The Antidote by GEO. D. BALLOU

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1916

The Antidote

By GEO. D. BALLOU

GEO. D. BALLOU

An antidote is a remedy given to counteract the effect of a poison. In this article I want to speak of God’s antidote for the poison of sin. Sin came into the world through doubt, which led to loss of confidence in God. Man lost confidence in God’s way and his provisions for his creatures, and set out to find a way of his own choosing.

Sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as “the transgression of the law;” that is, going or walking over the law. God’s law is expressive of God’s way. When man transgresses, he is having his own way. So sinning is simply having one’s own way.

The plan of salvation was laid and the gospel provisions were ordained to restore man’s confidence in his Creator. He in whom this confidence is restored, will forsake his own way, and make lasting choice of God’s way instead. Man has a way of his own in dealing with his sinful fellow creatures, and God’s law and human laws have been ordained to keep him from doing wrong to his fellows. The language of law is, “Thou shalt not.”

The law was made for the “lawless and disobedient”—for those who have set out to have their own ways irrespective of their fellow creatures. Read carefully 1. Tim. 1:9, 10. The law is for the restraint of those who have a disposition to go wrong. But God has revealed something in the gospel that will take this disposition out of the man who yields his will to the drawings of God’s Holy Spirit. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because in it is revealed the righteousness of God. See Rom. 1:16, 17.

Then that which gives the gospel its power to save is the revelation of God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is nothing less than his right course of conduct toward all his creatures, especially to the lost ones in this world.

The moving power in God’s behavior toward the lost ones is love, which is nothing less than a desire to do good to others. John 3:16. But love to the erring and wicked becomes mercy for past wrongs and grace for future needs. The first manifestation of the divine character toward fallen man was loving, pitying mercy for those who had become enemies of God. As revealed in the Word of God, the leading attributes of the divine character of righteousness are, (1) hatred for sin, (2) mercy toward the sinner, (3) sacrifice on his behalf, (4) forgiveness for sins, (5) patience with the unrepentant, and (6) confidence in the outcome of his work. See Isaiah 55. Every reader can recall scripture to confirm these points. And permeating and tempering all these attributes is God’s infinite justice.

Men naturally love sin, and to them God reveals his way of dealing with sinners through these attributes of his righteousness, to turn them from sin and lead them to hate it as he does.

As we have seen, the first attribute manifested toward a lost race was love—mercy, compassion. As we become acquainted with the life of God as seen in Jesus, we will learn to love our enemies. If we fail to gain this experience, we shall not make a step of progress in the way of life. We may have theories about God and creation and his promises and plans, but here is the vital point of preparation—to become acquainted with him so that our lives may become harmonious with his through the revelations he has made of himself in Jesus Christ through his Word.

To obey these injunctions is the hardest thing mortal man ever attempted to do, and no man can ever learn to love his enemies but by yielding to the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit. But this

is what makes lost men children of God, and nothing else will. Sin cannot be forgiven us and we become justified until we have learned these first lessons of mercy and begun to put them in practice. We pray, or say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” and Jesus says, “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. 6:14, 15. We do not receive the imputed righteousness of faith for past transgression until we have begun to adopt the conduct of God in dealing with our fellows. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Mercy for past transgressions and grace for future temptations are not our heritage until we have taken the spirit of mercy into our own souls.

“When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25. If the sinner ever finds Christ and his salvation, it will be through this channel of mercy that flows freely through all who yield to the Holy Spirit.

This spirit of mercy will lead men to make sacrifices for the salvation of sinners, as Christ gave himself. He who has not enough of the spirit of Christ to enable him to sacrifice for the lost, will receive very scant supplies of grace in return for his professions. No amount of theory or knowledge will be of any avail without this true charity. Doctrine alone will not save. As the skeleton of a building needs the outward and inward finish to make it of any value, so the “doctrine of God” needs the adorning of Christian conduct to make it of any value to the possessor or to any one else. See Titus 2:10-15.

This spirit of merciful love has in it every other Christian grace. The faith of Jesus to the extent of full confidence in the outcome of God’s work cannot abide in a heart that has not had the experiences of mercy.

Now, here appears the antidote. He who loves his enemies, and sacrifices to save fallen men, and forgives those who have wronged him, will have no desire to kill, steal, bear false witness, commit adultery, or covet. He cannot help being an honor to his father and mother. He has already accepted God’s way of dealing with sinners, which is the chiefest of all the difficult things man has to do. He will not have other gods before the Lord, nor take God’s name in vain, for he has made God supreme in his life. None but such as he can keep the Sabbath, for no other is living the sanctified life, the life set apart to right uses. This is that work of re-creation of which the Sabbath is a sign. Eze. 20:12. No man can keep God’s Sabbath day holy in whom the spirit of mercy is not uppermost. How could one have a holy rest when thoughts of hatred and bitterness were lingering in his mind?

It is plainly to be seen that the introduction of the tender mercies of our God into the human soul will supplant and drive out the disposition to engage in sin. The life that is generated in us by the spirit of mercy, the Spirit of God, is the very righteousness of God himself, which we have received by believing that God’s way of dealing with sin and sinners is better than our own way. When we have thus received this life of mercy, we actually become possessed of the very righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. This is the life eternal which Jesus says a man will have who hears his words and believes on him that sent him. John 5:24.

Los Angeles, Cal.