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Godliness

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 28, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 30.

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Godliness

By G. D. BALLOU

G. D. BALLOU
GODLINESS is an experience. Ever since sin entered this world, our Heavenly Father has been having an experience with sinners. So far as this world is concerned, the way he conducts himself toward a lost race constitutes the life of God; and this is godliness, or God-like-ness.
This being so, let us inquire how God regards sinners, even his enemies. The answer is given in the words, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” And if God loves sinners, what must his children do?—“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you: that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”
How does God regard sin?—“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” God hates sin; therefore what must his children do?—They must love good and hate evil; they must be able to say, with the psalmist, “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.” Because our Lord Jesus Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity, he was anointed with “the oil of gladness” above his fellows. If we, his children, would live a life of gladness, we must have the elements of godliness wrought into our being through Christ’s power and glory.
What does our God do with sin that is brought to him by confession?—He casts it behind his back: he sinks it in unsounded depths of forgetfulness; he removes it from us as far as the east is from the west. Does he find this a hard task?—“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.” Now if God forgives sin, what must his children do? He tells us plainly, “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Is our God long-suffering, patient, and kind with the erring? Surely otherwise we would not still feel the drawings of his Spirit. What gentleness, what forbearance, then, should possess us until we can exclaim, with the psalmist, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.”
Consider the sacrifice that God has made for us, giving his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe on him might have everlasting life. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” What sacrifices, then, are required of us?—First of all, the heart must be yielded to God. “My son, give me thine heart.” We are exhorted, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove [demonstrate before men] what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Thus all our life energies, and all the products of our life energies, will be a continual sacrifice to the cause and work of Christ.
And here comes in another and a neglected phase of godliness. Do you suppose that our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, ever for one moment becomes doubtful of the results of the gospel, and the final outcome of the plan of salvation?—Never. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth.” Do angels ever worry, think you, over events that are occurring in connection with the work they are doing for fallen men? Will God’s true children, then, worry and fret and agonize over the affairs of life in the church or in the world? “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you”—this must become the motto of all who work with and for the Master. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”
Brother, do not these thoughts place godliness among the active, practical realities of every-day life? Can we any longer look upon it as an unattainable, idealistic religious condition, for some one else but not for us to reach? Is not godliness as much a concrete reality as any other course of conduct in life? Can we longer look upon it as something so far beyond us that we are not to be blamed for falling short of it? Godliness is the experience of our Saviour in dealing with this lost, sinful world. This experience is written out fully in his Word, that we may find in it the true elements of character-building, and grow into being children of God here and now, through living over again his experience in our lives.
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