What is the significance that "He gives more grace" (James 4:6)?

132 The scripture says, "Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?" On the contrary - and herein is found the means of overcoming it - "God giveth more grace, he resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." This is the true secret of strength and victory, and likewise of peace of heart, in the midst of the difficulties and contrarieties of the world.

No doubt the difficulties and the dangers are great for the saint here below. "But he giveth more grace"; and all need it. Not content with imparting settled "access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2), where is the Epistle, speaking ordinarily, which does not begin with "grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ? "This is general, of course; and so much the better for its purpose that so it should be. Here it is suited to the trial, and therefore appropriate to need. "But he giveth greater grace." The more severe the strain, the greater is His outflow of goodness for seasonable help. "Wherefore he saith, God setteth himself against haughty [men], but giveth grace to lowly." Not only 1 Sam. 2 and Luke 10, but the Psalms and Proverbs furnish abundant testimony to both its parts.

And this connects itself, as it seems to me, with what follows: "But he giveth more grace." That is, so far from lusting to envy, God is acting in goodness. It is grace alone that has communicated the nature of God; it is grace alone that strengthens the new nature by the gift of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us; and yet more than this, "He giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." He who realises with God what this world is, and what man's nature is, is humble before Him; as also more grace is given to such. The sense of all around and within leads him out in self-judgment before God.

In contrast to such envy and strife, the Spirit of God gives "more grace" to overcome it. But if we do not find this grace, it is because of the pride of our own hearts, as the quotation from Proverbs 3:34 indicates. Pride of course involves confidence in self, and God cannot encourage this: but one who is humble recognizes his pressing need of the grace of God, and God gladly answers this.

What is that state? It is that condition of humility which leads to submission to God and consequent nearness to Him. This comes out very clearly in these verses. God gives grace to the humble while He resists the proud. The wise king of olden time had noted the fact that "Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18); though he does not tell us why it is so. Here we get the explanation. The proud get no grace from God but rather resistance. No wonder they go down. And with none is the fall so manifest as with proud believers, since God deals promptly with His children in the way of government. The worldling He often leaves untouched until the final crash comes, as eternity is reached.

Then he exhorts them to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord and He would lift them up. It is what Christ did (Phil. 2), and He has said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humility becomes man; it becomes his littleness before God, in the sense of the greatness of His grace, and of all that man is in himself. The great glory which the believer waits for is also the occasion of humility to him when he considers his unworthiness: he knows that he can understand and do nothing in divine things without God.

The Lord will blight, and wither, and scatter all that plumes itself on having got truth, and light, and a right position. It is one thing to have gained that position, and another thing to maintain it; for the power of the enemy is all the more brought to bear on those who have taken this position, in order that they may the more flagrantly dishonour the Name that is put upon them. "God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." What a solemn thing for the saint of God to get into a position in which God has actually to resist him! What a dreadful thing to have the Lord set against us because of pride allowed in the heart! God resists a proud person: but where is there room for pride in us who are the vilest of the vile?

We do not undo wrong, by doing what appears to us to be right, but by justifying God in confession, and taking the place which He assigns to us. The same God who, by His grace, has made as every thing, and given us every thing in Christ, the moment we cease to value that, by looking to our own attainments, will in very faithfulness make us feel our nothingness. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." He is ever able to come in when we are humble, and work for His own name's sake. But He has no name to meet us while, in the pride of our hearts, we insist on maintaining a position. He can, in such case, only resist us. Are we indeed "cast down?" He can reveal Himself as "God who comforteth those who are cast down." Are we in tribulation? He is able to come in as "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." Let us get down as low as may be before God, He has ever in reserve some part of His own name to reveal and meet us.

All these things demand the utmost vigilance and care on the part of those who take an interest in souls. We are, all of us, liable to make the most serious mistakes either in the way of discouraging and repulsing souls that ought rather to be fostered and cheered, or of recognizing and accrediting as of God what is merely the fruit of religious nature working. In short, it is a serious thing to seek to do the work of God in any way. He alone can give the needed wisdom and grace in each case as it arises. And He will, blessed be His name, give abundantly to all who simply wait on Him. “He gives more grace.” Precious word! There is absolutely no limit to it. It shines as an exhaustless motto on our Father's treasury door, assuring us of the most ample supply “for the urgent need of every hour.”

Difficulties among the saints are readily removed when we heed the injunction, “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility.” Pride is most objectionable to God, and He resists the proud, but “gives grace to the humble.” If then we would draw upon the vast resources of divine grace, there must be the humility that was seen in Christ and in those who follow His steps. We cannot be in God’s presence in the spirit of pride, but we can come before Him to humble ourselves, and so be assured of true exaltation, in due time.