HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
“But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deuteronomy 30:14
God’s commandment is not too hard for me. But it is too hard, indeed, if I attempt to fulfil it in my unaided strength — for this boasted strength of mine is the helpless inability, so far as spiritual and heavenly things are concerned. But, when He gives the commandment, He is eager to give me, too, His kingly and overcoming power to make all things possible for me. Augustine puts it well: God bestows what He enjoins — and then He may enjoin whatever He will.
Neither is His commandment far off. I have not to go through a long initiate, like the mediaeval knight, before I can be pleasing to Him. I have not to tarry for maturity and old age before I shall satisfy Him. I have not to wait for Heaven before I am qualified to do His will. Here and now I may obey His first mandate — that I believe in Him whom He has sent. And, after that, the other orders will follow, little by little, step by step. I shall meet them at each turning of my path, and always with a smile on their faces.
Neither is God’s commandment a covenant of cursing and death. I can only make it so by willful impenitence and disobedience persevered into the end. God has no desire that it should bring me anything but blessing and life. Judgment is His strange work, and nothing but the sternest necessity will compel Him to have recourse to it. If I am willing and obedient, I shall eat the good of the land. If I keep the commandment, I shall reap a great reward.
If His law fetters me — it is with a chain of gold. When I am within its threshold, there is “a world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in.”
