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What Saith the Scripture?
http://www.WhatSaithTheScripture.com/
Christ's Yoke Is Easy
by Charles Grandison Finney
President of Oberlin College
from "The
Oberlin Evangelist" Publication of Oberlin College
Lecture I
January 2, 1861
Public Domain Text
Reformatted by Katie Stewart
.
Text.--Matt. 11:29-30: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I propose to remark especially on the first clause of each of these verses -- "Take my yoke upon you -- for my yoke is easy."
I. What is intended by this yoke?
II. What is it to take the yoke of Christ?
III. Christ's yoke is easy.
IV. To whom is this yoke of Christ easy?
I. In enquiring upon this subject the first question is, What is intended by this
yoke?
The yoke of Christ is his revealed will, his authority. The word here rendered yoke
literally means a band, or something that binds.
II. What is it to take the yoke of Christ?
III. Christ's yoke is easy.
We are ignorant, often not able to judge for ourselves; we often suppose ourselves to need that which would greatly injure us. He is infinitely wise, his love is always directed by infinite wisdom; and therefore in everything in which he commands or restrains us, love is his only motive.
As I have already said, the word rendered easy, means sometimes useful, agreeable, kind, gentle, gracious. If Christ's requirements were such as consulted only his interests and not our own, his yoke might not be so easy. But since he loves us, is aiming by his requirements to secure our own highest good, has no selfish end whatever in view in any case, his yoke is truly easy in the sense of being in the highest degree useful to us.
IV. I enquire in the next place, To whom is this yoke of Christ easy?
"Reason I love, her counsels weigh,
And all her words approve;
But still, I find it hard to obey,
And harder still to love."This class of persons are living in the seventh of Romans. They make their resolutions, and as often break them. They cry out, "O wretched man that I am." The Bible has said, "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." It has also said that Christ's "commandments are not grievous." And in this text we have Christ's own testimony that his yoke is easy. But there are many professors of religion who regard religion as a thorny way.
"True, 'tis a strait and thorny way,"
they say. With them it is not as "the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Their experience is not in accordance with the Bible at all. They do not find their religion a peace-giving religion. They do not know the kingdom of God in their experience to be "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The fact is, they have made a radical mistake; they have not taken Christ's yoke. They have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks, and therefore they find their religion a perfect bondage. Let no such one suppose himself to be really in the accepted service of Christ.
But it is easy to every one who really understands what his yoke is, and truly takes it upon himself. It is easy to all who truly choose Christ as their sovereign Lord , their Head, their Savior, who enter into sympathy with him and have confidence in him, who make common cause with him and merge their will in his, who in all things trust him. To all this class, who thus really take this yoke upon them, it is easy. And I might add, that the same is true of all the burdens which he really imposes upon us. Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light to all truly loving, confiding, and submissive souls.
REMARKS.
1. Then let it be understood that Christ's real yoke, or the true service of Christ,
is never hard. His real yoke is never heavy. It is self-will and selfishness that
at any time fault the yoke or the service of Christ.
2. If what we call religion is burdensome, it is not Christ's yoke, it is not Christ's
religion. If we make an uphill business of it, and if we find it "hard to obey,
and harder still to love," Christ says to us, Who has required this at your
hand? What I require of you is a love-service, not this slavish service.
If you love me not, if you do not serve me from love, I abhor your doings. Let no
one think himself truly religious whose religion is a bondage, and not the highest
liberty.
3. Whatever is hard in religion is made so by our want of heart, our want of love,
our want of confidence; and is therefore not Christ's yoke at all. It is not true
religion, it is not Christian liberty, but legal bondage.
4. All truly religious duties are easy. If we make them hard, they are not a love-service,
and not what Christ requires. If we make them hard we spoil them. If we go complainingly
about his service, grumbling about the difficulties and the hardness of his service,
he loathes our bondage, he cannot accept it.
5. Let it be understood, then, that they who make religion a hard, up hill matter,
have no Gospel religion. They are wearing, not Christ's yoke, but the yoke of the
law; and that, too, laid upon their stiff-neckedness and unbrokenness of heart.
6. This subject will throw light upon the true nature of the Christian warfare. This
is not hard, a something to which we are to be screwed up, and whipped up, by our
conscience. It is only love to Christ spontaneously resisting temptation to displease
him. It is not hard work for the most affectionate husband or wife to resist infidelity
to him or her whom each loves most. This resistance is not that to which we are whipped
up by a mere sense of obligation, or fear of consequences. It is the spontaneous
resistance of love to that which is entirely inconsistent with it. Such is the Christian
warfare.
