s what an allegedly “repentant” Lance Armstrong wants us to do. He deceived millions of people, told innumerable lies, stole titles from other cyclists, and made megabucks from books about his “miracle” come-back. But he now thinks he should be forgiven, and gives three reasons in this interview with the BBC:

  • Enough time has passed.
  • Everyone else was doing it anyway.
  • His bike sponsors made hundreds of millions, and his cancer charity raised $500 million and helped three million people.

Not exactly bearing fruit worthy of repentance, is it? (Matthew 3:8).

Perhaps most worryingly of all, when he does condemn the wrong, just like the unrepentant King David (2 Sam. 12:5-6), he talks of it in the third person, as if it was someone else that did it.

“I would want to change the man that did those things, maybe not the decision, but the way he acted,” he continued.

“The way he treated people, the way he couldn’t stop fighting. It was unacceptable, inexcusable.”

To top it off, he thinks he still deserves the seven Tour de France titles he was stripped of.

What a stark and sad contrast to the Westminster shorter catechism’s summary of the Bible’s teaching:

“Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” (A 87).

That’s the way not only for a sad and angry Lance Armstrong to get his life and happiness back, but to win eternal life, the greatest prize of all, a prize that is gifted not sweated for.

See full interview here: Lance Armstrong: I’d change the man, not decision to cheat.

  • Steven Birn

    At least he’s honest about it. I always found the media created frenzy over steroids a little bit ridiculous. Were fans any less entertained watching Lance Armstrong race on roids or watching Mark McGuire hit home runs doped up? At the end of the day, sports is entertainment and I found the false moralizing of the liberal sports media over steroids just a little on the absurd side.

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  • Peter Kent

    Why is Lance being used here as if there was some expectation of a moral lesson in it? True Christians must always be cognizant that there are only two worldviews: a biblical one and a pagan one.

    Murray, that you’re writing about an avowed pagan as if there’s some moral lesson here for Christian readers is silly. I appreciate your message on repentance at the end but overall you’re simply saying that Lance is a bad man.

    Well, we all know that. What would one expect? Lance is driven by a humanistic, pagan worldview and is appealing to the sporting authorities. et al, from and to that gestalt.

    Even if he was forgiven, his titles restored and fines returned, he and everyone involved would never be satisfied because there is no justice in a pagan worldview.

    Do I individually have a responsibility to forgive Lance? For what, I ask? All he ever did was provide entertainment, whether that was the thrill of watching him win or vicariously enjoying his shame when his sins were revealed–it was all and nothing more than entertainment.

    Perhaps I should be asking Lance for forgiveness for holding him, firstly, in high regard and, secondly, in contempt. He is deserving of neither of those since all he is and ever was is a sinner not yet saved by grace.

    The irony boggles the mind: the 20th century has taught us that we are simply the random byproduct of a process where only the fittest survive. Lance Armstrong should be lauded for showing us what can be achieved when not mired down by society’s fallacious moral constraints. He is the best example we have of a pagan, humanistic worldview.

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