(6) REST AND CHRIST'S YOKE
(6) REST AND CHRIST’S YOKE
It is important to notice that these words of the Lord Jesus were spoken at a critical moment in the course of His ministry. He brings out the point upon which everything turned. I doubt whether you get the force of the passage, if that is not apprehended. It must have been a peculiarly solemn moment when the Lord pronounced woes on the cities wherein most of His mighty works had been done. They had not repented, and the moment had come when the Lord took account of this. God knows the condition of things at any given moment, but often delays to take account of things, because when He does so, it must be in judgment. We see this in the days before the flood. The Lord too was conscious of the state of things which existed around Him, but He waited the moment when He should take account of it; and this passage shews us that the moment had come. And then we find that another order of things was to come in; Christianity was to come in, and take the place of the mighty works of Christ. The mighty works were properly the harbinger of the kingdom. There had been the mighty works of Christ, works of grace to man; and grace brought responsibility; the judgment of those cities would be greater than the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Where there has been no special testimony, there is responsibility, but at the same time, the greater the testimony the greater the responsibility. The gospel, which is the greatest testimony of all, fills up the measure of responsibility; people incur responsibility in hearing it. Now I am not going to speak about the woes, I only referred to them in order that you might appreciate the solemnity of the moment.
[p. 55] It seems a strange contrast to the announcement of woes, that the Lord says, “I thank thee, O Father”; He finds occasion to thank the Father. We see these contrasts in the Lord’s ministry. I think one can appreciate them as one enters into the wisdom of the ways of God; the Lord could here thank the Father for the wisdom of His ways: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight”. “These things” are, I suppose, the things connected with God’s gracious approach to men. Christ was on earth expressing that approach; His mighty works were an expression of it. But the fact is this, that the revelation of God is not couched in a form which commends itself to the mind of man; when God works it will commend itself to man’s moral being, but it is not in a form which would suit the mind of man naturally. It does not accommodate itself to the mind of the philosopher, or of the scientific man. I mention those two classes because they represent two particular forms which the mind of man takes, and the presentation of God suits neither the one nor the other. Men were compelled to notice the gracious words that proceeded out of Christ’s mouth; they were compelled to own that He knew letters though He had never learned, and yet, at the same time, His word did not commend itself to the leaders of the Jews. Divine things are not couched by God in a form which would put any sanction whatever upon the acquirements of man. Philosophy and science are nothing with regard to the things of God. It is a remarkable feature in scripture, and was true with the Lord Himself, that everything is narrated in the simplest possible way; not at all in a way that would fall in with the conceptions of the philosopher or the man of science. The Lord did not seek to please the great or the intelligent of the earth among [p. 56] whom He came; indeed, they found continual occasion of stumbling in Him; but though these things were hid from the wise and prudent, yet it was the Father’s pleasure to reveal them to babes, and the Lord rejoices in this. It is the philosophers and men of science who are the greatest enemies of the truth, they claim absolute licence for the mind of man, and hence refuse the thought of a revelation from God; they reject any and every revelation of God by assuming that man’s mind is to judge of it.
The fact is the mind of man is opposed to God, and God will never endorse it, so we find He had “Hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”. Man is in a state of moral ruin, and God will put no honour upon his mind or intelligence. When the mind serves the purpose of an eye, it is useful, but we are dependent upon the revelation of God to know anything of God, and upon the work of the Holy Spirit; and the mind of man has to cease from activity. It is serviceable as an eye, but is most dangerous when it becomes active in the things of God.
Now we get a very important point brought out, and that is this, that Christ was the centre and head of everything for the Father. That is implied in what the Lord says here, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him”. He was the centre, the head, as Man here, of everything of the Father.
There is another point. There are depths in the Godhead which are beyond the ken of man, “No man knoweth the Son but the Father”. God is known to us through revelation, and revelation connects itself with the economy of grace; our knowledge of divine persons is as they are connected with the economy of grace. When it says here “All things are delivered to me of my Father”, it is not a question exactly of Godhead, but of the place of the Son in relation to the Father; the position of the Father is that He sent the Son, and the position of the Son is that He was there to be sent, and content to be sent. So, too, the Holy Spirit has come, and has seen fit to come as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. It is in that way that we have divine Persons presented to us in the economy of grace, and our knowledge of them is limited by revelation. There is no such thing as absolute knowledge on the part of man in regard to the Godhead; as I said, our knowledge is limited by revelation, and revelation presents divine Persons to us according to the position in which they stand in relation to the ways of grace; that is, the Father as sending the Son, and the Son assuming a body that He might come; and the Holy Spirit coming as the promise of the Father. The Son goes back to the Father, and sends from the Father the promise of the Spirit. The office of the Son we get here, He reveals the Father to whomsoever He will.
