A young Billy Graham had been given the opportunity to meet with the President of United States, Harry S. Truman. This was huge for the young evangelist, an incredible opportunity. His popularity was increasing thanks to crusades he led for the Youth for Christ organization. God was opening doors of influence for his evangelistic team, and now, with an opportunity to meet the President, the largest door was opening. He would have to be prayed up and ready for such a meeting.
And knowing Billy Graham, he was. He and his team were spiritually prepared. It’s just that the meeting did not go as well as he planned. In fact, it did not go well at all, not from Billy Graham’s perspective. Here’s what happened. When Billy Graham asked President Truman about his spiritual life, the President answered by saying that he tried his best to live up to the Sermon on the Mount. Graham’s response was something to the effect of, “that’s not enough, Mr. President, it’s faith in Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with him that you need.” The meeting didn’t last very long after this. In fact, the President gave his staff the instructions never to allow the young evangelist into the White House again.
The irony is that Billy Graham was right. As noble as it is to try to live one’s life according to the Sermon on the Mount, this is not what brings salvation to the individual. In fact, this was not the Sermon on the Mount’s purpose at all. I agree with author Phillip Yancey’s assessment that the purpose of the sermon was to demonstrate to the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day that their works and rule keeping were not even close to what God required. By heightening anger to murder and lust to adultery, the Sermon on the Mount suddenly made the Law impossible to keep, more than impossible. Something else was needed. Someone else was needed. Grace. Jesus.
Yancey writes this way, “thunderously, inarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.”
Yancey’s intriguing words serve as a reminder that greater effort only brings greater frustration, as you and I do not possess the strength nor the power as fallen human beings to live up to God’s holy standards on our own. As the late author Tim Keller notes, “change won’t happen through ‘trying harder’ but only through encountering the radical grace of God.’” We need God’s help to change. We need the good news of the gospel to do so, understanding that Jesus has already achieved all that God has required. He completely lived up to every righteous standard his Father demanded. He embodied the Law in every way perfectly. And then he laid down his perfect life for sinners like you and me. “But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And that is good news. Good news for those who have ears to hear. It wasn’t good news for the President that day. And it continues not to be good news for those who think they can achieve salvation or work their way into God’s good standing. Yet, Billy Graham understood that it was the only news that could save a soul, change a life, and bring purpose and meaning for living. And so, he dedicated his life to sharing that good news with as many people as he could, knowing that his calling was a higher one, that he answered to an authority that even the President of the United States must bow to. I can still hear his words from a crusade I attended as a college student, his voice echoing through the stadium as a man in his mid-seventies. “God loves you,” he said. “And the cross is how we know of this love.” Is this good news to you today?