In the creation of his "royal law", he avoided my earthly father's mistake.
While Dad loved the basics of education, he never went much farther. It often made communication difficult.
One day, he asked me to dig a trench about fifty yards long a five yards wide in the swamp behind our house. It fed into the Coldwater River. I spent hours scooping muck into buckets, then to a wheel barrow and then up to the garden where Dad would later till the silt-enriched soil into the seedbed. I worked alone on the project, finishing at dusk, the channel reaching the river.
The next morning, I discovered Dad digging in the trench. I asked him what was going on. He said, "You didn't get this deep enough to get the boat in." He was angry and told me to go away when I offered to help complete the job.
He wanted to launch a boat into the river from the new channel in the swamp. He never explained that to me, merely told a twelve year old to dig a ditch. He assumed I must know that was the reason for the channel. Years later, in Communications 101, I would learn that this happens all the time, people assuming they are understood when they speak, but failing to relate their intention. My father's children learned that in the face of his limited vocabulary and temperamental nature.
Conversely, our Father explains exactly what we are to do to show our gratitude, to become closer to him and to grow in our understanding of him. First century Jewish culture had specific marriage rites. A groom was betrothed at a young age, before even knowing his bride or meeting her briefly at the betrothal. He later claimed her, offered a dowry, a sacrifice, but had to go away right after to build a home for them apart from her family. While he was gone, a close relative would stay with the bride and tutor her on the customs and requirements of the groom's family or tribe so there would be no faux pas. Jesus references this in calling the saved his "bride", saying he goes to prepare a place for us and will return and that he leaves behind the Holy Spirit to tutor us through both the Bible and inspiration. (John 14:2,16,26)
But communication runs both ways. We need to study what is said, not leave it in an unread book, not abandon our prayful communion with God.
"(Study) earnestly to present yourself approved to God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly diving the Word of Truth." (2 Tim 2:15)
As I grew older, I learned to ask my father very tactfully exactly what he wanted done and then do what he wanted. He would, invariably, have someone else check it out or I'd find him correcting something, but I had done my part in trying to make it clear.
Please understand, salvation establishes our need for obedience as a way of deepening our relationship, of understanding we are BOTH servant and friend. I won't argue eternal security. On both sides, that argument tends to flow from a human perspective, as if salvation and justification were things in our hands, determined by some action soley on our part other than mere obedience. It misses the fact God takes the full burden of establishing our relationship on himself.
Study Genesis 15. God offers the rules of sacrifice. Abraham cuts up the animals. God offers the guide to both our understanding of the sacrifice and an understanding of himself, revealed in degrees of contract to Abraham, as if having it all revealed at once would be too much for a human being to grasp. The guide prods us into relationship. It is not coincidence that his "contract" with Abraham is actually established with himself, a contract between God the Father and Holy Spirit which would eventual inhabit Jesus, the "son" of Abraham.
Viewing this as legalism fails because legalism assumes humanity somehow controls either its salvation or it's continued salvation. It stokes our ego to think our successes or failures establish our place in eternity. Even our guilt at failure betrays egotism: "If I'd only been more perfect, God would have wanted me."
That attitude conflicts with the Biblical record.
Jesus sums up the proper attitude in various places:
It is enough for the disciple that he is like his master, the the servant like his lord. (Matt. 10:25)
However, it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to be great among you, let, let him be your servant. (Matt. 20:26)
He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Matt. 23:11)
And whoever of you desires to become first, [he] shall be servant to all. (Mark 10:44)
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:7-10)
The establishment of this relationship defines all others. We become his servant, never asking any reward save what he wishes to bestow. Our obedience is essential and yet no source of personal pride rather joy at having obeyed. Worse for our pride, we learn we may be asked to do things when we are weary, when we think we have finished, often without the thanks we may feel we deserve.
We become the servant of other Christians. We learn that all Christians are to behave this way, but not to expect it of them. We are commanded to expect persecution (see Take Up His Cross Daily) from many sources, the world, Satan, even our brothers, even, too, our old selves, demanding to be pleased.
We struggle with servanthood. We struggle to have our way. We struggle to demand rewards from God, now and later, rather than to accept what he offers as best. We struggle to claim that which we can only expect as a gift. We play the victim of sin, drawing succor from Christ when we need to find victory over sin. We pray for revival wearing product placement T-shirts, forgetting Joshua's lesson that revival involves repentance, turning away from anything that even resembles an idol.
Putting it crudely, this ain't nuclear science. Christ laid it out plainly. Do this and this and expect these results. It can cost now, but pays off in eternity.
And even the current cost pays off in real, tangible relationships, not the wispy stuff of party friends and drinking buddies. Even failed relationships teach us something about our own frailty, about God's willingness to accept the weak and wavering.
If failure let's us know him more, how can it be failure?
So read Codex as a guidebook. Let the Holy Spirit direct you. Follow where it leads. Fail. Learn. Grow. Come back later and continue the process. You can do it by rote, like my arithmetic. You can search the Scriptures to be sure I'm right. You may find more commands you feel I've missed. Add them on. I welcome it. Guidebooks are meant to grow and expand, to gather more meaning over time. Seeing the old reference, feeling the twinge of good memory for the place it led you.
Because this is meant for YOUR growth, I've stayed out of the way as much as possible. Commentary is brief and scarce. While they are uniquely organized here, meant to speak in the categories Jesus suggests, let HIS words move you and touch you. I =have said a few things, but tried to stay brief.
The caveat: lingering behind everything we do, we hear the "take up his cross" qualifier. Keep in mind the simple truth: for us to grow in our relationship with God and Christ, some part of us must die daily. It always hurts. Always. Death is like that. But, with Christ's touch, something better always rises, from a dead idol, from a surrendered lust, from a cold, white-washed tomb.
Someone better always rises, remade by God.
