Rest for Your Soul

by Tom Brown

Do you ever feel like it is impossible to please God? Do the commands of the Bible feel like hair-splitting regulations that only inhibit your joy? Are you so beat down by trying to live up to God’s standards that you just want to call it quits? Do you feel boxed up? Closed in? Setup to fail?

Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (Matt. 11:28-30). Jesus says that Christianity isn’t a cumbersome load of obligations for you to fulfill, but rather a relationship where your soul will find rest. But if this is true, why does it often feel like the opposite? 

Just before the passage quoted above, Jesus says, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children…” (Matt. 11:25). What are “these things” that are “hidden?" He is speaking about the way of salvation for sinners. In this text Jesus is intentionally contrasting two common ways of relating to God. The first is the way of the “wise and understanding,” and the second is the way of the “little children.” In short, the comparison is between those who, through their own effort, are attempting to earn a prize, and those who through no work of their own are simply receiving a free gift. In this differentiation, the "wise and understanding" are striving to work their way to the top, and the "children" are simply glad recipients of the blessing of the Father. Which of these sounds most similar to the way you think of your Christian life? Would you say you are striving to earn or resting in what you have freely received? 

What was “hidden" from those trying to get to God on their own was the truth of the gospel, the one message of salvation for sinners. The gospel is the good news that the crushing yoke of our sin has been carried for us by another. Jesus took our yoke upon himself, and offers us his own. He took the full penalty for your sins and offers the free gift of his righteousness. We receive this gift by grace, through faith, like, "little children.” As a child in a family has no need to earn their place, neither can God’s love be earned through any amount of effort we exhibit. The way of salvation is hidden from the “wise and understanding,” but is, “revealed to the little children." The reason that Christianity feels impossible to so many people is because they are attempting to carry their own yoke, a burden that is too heavy for them to bear. Instead of looking to Jesus as Savior, they look to their own strength and performance. It is no wonder why many turn away from the faith weary and defeated, it is because they have never truly turned to the faith at all. They have tried to come to God through their own righteousness, being their own savior and bearing their own yoke, but this is the exact opposite of what Jesus councils us to do. 

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…” Can’t you see that the impossible burden on your soul is not from God? The Lord is not demanding that you measure up on your own. He is not insisting that we atone for our own sin, or that we repay all our spiritual debts. Instead he is calling out, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Christianity is scandalously different from every other religion in the world because our God, the one true God, saves and preserves even his enemies through the shedding of his own blood. Christianity is not about what you can do for God, but rather it is about receiving what God has done for you. There are many duties in the Christian faith, many ways in which true believers are called to live lives that are pleasing to God; but there is no duty that precedes or supersedes our calling to obey the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to obey the gospel? It means giving up all efforts to save yourself. It means confessing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. And it means wholly believing and resting in Christ's finished work for you, as a “little child” rests in the arms of their father. It is only by taking the yoke of Christ upon ourselves that we come to see how deep is the Father’s love, and there only do we find true rest for our souls.

If you find yourself worn thin by trying to earn God’s love, STOP. You have nothing to offer to God until you have received what he offers you. Jesus is the Savior, and we are the saved. Believe in him.