In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Billy Graham writes of the context of an unexpected meeting he had with Winston Churchill. Graham sailed for Britain in 1954 to begin an evangelical crusade and there were dire predictions that his effort would fail. “Billy Graham will fall…on his face in London,” one editor wrote. But at a press conference upon arriving in England he told 150 journalists, “I have come to preach Christ. You may ask me, `Do you feel this is a message we need in Britain?’ I should answer that this is a message the whole world needs….I am going to preach a gospel not of despair but of hope.” As it turned out, night after night the 12,000 seats in Harringay Arena, an indoor stadium north of London, were packed, with as many as 35,000 outside who weren’t able to get in. The crusade lasted a full twelve weeks. The last meeting was at Wembley Stadium where all 100,000 seats were filled. At its close, Graham was exhausted; he’d lost thirty pounds. Afterwards, they planned to go to Scotland for a brief rest when he received a call from Jock Colville, secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
“`Would you be able to meet with Mr. Churchill at noon today?’ he asked. `He has a lunch scheduled at 12:30 with the Duke of Windsor, but he can see you before that.’” Billy Graham describes the meeting: “I was told I had precisely twenty minutes and was shown into a large, dimly lit cabinet room. Mr. Churchill rose from his chair and shook my hand. I had not realized what a short man he was; I towered over him. He motioned with an unlit cigar for me to sit next to him. It would be just the two of us.
I noticed that three London afternoon dailies were spread out on a table next to him. `Well, first,’ he said in that marvelous voice I had heard so many times on the radio and in the newsreels, `I want to congratulate you for these huge crowds you’ve been drawing.’ `Oh, well, it’s God’s doing, believe me,’ I said. `That may be,’ he replied, squinting at me, `but I daresay if I brought Marilyn Monroe over here, and she and I together went to Wembley, we couldn’t fill it.’ I laughed, trying to imagine the spectacle. `Tell me, Reverend Graham,’ he then asked, `What is it that filled Harringay night after night?’ `I think it’s the Gospel of Christ,’ I told him without hesitation. `People are hungry to hear a word straight from the Bible. Almost all the clergy of this country used to preach it faithfully, but I believe they have gotten away from it.’ `Yes,’ he said, sighing, `things have changed tremendously. Look at these newspapers—filled with nothing but murder and war….’ I agreed with him…[nodding], and he continued: `I’ll tell you, I have no hope. I see no hope for the world.’ `Things do look dark,’ I agreed. We talked about the world situation, and then the prime minister looked me in the eye.
“`I am a man without hope,’ Churchill said somberly. `Do you have any real hope?’ This sounded like a personal plea. In the notes I jotted after the meeting, I recalled he referred to hopelessness no fewer than nine times….`Are you without hope for your soul’s salvation?’ I asked. `Frankly, I think about it a great deal,’ he replied. I had my Bible with me. Knowing we had but a few minutes left, I immediately explained the way of salvation. I watched carefully for signs of irritation or offense, but he seemed receptive…. I also talked about Christ’s plan for the future, including the return of Christ. His eyes seemed to light up at the prospect. At precisely twelve-thirty, Mr. Colville knocked. `Sir Winston, the Duke of Windsor is here for your luncheon,’ he said.
“`Let him wait!’ Mr. Churchill growled, waving Mr. Colville off and turning back to me. `Go ahead,’ he said. I went on for another few minutes and then asked if I could pray. `Most certainly,’ he said, standing up. `I’d appreciate it.’ I prayed…and acknowledged that God was the only hope for the world and for men individually. Mr. Churchill thanked me and walked me out.”
Billy Graham Leaves the Prime Minister’s Residence, London, 1955
Do you ever feel hopeless, even as Winston Churchill did? Despair for the world and for ourselves can overwhelm us. Even if we are trying to be good, we fall far short in so many ways and both our hidden, and sometimes very open, selfishness, our hardness of heart, our failure to do right, our outright willful wrongdoing, all add to the increase of hopelessness in the world. The Bible says these wrong attitudes of heart, as well as our wrong acts, incur God’s just anger, for our deep-seated selfishness, as well as self-righteous lifting of ourselves above others, violate our Creator’s every law of love.
The biblical declarations are true that say “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6) and “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). A just God must condemn such ways, and even if we frequently try to deny our unjust doings, even to ourselves, the fact is that our good deeds cannot hide our deeper wrongs from a just and all-seeing God. We thus find ourselves separated from God because of our sins, and this separation is revealed in unhappiness, hopelessness and finally, in death. The Bible makes plain that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Yet, this is not how God meant life to be. The Bible teaches that God yearns to restore us to the friendship we were designed to share with Him forever and ever. He yearns to walk in love with us: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness’” (Jeremiah 31:3). But our sins prevent this loving friendship with our Maker.
Our indifference, our wrongs, our idolatries, block us from knowing Him and must be removed if we are to have peace with Him. Our sins—which burden us so, and from which we cannot by ourselves escape—stand in the way of God’s embracing us. For God is just; sin must be paid for. If we are bankrupt and can’t pay, then who pays? How can a just God who hates wrongdoing be reconciled to us in the face of all our selfishness? Our Father in heaven made a way: He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to live a life of perfect love, innocent of all wrong, to die as payment for the sins we cannot possibly pay for.
Jesus suffered in place of us for the sins we should have suffered for ourselves. By identifying with our sin, he satisfied our debt to God’s justice, himself bearing the wrath our sin deserved, so that we might be reconciled to our Maker! God’s justice was satisfied because Jesus was willing to do this—die for us—as his Father asked him to do. Do you see? He took the punishment our sins justly deserve, substituting his death for ours. This was the good news Billy Graham shared with Winston Churchill! As the Bible says, “God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (I Peter 3:18).
God loves you so much! “You see…very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). And after Jesus died for us, wonder of wonders, God raised Him from the dead! That means He’s alive, underscoring the fact that Jesus’ act of love on the cross truly is embraced by our heavenly Father as the means of our pardon! Thus nothing stands in the way of a new life of hope! In Jesus we have both the promise of eternal life with God after we leave this present world, and we have hope even now, in this life. As the Bible says, “For if…we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:9-10).
Before this year ends, many people will meet death with hopelessness, but it need not be so for you. David in the 23rd Psalm, wrote, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.” He could look ahead to death with calm assurance, knowing this life was only a dressing room for eternity.
We cannot help being disturbed by the world today, even as Winston Churchill was fifty years ago. But the death of Jesus Christ for each of us, and His wondrous resurrection, tell us that we can have real hope in the valley of the shadow of death. He ever lives to hold out his loving arms to you.
You can have hope in the world to come if you are willing to turn from demanding your right to yourself above all things to trusting instead in Jesus. This is something for the highly educated man or woman and for the person who has never finished high school; this is something for the poorest laborer and the most successful professional. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are heavily laden.” Being so burdened can happen to any and all of us and Jesus holds out his arms to all. He’s waiting for you to come to him.
He and our Heavenly Father hear our prayers; Jesus is risen from the grave, never to die again. Tell our Father, our Maker, that you are sorry for your all those things you’ve done wrong or not done right, all those things you’ve said or thought which you know were amiss—these are all things that fall short of the goodness of God, and we’re all—all of us—guilty. But Jesus came to pay for all those things, if we’ll only trust in him and what he’s done for us to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. Then you will find a hope that will never fail you!
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