God Needs Nothing From Us

What is more, we learn from Scripture itself that God gave circumcision not as the thing that completes righteousness, but as a sign, so that the line of Abraham would stay recognizable. Here is what it says: “God said to Abraham, Every male among you is to be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, as a token of the covenant between me and you.” The prophet Ezekiel says the same thing about the Sabbaths: “I also gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, so that they would know that I am the Lord, who makes them holy.” And in Exodus God says to Moses: “And you shall keep my Sabbaths, for it will be a sign between me and you throughout your generations.” [a]

These things, then, were given as a sign. But the signs were not empty of meaning — not senseless, not pointless — since they were given by a wise craftsman. The circumcision of the flesh was a picture of the circumcision of the Spirit. “We,” says the apostle, “have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands.” And the prophet says, “Circumcise the hardness of your heart.” The Sabbaths, for their part, taught us to keep up the service of God day after day. “For we have been counted,” says the apostle Paul, “all day long as sheep for the slaughter” — that is, set apart for God, serving our faith without a break, sticking to it, keeping clear of all greed, and neither acquiring nor holding on to treasures on earth. And God’s own Sabbath rest — that is, the kingdom — was in a way pointed to by the things he made. In that kingdom the man who has kept on serving God will be at rest and will share God’s table.

And that no one was counted righteous by these things, but that they were given to the people as a sign, is shown by this. Abraham himself, without circumcision and without keeping any Sabbaths, “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” Lot, again, was brought out of Sodom without circumcision, and received rescue from God. So too Noah, who pleased God although he was uncircumcised, was given the measurements of the ark — of the world of the second race of men. Enoch as well pleased God without circumcision, and though he was only a man he carried out the work of God’s envoy to the angels; he was taken up, and he is kept safe to this day as a witness to the just judgment of God. For the angels, when they broke the command, fell to earth for judgment, while the man who pleased God was taken up for salvation. And all the rest of that crowd of righteous men who lived before Abraham, and the patriarchs who came before Moses, were counted righteous apart from all these things, and without the law of Moses — as Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: “The Lord your God made a covenant at Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you.”

Why, then, did the Lord not make the covenant with the fathers? Because “the law is not laid down for righteous men.” The righteous fathers had the substance of the Ten Commandments written on their hearts and in their souls: they loved the God who made them, and they did their neighbor no harm. So there was no call for them to be warned by commandments in writing, since they carried the righteousness of the law inside themselves. But when that righteousness and that love for God had been forgotten and had died out in Egypt, God had no choice — such was his great goodwill toward men — but to make himself known by a voice, and he led the people out of Egypt with power, so that man might become God’s student and follower again. He struck those who would not obey, so that they would not come to despise their Maker. And he fed them with manna, so that they might take in food fit for a reasoning creature, as Moses also says in Deuteronomy: “And he fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, so that you might know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word of God that comes out of his mouth.” The commandment enjoined love for God and taught fair dealing toward our neighbor, so that we would be neither unjust nor unworthy of God — who by means of the Ten Commandments gets a man ready for his own friendship, and ready as well for agreement with his neighbor. All of that was a real gain to the man himself. God, though, needed nothing whatever from man.

And that is why Scripture says, “These words the Lord spoke to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel on the mountain, and he added nothing more” — because, as I have already said, he needed nothing from them. And Moses says again: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul?” Now these things did make a man glorious, by supplying the one thing he was short of, which was God’s friendship; but they were no profit to God, for God had no need at all of man’s love. It was the glory of God that man was short of, and there was no other way for him to get it than by serving God. So Moses says to them again: “Choose life, so that you may live, you and your descendants — to love the Lord your God, to listen to his voice, to hold fast to him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” It was to get man ready for this life that the Lord himself spoke the words of the Ten Commandments, in his own person, to everyone alike. And so, in the same way, they stay in force among us permanently: by his coming in the flesh they were stretched wider and enlarged, not cancelled.