I think the Son reveals the Father in His activities of love; in all that was coming out when Christ was here; for there was a point to which the Father could gather. The Father’s activities could now be made manifest; there always had been the activities of the Father; all will remember the word in John 5, “My Father worketh hitherto” — there ever were these activities, but when Christ came, they became manifest, because there was a point with which they could connect themselves. The Lord was continually speaking of the Father’s activities, for all the activities of grace were connected with the Father; He said, “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven”; then again the Father sought worshippers — “The Father seeketh such to worship him”. It was in that way that He was making known the Father, and it was His pleasure, for He did not speak from Himself,
[p. 58] what He heard He spoke. The Son delighted to reveal the Father, and at the same time the Son was the blessed centre to whom the Father drew. The Father drew to the Son, because the Son having become man, it was of necessity that He should be the centre and Head of all those who were to be brought into blessing. There is the activity of the Father still; the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world, and that He might be the centre of those He saved. He wrought, and wrought to that end. Those blessed were given to the Son, in order that they might be brought by the Son to the Father. And the work of the Son at the present time is to bring us to the Father’s heart, and in the future to bring us to the Father’s house. So perfectly has He revealed the Father that He could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”; He could rebuke one who demanded to see the Father, for He had presented the Father. Not only did He speak of the Father, but He presented the Father in His nature and activities. The works that He did were the Father’s works, He made known what the Father was doing in respect of man in divine mercy. There was the sovereignty of mercy which drew to the Son, that the Son might be pre-eminent in the midst of those who were thus drawn.
I wish that all might take in the position of things, in regard of the Father’s activities, and of the Son as the centre and point of gathering for those activities to work upon. We get the prayer of the Lord in John 17, “I have declared to them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”, and the apostle Paul takes up the idea in Romans 8, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” — He is the centre of those who are blessed in the presence of the Father’s love.
Now I pass on to what the Lord bases on that.
[p. 59] The first thought is this, there were those who were burdened and heavy laden; there were those here who were under the burden and weight of the legal system; the apostle Peter speaks of the law as a burden which neither they, nor their fathers, had been able to bear. It was the godly people who felt the burden, and they were unable to bear it; such was the condition of pious people at that time; they were under the yoke of the law, and laboured under it, and were heavy laden; and that was necessarily the state of such as were seeking to comply with the requirements of God. Of course as long as people were unconverted, they did not feel the burden, but where they were under exercise they felt the burden, and knew that they could not maintain themselves in relation to God by the law. They were very much in the position of the man in Luke 10, who had fallen among thieves and had been stripped of his raiment — that pictured the condition of many in the time when the Lord was here. God gave the law in His wisdom, but it was a ministration of death to man. The law never brought death, but it ministered death, it brought it home to man; the law did not bring condemnation but was the ministration of it. It was the bringing home to man of his inability to meet the requirements of God. When the law came to a man it shewed him that he was sold under sin, and the law killed the man; the apostle says in Romans 7, “Sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me”, and again, “I through law have died to law”. It was connected with man’s working, and was burdensome to him; burdensome in observances, and institutions, and ceremonies; it was not written in his heart, but a burden. It brought no assurance, or peace, or rest, but was a burden which lay heavy upon man all the time he was down here, and from which he could not relieve himself; it was all connected with doing. Well now the Lord says, “Come unto me ... and I will give you rest”, He gives us rest in making known to us the work of the Father; if the Father works there is no room for man’s work. You get a picture of the Father’s works in John 5 a man is there lying paralysed under the law, then you get the word, “Take up thy bed and walk” — that gives you the idea of the Father’s work; and when once man gets the idea of the Father’s work in love on the behalf of men, then he ceases from his work; he sees that his work is perfectly futile. Thus the Father seeks to produce in men confidence towards Himself, and all man’s work is useless as to producing one single spark of affection towards God. The Father sent the Son in the activity of love. When the soul begins to apprehend that the Father works, then it ceases from its work, it begins to know rest.
Now coming to Christ to get rest really means coming to One who is unsavoury to the world; the point had come in the ministry of the Lord when it was evident that He was unsavoury to the world. He had piped to them, and they had not cared to dance — He was not agreeable to them. And therefore coming to Christ means that you turn your back upon the world, and no one comes to Christ who does not turn his back upon the world. Christ has been rejected by the world, and if people do not really leave the world, and come to Christ, they do not get rest; but once they do leave the world, He makes known to them the blessed activities of the Father, and they then cease from their works; my works were never any good, my righteous works were but dead works, the only righteous works were His. But now the time has come to cease from works, that Christ may produce in the one who has come to Him holy affections; He makes known the Father, and so produces the response of affection in the heart towards the Father.
