The Rule of Life; the universal Law of God, with its discerned threatenings of the respective consequences upon violation thereof, is placed in the heart of Everyman. To discover these laws is a natural revelation. To seek to adopt these laws as your own rule of life is a nobility that transcends that of kings. To see the reality of your innate inability to keep the laws, perfectly, and without Machiavellian self-interest, is not merely “to know thyself,” but is a grace that leads to a new way of living. To know and receive the gift of forgiveness for the violation of God’s laws, and to be granted the woolen-white righteousness of Another, through the Word-Became-Flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, fully God and fully Man, is to be draped with the royal cloak of a King: a complete, unearned, and undeserved gift. Then, covered in His holiness, Everyman is liberated from himself, free to follow (or not, with the old threatenings still hovering, so that grace is accompanied by truth to resist the temptation) the law inside of you as an act of love. This is the duty of love.
When law and love kiss there is faith in the most cynical soul; hope in the most downtrodden spirit; and charity in the most hardened heart.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” John 1:17 ESV).
Sarajevo Haggadah, c. 1350, Barcelona. The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
