The President’s Musings Show Someone Open to the Gospel
President Trump apparently doesn’t believe he will be going to heaven.
In comments he made aboard Air Force One while flying to Israel after the announcement of a ceasefire that could end the Gaza War, the president gave a revealing answer to a question from Fox News’s Peter Doocy. Reflecting on Doocy’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek query about whether the historic deal would get him to heaven, Trump demurred: “I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound…I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.” While MSNBC unsurprisingly used the opportunity to poke fun at evangelicals for supporting a man who doesn’t seem to be a professing believer, Trump’s comments need to be understood on a deeper level than the treatment offered by the drive-by media.
Rather than demonstrating Trump’s forthright rejection of Christianity, his off-the-cuff remarks show someone who is confronting the monumental challenge that any sinner must wrestle with: the vast gulf between himself and the holy God of the universe. Trump’s comments suggest he may want to go to heaven but thinks that his sins cannot be overcome.
Trump’s response is very much unlike the rich young man recounted in the synoptic Gospels. As St. Mark records, the young man runs up to Jesus and kneels before him, asking how he can “inherit eternal life.” He responds to Jesus’s admonition to follow all the commandments by falsely saying he has kept them since his “youth.” Jesus then tells him to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. The man then “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Jesus exposed the heart of this young man, who had not in fact kept all the commandments, clearly violating the first one (at a minimum) by making his wealth and possessions into an idol.
Though Trump, of course, has much wealth and possessions, he seems closer to the state of the tax collector in a parable that’s laid out in St. Luke’s Gospel. In Luke 18, Jesus teaches about how one can be made righteous amidst a discussion about acceptable prayer:
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Pharisee’s answer does not resemble the one we heard from Trump. Instead, at least the first section of his reply is far more representative of the members of the elite class who thumb their noses at Trump and Americans who break in various ways with the 21st-century moral consensus. They make a great show of their own self-righteousness—“I’m glad I’m not like that Trump voter over there!”—and think that their political opinions and social life make them morally superior. But they mistake their morality for arrogance and pride.
As John Calvin wrote in his commentary on Luke, “Every man that is puffed up with self-confidence carries on open war with God, to whom we cannot be reconciled in any other way than by denial of ourselves; that is, by laying aside all confidence in our own virtue and righteousness, and relying on his mercy alone.”
The rest of the Pharisee’s answer is a form of legalism. It is nothing more than an attempt to be justified by works rather than the meritorious ground of Christ’s work on the cross. Calvin points out that the Pharisee went above what the law required in fasting and tithing. Calvin noted that because of his outward acts, he proudly thought he had a right to enter heaven, “as if the hidden and inward uncleanness of the heart would not be taken into the account.” But there’s only been one man who was perfectly obedient in following the law, and the Pharisee certainly wasn’t that person. For his wicked pride and arrogance, the Pharisee was found guilty before God.
The tax collector, meanwhile, understood that he was a sinner and that his own merits did not deserve God’s favor. Through prayer, the tax collector recognized his own fallen state. Per Calvin, he “obtained righteousness solely by imploring pardon because he had no other ground of hope than the pure mercy of God.” “God will not be pacified towards us,” Calvin continued, “unless we distrust works, and pray that we may be freely reconciled.”
Though President Trump doesn’t seem to be justified before God right now, he does seem to understand that his works—even one like ending a bloody conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives—will not get him into heaven. And in that he is correct. But through God’s grace, he is on the path that any sinner must travel in repenting of his sins and turning to Christ.
In an open letter to the president, Doug Wilson wrote that
if there is any saving to be done, it will all have to be done by Christ and Christ alone. If you want Him to do this for you…just ask Him. And do this knowing that even the ability and desire to ask is a gift from Him. All of [it] is grace, and absolutely none of it is earned. He has this gift for you. Just extend your hand, and He will give it. And later on, you will discover that He even gave you that extended hand. Nothing but grace.
Rather than castigate Trump for falling short, we should pray that the president will place his trust in Christ, who is the only way to the Father and the eternal reward in the life to come.
