Grace and Truth through Billy Graham

For I know what I have planned for you,’
  says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you.
  I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. - Jeremiah 29:11  

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
  Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. – Jeremiah  31: 3

As I grow older, I am becoming more and more aware of some major facts of life—God is our Creator, God is the essence of true love, God gives us meaning and purpose, and finally, I am prone to wander away from God.  It doesn’t make sense, does it?  Yet, long before I realized it, God was at work, scrubbing away at my pride and rebellion.  He worked on me in our home, at church, and at school.   
I have written elsewhere about how God used my father, my mother, and several of my teachers.   Through generous applications of discipline in love, these people and others gradually made me more aware that my own pride was at odds with God’s love and purposes for me.  Although discipline sometimes literally hurt me, I was learning through human authority the truth expressed several millennia ago by wise King Solomon, For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights (Proverbs 3: 12).

During my elementary years, God was also drawing me to Himself through my reading, and even through our black-and-white TV.  I remember being inspired by Billy Graham as I watched him preach to thousands gathered at his crusades.  Billy’s piercing eyes seemed to be looking right though me as he spoke forcefully about the holiness and righteousness of Almighty God.  Yet, I could sense an unusual warmth and compassion as he spoke of how God so loved a fallen world that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to take away sin, the root cause of human emptiness, loneliness, and fear.  I was very moved when I saw people in tears whose hearts were convicted of their sin by God through Billy Graham’s loving invitation to repent and turn to God.  I was amazed that thousands came forward to “accept Christ as Savior” as the hymn, “Just as I Am” was sung. 

But, I didn’t respond to God there in our living room.  I knew there was something right about Billy Graham’s Gospel message, but it didn’t seem right to me that a God of love would condemn millions, and perhaps billions to eternal hell.  Why wasn’t it possible to enter heaven by just being decent people—people like I was trying to be?  I remember questioning my mother and my Methodist pastor about “salvation by faith, and not by works” (Ephesians 2: 8-9; Titus 3: 5).  Their answers weren’t satisfying, but God continued to soften my prideful heart. 

It wasn’t until graduate school at West Virginia University that God’s Spirit removed the veil that was covering my heart (2 Corinthians 4: 3-6) and blocking the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  God used two visitors to our home there in Morgantown to convince me from the Scriptures that the Gospel is true—that God loves me, but He is Holy and hates sin because it is counter to His nature and because of what it does to His creation, including humankind—including me!  I realized that when I died and stood in God’s judgment, there was no reason God should allow me into heaven except that I had accepted Christ’s death to atone for my sins and cover me in His righteousness.  I asked God to forgive my pride and rebellion and to make me His child (John 1: 11-13).

Now, years later, as a Christ-follower, I am still His workmanship in progress (Ephesians 2: 10).  I pause today to marvel at the life of Billy Graham; a life that has consistently demonstrated his unique ability to walk daily in God’s holy presence.  All the while, he demonstrated the pure love of God through his warm, gentle, gracious spirit toward all people regardless of religion, ethnic background, wealth, or politics.  Many of us wonder how such a holy man could be so loving and gracious toward sinners.

Billy Graham sought to emulate God—i.e. hate sin, but love the sinner.  When their son, Franklin, and their daughter, Ruth, struggled with their spiritual lives, Billy and his wife Ruth prayed for them and nurtured them back to God.  Likewise, Billy was able to talk humbly, humorously, and yet frankly with personalities in every walk of life.  His used every opportunity to speak of the cross of Christ and the Gospel of salvation, yet did so with the very love and tenderness of God.  This quality of Billy Graham was captured in this 1969 interview with Woody Allen.

"My father was not God, but he showed us what God is like."

At her father’s memorial service last week, Ruth Graham testified of how her father demonstrated the love and mercy of God years ago as he opened his arms to welcome her back home after she had made several bad choices in her life.  Ruth had heard her father preach on the holiness and justice of Almighty God.  She knew that God hated sin because of what it does to mankind—what it had done to her.  That is why she, like the prodigal son, did not take lightly the return to her father’s home.  But when Ruth walked toward her father, Billy Graham’s arms were open wide to receive his dear daughter with all the grace and mercy he knew God had extended to him.  God still waits to extend forgiveness out of His great love and mercy to any repentant sinner who “comes home.”

As the world mourns the death of Billy Graham, many try to comprehend the breadth of the spiritual impact that was made by this humble servant of God.  I believe the words of his daughter, Ruth, summarize best the influence of Rev. Graham on my life: “My father was not God but he showed me what God was like…”   Billy Graham was (and still is) not God, but he showed us what God is like.

For the Law was given through Moses;
grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.  - John 1:17

 

How About You? 
You may have just read my article but it left you, not encouraged, but discouraged.  Like I once was, you may now be more confused than ever about the nature of God and what He expects of you.  God knows just what you are thinking right now.  May I invite you to examine further the claims of the “Good News” or “the Gospel?”  Let me share a short reading that may help you.  It just happens to be from the Billy Graham Association, and presents the “Good News” summarized in an outline called “Steps to Peace with God.” The outline explains God’s love, our predicament (sin and separation from God), what Jesus has done to address our predicament, and what you can do by faith to receive God’s righteousness (right standing with a Holy God).  If you have additional questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.  Just post a “Comment” below or e-mail me at silviusj@cedarville.edu