This is the seventeenth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.
Released this week: A Book of Prayers for Kids by Mel Lawrenz.
This will be said many times in the days to come: few Christians have had a larger impact on the world than evangelist Billy Graham—in all of history. He will be remembered for his character, his accomplishments, and his amazing connections with global leaders over many decades. We will also remember him for his words—and perhaps one phrase that he never tired of repeating: “The Bible says…”
In an age when people were suspicious of “Bible-thumpers,” most people never thought of Billy Graham in that way because Billy Graham did not use the Bible as a weapon or a tool of domination. He did not proffer an exotic personal interpretation. His explanations of the Bible were not cliché or elitist.
When Billy Graham said “the Bible says” it was like watching an eagle catching an updraft with outstretched wings. He invited us to be borne up and carried along by the truth of Scripture. He also brought the truth of Scripture to us as a healing ointment and as a stinging antiseptic.
Most important, when Billy Graham said “the Bible says” he was letting the world know: This is not about me. I am nothing but a desperate sinner like everyone else. I would have no hope without God’s promises.
This, of course, was what gave Billy Graham that rarest of qualities these days for leaders: trustworthiness. He was voted “most admired” man by many polls for many years because we are all looking so desperately for that person who really is without guile—who is genuinely humble, grateful, and reverent.
Though Billy Graham repeated “the Bible says” over and over, we always knew he did not worship the Book. People did not accuse him of “bibliolatry.” What came through was his reverence for God the Father, submission to Jesus, and a wide-eyed expectancy of what the Holy Spirit would do next in a stadium, or through television waves, or within a youth movement.
“The Bible says” means “God says.” Billy Graham knew there was nothing more important.
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Special Note: Easter is April 1. Available now, the Easter devotional, Knowing Him: Devotional Readings About the Cross and Resurrection by Mel Lawrenz. Get it now to start three weeks of daily readings on Sunday, March 11. The life and teachings of Jesus are worth a lifetime of study, contemplation, and application. So too his death and resurrection. Jesus made it very clear that he had a purpose in coming, and that this purpose would be fulfilled at the time when he was betrayed, handed over to the authorities, killed, and raised from the dead. And so for centuries in the spring of the year, around the time of the Passover, Christians have turned their attention to the accounts of the suffering of Jesus, and of his astonishing resurrection from the dead. The apostle Paul said: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.