7. Nothing that love cannot well afford to do is ever required of us in our Christian
life. Of course if everything is for our highest good, as well as for the highest
glory of Christ, love can well afford to do it, or abstain from it.
8. Love cannot afford to have one of Christ's commandments abated, nor one of his
prohibitions relaxed. His will is perfect; his true service is the perfection of
liberty; his true yoke is as easy as possible.
9. Let no one judge of Christ's religion by the common representations of it. Should
we judge of Christ's religion, from the complaints of many of its professors, we
should infer that Christ kept his children on short allowance, that he required "brick
without straw," that he is a hard master and even a cruel slaveholder. Their
mouths are full of complaints. They do not hesitate to say in their prayers and in
their conversation that which implies that Christ's commandments are most grievous,
that his yoke is too heavy to be borne, that he supplies their spiritual wants so
sparingly that he keeps them little short of absolute famine and starvation. Nay,
they represent the commandments as beyond the possibility of obedience, and the service
which he requires as so entirely above their reach, that by no grace received in
this life are they ever able to obey him. Now this is surely as opposite to the teachings
of Christ and this text, as possible. Just compare this text and many similar ones,
to the old confession of faith, that "no man, since the fall, is able, either
in his own strength or by any grace received in this life, to obey the commandments
of God."
Where did they get this? Is this in accordance with Christ's teaching in this text?
Is this according to the text in which it is said, that "his commandments are
not grievous," and that all "his ways are ways of pleasantness and all
his paths are peace"? The fact is, that Christ's religion has been grossly misrepresented
by it professors.
Such a statement as this in the confession of faith is a stumbling block, and as
contrary to the teachings of Christ as possible.
10. You that are not Christians may see your mistake in this regard. You have been
misled. You have been deceived by the complaining spirit that you have heard among
professed Christians. You have thought religion was hard, something unendurable,
impracticable, something not suited to your present nature, relations, and condition.
But those that have stumbled you are not Christians. If you would read your Bible
you would see that these complaints are not the Christian spirit; and that all this
talking and praying which really implies that religion is an up-hill matter, something
so far above our reach as to keep the mind in a constant strain that is unendurable
by human nature -- that this is all a mistake.
The fact is, the kingdom of God, when it is really established in the soul, is "righteousness,
and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is the charm of Christ's love revealed
to the soul, sweetly drawing it away into a perpetual offering of itself to a delightful
love-service to Christ. Everything that is hard about it is made so by unbelief,
by a want of love, by self-will. All that, therefore, is without the pale of Christ's
true service. Whatever is not done for love, is no acceptable service rendered to
Christ.
11. Those of you whose religion is a bondage, can in the light of this subject discover
your mistake. Who has required this bond-service at your hands? Christ is no slave-holder.
He employs no slave-drivers to whip you to duty. If the law as a schoolmaster had
brought you to Christ, you would have escaped from this bondage.
But, beloved, do not mistake your bond-service for true religion. Do not mistake
the yoke of the law for the yoke of Christ. Do not mistake, do not mistake this drudgery
in which you engage, and which you call religion, for that spontaneous love-service
which Christ requires. The difficulty is, you have not taken Christ's yoke.
12. In the light of this subject, all professors of religion can see whether and
how far you really serve Christ. Do you ever find passages in your experience, in
which all is a spontaneous love-service, natural, peaceful, joyous? If you have never
had this experience, you have never yet come to Christ at all. If you have had this
experience and have fallen from it, you have fallen from the real acceptable service
of Christ.
Your present state, and your present religion, is not a Christian state of mind,
nor the accepted service of Christ. You have fallen into the bondage of your own
unbelief. And who has required this bond-service at your hand? This is not Christ's
yoke.
13. How much ruinous misapprehension exists in regard to what constitutes the Christian
religion. The great mass of professors of religion are in such bondage -- and the
same is true, I fear, of many ministers, -- that they grossly misrepresent the religion
of Jesus. By their teaching, by their prayers, by all that you see and hear from
them, you would get the impression that the religion of Christ is the most difficult,
up-hill, unendurable task, that ever any one undertook. It amounts to a gross libel
upon the religion of Jesus. They profess to be Christ's disciples, profess to wear
Christ's yoke; and yet "it is that which neither we nor our fathers have ever
been able to bear."
Alas! that Christ is so dishonored, so contradicted, so misrepresented, his religion
presented in such a repulsive light as to frighten the young, and make them think
it is unendurable, expect as the less of two evils. It may be a less evil, they think,
to wear this yoke of iron than to go to hell; but it is at best so hard, so void
of comfort, so almost unendurable, that for this life, to say the least, a course
of sin is far preferable to Christ's religion. So far as this world is concerned,
they cannot afford to be religious. It is only to escape from hell that the thought,
or the effort, can be endured. But how gross is this misrepresentation; and how fatal
is the delusion that this fastens upon the minds of those that are not religious.
