Take On the Easy Yoke

To live a Christ-centered life seems to be a tough call. It seems difficult, and some may believe that it is impossible in this life and this world. However, it is possible and easy when we take Jesus’ yoke upon us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30). “And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world” (1 Jn 5:3-4). This is the secret of the easy yoke. If we wish to follow Christ and to walk in the easy yoke with Him, we must accept his overall way of life as our way of life totally and all the time. We must become students of Jesus and learn from Him how to live the kingdom life as He lived it. He is the Living Word. We listen to Him. We hear his Word. We put his words into practice. We hear and do. And so we become perfect in Christ.

1. Who or What Is Discipling You?

However, we must first deal with this question:  Who or what is discipling you? Who or what are you following? Everyone is a disciple of someone or something. Whether you are aware of it or not, every person, lost or saved, is being discipled by the influence of the culture and others around them. Spiritual formation is happening all the time. Culture, society, and the world are in the full-time business of making disciples. They are making disciples not to the life of Christ in the kingdom, but to lives that follow the ways of the world, lifestyles that oppose God’s kingdom.

But, we are to be disciples of Jesus. Only He should disciple us. As his disciples, we learn from Him how to live for Christ and in Christ to the glory of God in everything we do. We become not just hearers of His Word, but also doers who live out his kingdom life in this world. We are all disciples; the only question is whose words are we following and doing?

2. Where Are You?

There is a general feeling and belief among many believers and unbelievers that being a real Christian, a true follower of Jesus, is immensely difficult. “Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.” (G. K. Chesterton) This brings us to the next question. Where are you in your journey with Christ, in your spiritual growth? Perhaps you are experiencing some of the following situations or feelings.

I believe we all are committed to Christ. We have willing hearts and the right intentions. We want to become like Christ and pursue the kingdom life. However, our growth is excruciatingly slow, and sometimes it seems as if there is no growth at all. We want the abundant life in Christ that the gospel promises but we cannot seem to find or experience it. Some have tasted it and want more. They want to go deeper and further but seem stuck where they are. We are working for Christ. We are very active in church, doing ministries, and serving others but we are far from his presence and power. We try to follow Jesus closely. We try to live the kingdom life but fail. We experience a sense of hopelessness, failure, and worthlessness. We may feel like giving up. All we can do is endure, barely keeping our heads above water, waiting to die so we can go to heaven and finally escape this world.

I hope to show you that we can live a Christ-centered kingdom life. It’s possible and easy when we take his yoke upon us when we become his apprentices and learn from Him. But before we look at how to do that, there are some misunderstandings we should deal with. These have contributed to the general belief that it is too difficult, to the point of being impossible, to become like Christ and live the kingdom life in this life. They have influenced many Christians and they hinder our spiritual growth as well as our ministries to make disciples of others.

3. Getting People into Heaven and Heaven into People

A big mistake in Christianity is the focus on getting as many people as possible ready to die and go to heaven; to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people. This is not wrong but it is a very narrow understanding of salvation and has led to misunderstandings about the Christian life. It creates Christians who may be ready to die but clearly are not ready to live. It sees salvation only as the forgiveness of sins. This has serious consequences.

Many think that being a Christian has nothing to do with actually following or being like Jesus. The only requirement for being a Christian is to believe the right things about Jesus. Doing the right things that He taught us are not important. So, Christians become only hearers but not doers of His Word.

This also leads to the false opposition of grace and works, faith and works. As soon as you begin to teach about obeying Jesus, putting his words into practice, and living the kingdom life, people cry foul. That’s a gospel of salvation by works, not by grace through faith. Faith is viewed as entirely a mental and inwardly spiritual thing and has nothing to do with our daily lives outside the church in the world. This produces cheap grace. Don’t worry about sin. The Lord will forgive you. People make excuses, “We’re only human. To err is human.” There was a bumper sticker saying, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” Although true, this hinders people from taking seriously and making a serious effort to follow Jesus and learn from Him to live the kingdom life. It hinders spiritual growth.