The laws of slavery, however, were handed down to the people one at a time through Moses, fitted either to teach them or to punish them, as Moses himself said: “And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments.” Those laws, then, which were given for slavery and as a sign to them, he cancelled by the new covenant of freedom. But the laws that are natural, and honorable, and belong to everyone — those he increased and widened, granting to men generously and without grudging, by means of adoption as sons, to know God as Father, and to love him with the whole heart, and to follow his word without swerving, keeping away not only from evil deeds but from even wanting them.

He also increased the reverence owed him, for sons ought to hold their father in more awe than slaves do, and to love him more. And so the Lord says, “For every idle word that men have spoken they will give an account of it on the day of judgment,” and, “Anyone who has looked at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” and, “Anyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment.” All of this is said so that we may know that we will give God an account not of our deeds only, the way slaves do, but of our words and our thoughts as well — as men who have truly been given the power of freedom, a condition in which a man is tested more severely, to see whether he will reverence and fear and love the Lord. And this is why Peter says that we are not to hold our freedom “as a cover-up for evil,” but as the means of testing and proving faith.

The prophets, moreover, make it as plain as it can be made that God had no need of their slavish obedience, and that it was for their own sake that he laid certain observances on them in the law. And that God did not need their offering either, but asked for it only on account of the man who brings it — that too the Lord taught distinctly, as I have already pointed out. For when he saw them neglecting righteousness and holding back from the love of God, and imagining that God could be won over by sacrifices and the other observances that were only pictures, Samuel spoke to them like this: “God does not want whole burnt offerings and sacrifices; he wants his voice listened to. Look — a ready obedience is better than sacrifice, and listening better than the fat of rams.” David says the same: “Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you have perfected my ears; whole burnt offerings for sin you have not required.” So he teaches them that what God wants is obedience, which keeps them safe, rather than sacrifices and whole burnt offerings, which do nothing for them toward righteousness; and in saying it he is prophesying the new covenant at the same time. He speaks of these things more clearly still in the fiftieth Psalm: “For if you had wanted sacrifice, I would have given it; you take no delight in whole burnt offerings. The sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit; a broken and crushed heart the Lord will not despise.” [r]

And because God stands in need of nothing, he says in the Psalm just before that one: “I will take no calves out of your house, and no he-goats out of your fold. For every animal of the earth is mine, the herds and the oxen on the mountains; I know all the birds of the sky, and the tribes of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and everything in it. Am I going to eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” Then, so that no one would suppose he was turning these things down out of anger, he goes on and gives the man counsel: “Offer God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call on me on the day of your trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will glorify me.” He rejects the things by which sinners imagined they could win him over, and shows that he himself needs nothing; but he urges and advises them toward the things by which a man is counted righteous and comes near to God. Isaiah makes the same declaration: “What is the point of all your many sacrifices to me? says the Lord. I have had enough.” And when he has thrown out whole burnt offerings and sacrifices and offerings, and the new moons and the Sabbaths and the festivals and all the rest of the services that go with them, he goes on and urges them toward what belongs to their salvation: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, take the wickedness out of your hearts and out of my sight; stop your evil ways, learn to do good, look for justice, help the oppressed, give the orphan a fair hearing, plead the widow’s case; and come, let us reason together, says the Lord.”

It was not because he was angry, the way a man gets angry — as many people dare to say — that he refused their sacrifices. It was out of pity for their blindness, and to point them toward the true sacrifice, the one that they can offer and so find God’s favor, and receive life from him. As he says somewhere else: “The sacrifice for God is a heart in distress; a sweet smell to God is a heart that gives glory to the one who formed it.” For if he had refused those sacrifices of theirs in anger, as though they were people who did not deserve his pity, he would certainly not have pressed the very same things on them as the things by which they might be saved. But because God is merciful he did not cut them off from good counsel. After he had said through Jeremiah, “What is the point of bringing me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a far-off country? Your whole burnt offerings and sacrifices are not acceptable to me,” he goes on: “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Straighten out your ways and your doings, and I will settle you in this place. Do not put your trust in lying words that will do you no good at all, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord — it is here.”

