Double Yoked
ake my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:29
How many yokes can we place on the neck of a plow horse? Just one.
And how many yokes can we carry on our necks?
Just one.
But the religion of the mixture of Law and grace comes along side us and intends to place two yokes upon our necks – the heavy yoke of the Law and Christ’s easy yoke. Imagine a plow horse carrying two yokes on his neck.
This would be ridiculous; this would be confusion. However, this is exactly what the religion of the deeds of the Law does.
A yoke is not a yoke without a burden.
We do not place yokes on our necks just because they look pretty.
If Christ’s yoke is easy, then this also means that His burden is light. The legalists promise us an easy yoke when they tell us that salvation is by grace through faith. But then they demand that, with that easy yoke, we pull the heavy burdens of the Law and religious regulations. However, easy yokes and heavy burdens do not belong together on the same neck.
It is impossible to pull the heavy burden of the Law with Christ’s easy yoke.
The appropriate combination is; easy yoke and light burden. Christ’s easy yoke and light burden is – confess and be cleansed. But the heavy yoke of the Law demands that we atone for our own sin by bringing a sacrifice.
Legalism says that we must combine the two yokes in order to carry both burdens. But having to pull two separate burdens with two separate yokes is overwhelming because two yokes and two burdens only serve to create confusion in our theology, minds, hearts and emotions.
And how can we serve Christ when we are confused?
How can we pull the easy burden of forgiveness when we are weighted down by the yoke of the deeds of the Law?
Serving Christ means that we pull His light burden of forgiveness with His easy yoke of grace. We serve Christ by confessing our sin and being cleansed from all unrighteousness by His blood.
This is not lip service, but true, heart service to our Forgiver.
We serve Him by believing that we have been eternally and unconditionally forgiven.