As one author said, “Where is our Christ, who is alive and lives in power? In the preaching of our churches, he has become a beautiful ideal. He has been turned into a myth, embodying a theological concept. The witness to his objective reality has largely been lost. … The church has become an organization of well-meaning idealists, working for Christ but far from his presence and power.” (Flora Wuellner) I wonder if that is not also our problem. We have a hard time being Christ-centered because we don’t live in the awareness and experience that He is alive and real. Because we have not taken up his yoke, living in the reality of the living Lord, we find it hard to follow Him. We don’t become excited for this life, Jesus’ call upon our lives, and his kingdom vision. However, Jesus calls us to follow him now, in this life and in this world, not after death.

4. Salvation Is A New Way (Order) of Life

Salvation is not only about the forgiveness of sins and going to heaven after we have died. Salvation is a life, a new order of life. We enter into a new way of life, the kingdom life that begins now and goes on forever. Col. 1:13 — For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins has brought us into the new life.

Jesus came to give us life, abundant life, already here and now. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26). “… God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life … ” (1 Jn 5:11-12).

Therefore, salvation is also the redemption of our bodies. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is God, came in the flesh (1 Jn 4:2). He became fully human and had a physical body. He lived the kingdom life in and through his body. So should we. He died on the cross. He was resurrected in body and flesh. We died with Christ. God made us alive and raised us with Christ (Col 2:12-13; 3:1) into the new kingdom life. And one day we will also be resurrected with imperishable and immortal bodies (1 Cor 15).

In this life, our redeemed bodies are members of the body of Christ. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, a dwelling place, a home in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph 2:22). “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor 6:19-20).

Christ’s life on earth showed us that God’s kingdom has come. The cross, the resurrection, and the events after verified that Jesus’ teachings are true. It proclaims that the kingdom life is eternal and indestructible, and it is available and possible for those who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore, in faith, we repent, turn away from our old ways, and put our hope in Christ. The new life is the life of Christ. He now lives in us. Our bodies are not merely physical systems but are now inhabited by the very real presence, the life, and power of Christ. We have been redeemed, restored, and made holy and righteous in Christ. The eternal kingdom life is caught up in this life and in this body. Because Christ lives in us the kingdom life is real in us. Faith must now take action to live out that life. And that action is to be disciples, make disciples, and grow disciples of Jesus.

5. Be, Make & Grow Disciples

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20)

First, all believers must enroll in Jesus’ training. There is no other way to become like Him and live like Him. Then, as a church, we must make disciples of all peoples, with no exceptions or distinctions. We must proclaim the gospel, call them to follow Jesus and invite them into His life. But it does not stop there. Jesus continues and says that we must teach them to obey, to put into practice, everything He has commanded us. We must grow the new disciples by enrolling them as students of Christ. This is the great omission in the Great Commission. When we fail to do this, we are only making converts and baptizing them into church membership. We end up with “undiscipled disciples” who do not take upon them Jesus’ yoke and so do not learn how to become and live like Christ.

This is not just for super-Christians, but for all of us who claim to follow Jesus. While we are being disciples ourselves, we are called to make and grow disciples. While we learn to become like Christ, we help and teach one another to become like Him. The leaders of the church are gifted by Christ “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12-13).

This brings us back to our first question, who or what disciples you? When Jesus disciples us, and trains us, we will not be discipled by anyone or anything else. When we take upon us his yoke we will become mature, perfect in Christ, and “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:14). We will be able to resist the influences of the world, culture and society around us. We will be able to live the Kingdom life for Christ and in Christ to the glory of God in everything we do, in all of our lives, all the time.

Note, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. … I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” His power and presence make living the Christ-centered kingdom life possible. This is his easy yoke. Take it up. Through faith and grace and by his power and presence in our lives we can and will become like Christ. Next week — how to take up the easy yoke and be students of Jesus.