A man cannot serve two masters.
He will either serve the law or he will serve Christ. The desire to mix the law and
grace has troubled the Church since the very earliest of days,
and we see the whole epistle of Paul to the Galatians written
to correct this aberration of the gospel. Christ does not deliver
his people from the law of Moses only to put them back under it
in some other form or to introduce some more stringent requirement.
Any and all requirements which are given to those who are the
sons of God by the grace of God have been satisfied by Him who
comes to save sinners and not to load their backs with another
law of this demand or that. The principle of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus is that which frees the sons of God from
the principle of sin and death. The principle of sin and death
is anything which says do this and live or do this and gain
blessings. Christ has secured any and all
blessings for those for whom he came. The promise of God in
Christ Jesus is that he has become the performer for his people.
He does currently work in them both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. Paul declares this to the Galatians
when he said, For I through the law, and dead to the law, that
I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. This is that easy yoke
of which Christ spoke. The Pharisees and their religious
children, which are with us today, continually tried to bind men
to the rigor of the law of Moses. Their doctrine was the yoke of
the law of Moses. The yoke of which Christ speaks
is not one which binds and chafes men, but rather one which is
easy or full of grace, because he is the one who has put forth
and accomplished all of the effort. needed for the complete and utter
salvation of those whom he commands to learn of him. There is nothing
left for them to do. He is their obedience. He is
their righteousness. He is their sanctification and
their justification. The yoke of Christ is the revelation
of the character of Christ. He said, learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart. Should we love God with all of
our heart? He said of himself, For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Should we love our neighbor as ourselves? He fulfilled that
law as well, when he commendeth his love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The yoke of Christ is
the revelation of the satisfactory and substitutionary work of Christ. The greatest risk for the sons
of God is in being made able to see that Christ has satisfied
the total demands of the law for those he has undertook to
redeem. He has not made some attempt
at a general and universal redemption for all men, which yet requires
the addition of a man's faith, but rather he has entered in
once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for
a particular people. If he has obtained that redemption,
then nothing can be left which needs to be performed. This is
a message which must be proclaimed from every hill and housetop.
Christ is the Redeemer of His people, the Savior of sinners,
and the Provider of every benefit. The yoke of Moses' law demanded
obedience and promised condemnation for those who did not live up
to its stringent demands. The yoke of Christ, on the other
hand, ministers life and light. because it reveals a perfect
law keeper. Rather than stirring up enmity
in the hearts and minds of those who take it up by grace through
faith, it brings them into conformity with that yoke and causes them
to delight in the law of God after the inward man. Perfect
love casteth out fear. Rather than living under the
law's condemnation, the man who is in Christ lives under the
law's perfect fulfillment and satisfaction. He cannot be condemned. His burden is light.