How May I Be Sure That I Am a Child of God? by G. D. BALLOU

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1914

How May I Be Sure That I Am a Child of God?

By G. D. BALLOU

G. D. BALLOU

Thousands today are groping their way in the twilight of faith, living largely on the sheer force of the assurance that God has promised to forgive and accept them, and that they must believe that he has.

There is much better evidence than this. To be accepted of God is to have adopted the character of God as seen in Jesus as our pattern of conduct. The greatest thing in this life is God’s love for sinners, as it appears in his mercy toward all. God loves and pities and waits patiently. He longs for sinners to return that he may show them mercy. His mercy and forgiveness are like the water in our city homes,—always on tap, and all that is necessary is to turn the faucet and it freely flows.

Now the best evidence I can have that I am a child of God, fully accepted of him, is the indwelling of this spirit of mercy in me to that extent that I am waiting and longing for the opportunity to show mercy and to help lift up fallen humanity. Jesus says plainly, ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.’ Matt. 5:7. ‘With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful.’ Ps. 18:25. ‘Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.’ Luke 6:37. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. . . . For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’ Matt. 6:12-15, R. V.

These statements are clear and positive. No man can be accepted till he takes in the spirit of forgiveness and lets it control his course of conduct toward his perishing fellows. When we do from the heart forgive and pity and love the erring, we know it, and then we know that God accepts and forgives us; for his Spirit will then begin to minister to our souls that peace of God which passeth understanding. No will force will be necessary to assure us of acceptance.

But here is something still more positive: ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But 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: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ Matt. 5:43-45.

This is the plainest statement in all the Bible of how one may become a child of God. To love one’s enemies makes one a child of God. This is the acme of human perfection. If a man loves his enemies, he will love his other fellow creatures with ease. And he would never do it unless he had permitted the Spirit of God to reign in his soul. Such a one must of necessity have yielded the place of supreme authority to God himself.

Will such a man keep the Sabbath? Verily, he will do anything God asks him to do. And no other man can properly set up this sign of God’s authority over his weekly course of conduct. How could a man keep the Sabbath holy and enter into its spiritual rest if he continued to hate his enemy even just a little?

Every one may know this love for those who need it most, and the best evidence of it in my heart is that I no longer think or speak evil of any one, nor allow my mind to become a place of deposit or clearing house for scandals and reproaches. Great peace awaits those who thus love the positive side of God’s law, and nothing will cause them to stumble.

All this can be accomplished in only one way, and that is by taking in by faith the life and character of Jesus, which is a full and perfect expression of the positive side of the law. ‘Thou shalt love,’ ‘thou shalt love,’ stands out in bold relief in the teachings of Jesus as the foundations of the law. We may wrestle for a lifetime with the tendencies to evil which the negative side of the law was ordained to restrain, but unless we take in the life of love, our struggling will be all in vain. If we learn to love men as Jesus did, and to hate sin as he did, there will be no demand for the negative restraints of the law in our cases. This course makes the yoke easy and the burden light. If we could esteem it a gladsome privilege to serve a faithful, loving parent or a true companion and not have the task become irksome, can we not learn to find delight in the service of our Heavenly Father, and daily feel sure of our fellowship with him?

‘He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.’ 1 John 5:10. When our faith takes in his character, then the witness is within ourselves; ‘we shall be saved by his life.’ Rom. 5:10. The life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh (2 Cor. 4:11), and we are filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). Read the context of these last three references. No higher attainments are held before mortal man in this world, and no others are needed to give any soul a passport to the future kingdom of glory.

Los Angeles, Cal.