Quarterback Carson Wentz has led the surprising Philadelphia Eagles to a 9-1 record and leads the NFL in touchdowns and is third in quarterback rating. While sharing his faith at a live event held at Eastern University in Pennsylvania last month, Wentz explained one “lie” about the Christian faith that Satan wants people to believe.
“Being saved by works is obviously a lie, but it’s a lie that a lot of people believe. It’s a lie just in our culture. I know for me as a man, even when I was a kid, with sports and anything I did, I was going to work my tail off to earn what I got. That’s how I was wired, that’s how the world kind of instills this value, so to speak, is work, work, work, and earn it,” he said.
“And that’s kind of what I thought. I’d pray, I’d go to church, I’d do this and that, and I’m like that’s great, I’m a good person, I did the right and so I’m going to be saved naturally. That’s what I thought,” he added. “That’s the lie that the devil wants you to believe.”
Wentz also shared the Bible verse that really changed his perspective of salvation.
“Ephesians 2:8-10 — ‘For it is by Grace that you have been saved through faith — and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do go works which God prepared in advance for us to do,'” he recited. “So, when I learned about this grace and learned about how my view of Christianity was really just flipped on it’s head, because you see, Christianity is the only religion in the world that you can’t earn Heaven, you can’t earn an afterlife, you can’t earn reincarnation or whatever it is that other people believe.”
“Christianity says it’s done; Jesus already did it. He took it all for you and this is what Paul is saying here in Ephesians,” Wentz continued. “He’s saying it’s by grace alone you’ve been saved, not by works so that no one can boast. I mean, he can’t lay it out much clearer. Then he says, ‘But we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.’ See we’re not saved by our actions but our actions come out of our faith.”
According to Wentz, the notion that people are saved through works and not a relationship with Christ is a “misconception that a lot of people have.”
“I think it’s a daily thing. I know for me, we get caught up in doing good, doing good, doing good. That it’s a daily thing for me to just remind myself like without Jesus in it, I can’t do it,” he added. “I can’t earn my way to Heaven and nobody can. So, I really challenge every one of us to just have that perspective because it’s so easy to get caught up in doing good and thinking that I’m good enough, but without Jesus, none of us are.'”
“If you love something enough, you’re going to talk about it — if you love your wife, if you love your job, if you love whatever it is that you’re passionate about, you’re going to talk about it,” he added. “If you love Jesus, you should talk about it. You should tell the world about Him, you should share that truth. And so, there’s going to be persecution, there’s going to be haters, you have to just stay true to Him and ultimately that’s what it’s all about.”