Now the word that follows: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me” does not speak exactly of what [p. 61] Christ gives, the previous verse did that; but this verse refers more to the pathway, and tells you what you will find in it — “rest to your souls”. You enter on a pathway in which you find rest. I have told you what I understand by the labouring and being heavy laden, but now the Lord speaks of a yoke. Well, the yoke of Christ is, I believe, bearing the burdens of others. The characteristic of the Lord’s ministry down here was “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”, that is bearing the burdens of others. In Galatians we have the word, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”. Christ was free of every burden, but He came into a scene where people were under burdens, and He not only relieved them of their burdens, but He put Himself under them. You can see in John 11 how the Lord put Himself under the burden of Martha and Mary, He groaned and wept, moved by their sorrow. He bore the burden of others, and hence bearing one another’s burdens is called the “law of Christ”. “Take my yoke upon you” — Christ was low enough down in the scale of the world to bear the burden of others; if He had been high up He could not have done it, but He was meek and lowly of heart, and could bear others’ burdens, and that was His yoke down here. Nothing can equal the pathway of the Lord Jesus down here. It is a great thing to come down to Christ, to learn of Him, to see that a divine Person in becoming a man here is meek and lowly in heart; but it is just the suitability of divine love to the circumstances in which it was found. Divine love adapts itself to the circumstances in which it is found — it is suitable to heaven, but when it comes down here it is suitable to earth: “Meek and lowly in heart”. The principle of love comes out in 1 Corinthians 13 you get there the adaptability of love to any and every circumstance; it bears all things — believes all things, hopes all things, endures [p. 62] all things — that is how love behaves itself in the circumstances in which it is found; it is suitable anywhere — to the life of pressure, and the burdens under which man is found down here upon earth. You do not suppose that the Lord inherited the principles of meekness and lowliness from His mother; it was just the natural fruit of divine love.
The Lord marks out a path for us here, a blessed path in which we can find rest to our souls. It is not the same thought as in the preceding verse, there He gives us rest as making known the working of the Father, but here we get rest as walking the path appointed for us. It is not adapting ourselves to the world, but adapting ourselves in love to the necessities of men, and to the pressure under which man is found down here. You are to come under the burdens of others. I do not think that I ought ever to propose to another a path I have not followed myself; but Christ was in this path Himself, and He proposes to us to walk in His path. No one can have pleasure in legal services, but what a man carries out as the fruit and effect of love, he has pleasure in, and therefore Christ can say, “My yoke is easy and my burden light” — it is the pleasure of love. The Lord Jesus had sorrows down here such as we can never know, and, as far as I can understand them, they were in large measure due to the terrible perversity of man; but His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work. He had pleasure down here too; and I think we too shall find pleasure in His service. All that He did in bearing the burdens of others, being the outcome and expression of love, could never be burdensome, it was always His pleasure. We first get rid of our own burden, for we have a burden of our own, but Christ gives rest from it, and then we put ourselves under the burdens of others. In the one case it was the burden of legality, and in the other it is of love. The great thing is to come down to [p. 63] Christ; we often want to maintain a certain status and degree in the world; there is a great deal of pride with us; we do not find rest to our souls in this. There is a path in which Christ has led the way, and in regard of which He invites us to follow Him. When the Lord Jesus was here He was the most approachable Person on earth; no one but He could have said I am meek and lowly in heart; but He was so — and from that fact He was the most accessible of men. No one hesitated to come to Him — where people were wicked they took care not to come to Him, because they knew they would be exposed; but wherever people were conscious of their burdens, even sinful people, like the woman in Luke 7, they came to Him that they might be relieved from the pressure of their own sin and sorrow — and He gave them rest. Then it was their pleasure to put themselves under the burdens of others, and they found His yoke easy and His burden light. They were affected by the love of Christ, and so were prepared to fulfil the law of Christ. And in fulfilling that law you will find, not trial and trouble, but rest to your souls.
I think you will be able to distinguish between the rest that Christ gives, in making known to you the activities of the Father, and that rest which you will find in treading the path that He has marked out for you. The Galatians were biting and devouring each other, though they were legal; and in contrast to that, the apostle admonishes them to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. He goes on to say, “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself”. The great point is to “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” — if you follow that, you will find the yoke of Christ easy and His burden light.