I said it is a half-truth, for it only tells us of what He desires us to
be, and does not tell us of how we may be it. It is meant, like the law
of which it is a condensation, to be the _pedagogue_, to lead the child
to Jesus Christ, the true Master, and the true Gift of God.
God 'requires.' Yes, and He requires, in order that we should say to
Him, 'Lord, Thou hast a right to ask this, and it is my blessedness to
give it, but I cannot. Do Thou give me what Thou dost require, and then
I can.'
The gift of God is Jesus Christ, and that gift meets all our failures. I
have spoken of the sense of guilt that rises from the consciousness of
failure to keep the requirements of the divine law; and the gift of God
deals with that. It comes to us as we lie wounded, bruised, conscious of
failure, alarmed for results, sensible of guilt, and dreading the
penalties, and it says to us, 'Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin
purged.' 'God requires of thee what thou hast not done. Trust yourselves
to Me, and all iniquity is passed from your souls.'
I spoke of the hopelessness of future performance, which results from
experience of past failures; and the gift of God deals with that. You
cannot meet the requirements. Christ will put His Spirit into your
spirits, if you will trust yourselves to Him, and then you will meet
them, for the things which are impossible with men are possible with
God. So, if led by Micah, we pass from God's requirements to His gifts,
look at the change in the aspect which God bears to us. He is no longer
standing strict to mark, and stern to judge and condemn: but bending
down graciously to help. His last word to us is not 'Thou shalt do' but
'I will give.' His utterance in the Gospel is not 'do,' but it is
'take'; and the vision of God, which shines out upon us from the life
and from the Cross of Jesus Christ, is not that of a great Taskmaster,
but that of Him who helps all our weakness, and makes it strength. A God
who 'requires' paralyses men, shuts men out from hope and joy and
fellowship; a God who gives draws men to His heart, and makes them
diligent in fulfilling all His blessed requirements.
Think of the difference which the conception of God as giving makes to
the spirit in which we work. No longer, like the Israelites in Egypt, do
we try to make bricks without straw, and break our hearts over our
failures, or desperately abandon the attempt, and live in neglect of God
and His will; but joyfully, with the clear confidence that 'our labour
is not in vain in the Lord,' we seek to keep the commandments which we
have learned to be the expressions of His love. One of the Fathers puts
all in one lovely sentence: 'Give what Thou commandest, and command what
Thou wilt.'
Think, too, of the difference which this conception of the giving rather
than of the requiring God brings into what we have to do. We have not to
begin with effort, we have to begin with faith. The fountain must be
filled from the spring before it can send up its crystal pillar flashing
in the sunlight; and we must receive by our trust the power to will and
to do. First fill the lamp with oil, and let the Master light it, and
then let its blaze beam forth. First, we have to go to the giving God,
with thanks 'unto Him for His unspeakable gift'; and then we have to say
to Him, 'Thou hast given me Thy Son. What dost Thou desire that I shall
give to Thee?' We have first to accept the gift, and then, moved by the
mercy of God, to ask, 'Lord I what wilt Thou have me to do?'
* * * * *