14. It is not merely a ruinous misapprehension to those who are without, but to those
who belong to the church and yet are living a life of bondage. Their misapprehension
of the religion of Jesus is destructive. It is not only a stumbling block to others,
but the ruin of their own souls. When will these bondmen learn that this is not what
Christ requires at their hands? He pities your agonizing struggles to wear the yoke
of the law which neither you nor your fathers have been able to bear. He beseeches
you to really give him your hearts, to enter into his love-service, to take his sweet
yoke of love upon you that you may breathe easily and walk at liberty as the sons
of God.
15. What folly to make only a pretense of being Christ's servants, to pretend only
to wear his yoke. This is of no use. To render him any other than a love-service
is not truly to serve him at all; you gain nothing by it to yourselves; you do no
good to others by this bond-service; you do not meet the wishes of Christ at all.
What motive then can you have for this folly? Do you not know that Christ is greatly
dishonored by those that leave their hearts in e world, and consequently make their
religion a bondage? I beseech you misrepresent him not; deceive not yourselves. Mislead
no others. Serve him lovingly, or attempt not to serve him at all. Take his easy
yoke and render him a love-service, or no service at all. "The Lord loveth a
cheerful giver," and a cheerful giver only. He will not accept a service that
is not a heart-service, that is not a free-service.
16. Remember that all duty acceptably performed, must be free, it must be cheerful,
it must be loving. Let no one deceive himself by supposing that he does his duty,
when he does it in the spirit of bondage, and not from love.
17. From what has been said, it must be seen that there is real enjoyment in wearing
Christ's true yoke, in all true religion, in all that Christ really requires.
We always enjoy pleasing those whom we most love. In this we necessarily find our
truest and highest enjoyment, in the promotion of the honor and in doing the pleasure
of those whom we supremely love.
Whatever is not enjoyed, is not true religion. We often hear people say they do not
enjoy religion. They are religious, they say, but they are not at present enjoying
religion. But this is a mistake. If they have true religion, that is, the religion
of love, it must in its very workings, produce enjoyment.
18. If you look steadily at this subject, you will see how much Christ's account
of his real service differs from the common experience. Now, is Christ's account
of his own religion to be taken as true? or are we to suppose these experiences,
that are really inconsistent with it, are true religion? Christ's own account of
his religion must stand! He has told us what service is acceptable to him, and he
is to be the judge in such matters. Let no one pretend that his experience is Christian,
unless he finds that Christ's yoke is easy.
19. This false, but common experience, is the world's great stumbling block, and
legal ministers are helping forward the calamity. Really, many of the representations
from the pulpit are such a gross misrepresentation of the true religion of Jesus,
that whole churches are in bondage and the ungodly without the church are perfectly
afraid of religion.
20. Christ is not responsible for these slavish experiences. They are only the result
of selfishness and unbelief. He cannot away with them, he abhors them. They are his
dishonor, the church's stumbling block, and the world's ruin.
21. Christ's true service is the soul's true rest. In immediate connection with the
text, you remember he said "ye shall find rest unto your souls." True religion
is truly the soul's recreation, the soul's amusement, the soul's highest liberty;
it is the rest of faith, the deep repose of loving confidence. It is love, and only
love, with its spontaneous fruits. This is the whole of it; and this is the best
and truest sense the soul's rest.
22. The real service which Christ requires of us could not be easier and still be
real. Did he require less than love with all its spontaneous fruits, it would not
be real. But if it is love and its spontaneous fruits, it could not be easier.
23. We cannot afford to have less to do than Christ calls upon us to do. We need
not fear to have more to do than is for our own highest good.
24. We cannot afford to have less to bear, fewer crosses, fewer duties, fewer burdens.
We cannot afford to have anything lighter, anything easier, or anything more agreeable.
The whole of his service is the most useful, the most truly agreeable, the most in
accordance with our whole nature and all our relations, of any course of life possible
or conceivable.
And now what do you say? Will you that never have taken Christ's yoke, now take it?
Will you now offer yourself a willing sacrifice to be Christ's living servant forever?
Will you who have worn the bondage of the law, lay it aside, give up your selfishness,
your self seeking, your unbelief, and truly embrace Christ, and take his easy yoke,
and find rest for your souls?
GLOSSARY
of easily misunderstood terms as defined by Mr. Finney himself.
Compiled by Katie Stewart
.
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