And again, when he points out that this was not why he brought them out of Egypt — not so that they might offer him sacrifice, but so that they might forget the idol-worship of the Egyptians and be able to hear the voice of the Lord, which was their salvation and their glory — he declares through this same Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord says: Pile your whole burnt offerings together with your sacrifices and eat the meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, and I gave them no command, on the day I brought them out of Egypt, about whole burnt offerings or sacrifices. This is the word I commanded them: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people; and walk in all my ways, whatever I have commanded you, so that things may go well for you. But they did not obey and did not listen. They walked in the fancies of their own evil heart, and went backward instead of forward.” And again, when he declares through the same man, “But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows that I am the Lord, who shows mercy and righteousness and judgment on the earth,” he adds, “For in these things I take delight, says the Lord” — and not in sacrifices, or whole burnt offerings, or offerings. For the people did not receive those commands as the main thing, but as something secondary, and for the reason already given.

Isaiah says it again: “You have not brought me the sheep of your whole burnt offering, and you have not honored me with your sacrifices; I have not made you work at sacrifices, and you have gone to no trouble over frankincense; you have not bought me sweet spices with your money, and I have not wanted the fat of your sacrifices — but you have stood in front of me in your sins and your wrongdoing.” So he says, “This is the man I will look on: the one who is humble and quiet, and who trembles at my words.” And, “The fat and the fatty meat will not take your wrongdoing away from you.” “This is the fast I have chosen, says the Lord: undo every band of wickedness, loosen the knots of forced agreements, give relief to those who are shaken, and tear up every unjust bond. Share out your bread to the hungry, and gladly, and bring the homeless stranger into your house. If you have seen a man naked, cover him, and do not look down on those of your own flesh and blood. Then your light will break out like the morning, and your healing will spring up quickly; righteousness will go ahead of you, and the glory of the Lord will surround you; and while you are still speaking I will say, Here I am.”

Zechariah too, one of the twelve prophets, points out the will of God to the people: “This is what the Lord Almighty declares: judge with true judgment, and each of you show mercy and pity to his brother. And do not oppress the widow, or the orphan, or the foreigner who has joined you, or the poor; and let none of you plot evil against his brother in his heart.” And again he says: “These are the words you are to speak: each of you tell the truth to his neighbor, and give peaceable judgment in your gates, and let none of you plot evil in his heart against his brother, and do not love false swearing. For I hate all these things, says the Lord Almighty.” David says the same kind of thing: “Is there anyone who wants life, and would like to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; look for peace and chase after it.”

From all of this it is clear that God did not want sacrifices and whole burnt offerings from them, but faith and obedience and righteousness, for the sake of their salvation — as God said when he taught them his will through the prophet Hosea: “I want mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than whole burnt offerings.” And our Lord urged them in the same direction when he said, “If you had known what this means — I want mercy, and not sacrifice — you would not have condemned the innocent.” So he bears witness to the prophets, that what they preached was true, while he charges the men listening to him with being fools by their own fault.

Again, when he was directing his disciples to offer God the firstfruits of God’s own created things — not because he stood in need of them, but so that they themselves should be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful — he took a created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said, “This is my body.” And the cup likewise, which is part of that same creation we belong to, he acknowledged to be his blood, and he taught the new offering of the new covenant. The Church received it from the apostles and offers it to God throughout the whole world — to him who gives us our food, the firstfruits of his own gifts, in the new covenant. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, spoke of this beforehand: “I take no pleasure in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty.” By these words he indicates in the plainest way that the earlier people would indeed stop making offerings to God, but that in every place a sacrifice would be offered to him, and a pure one, and that his name is glorified among the Gentiles.

And what other name is glorified among the Gentiles than the name of our Lord, through whom the Father is glorified, and man as well? And because it is the name of his own Son, whom he made man, he calls it his own. Think of a king who paints a likeness of his son with his own hand: he is right to call that likeness his own, for both reasons — because it is his son’s, and because he made it himself. In the same way the Father acknowledges as his own the name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified throughout the whole world in the Church, both because it is his Son’s name and because he who so describes it gave his Son for the salvation of men. So then, since the name of the Son belongs to the Father, and since it is in the Almighty God that the Church makes its offerings through Jesus Christ, he speaks well on both counts: “And in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice.” And John, in the Revelation, says that the “incense” is “the prayers of the holy ones.”