The Law and the Yoke

Jesus said, "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." - Matthew 11:29-30

Many use this portion of Scripture to support their idea that Jesus was doing away with the Law and bringing a new and easier way for people to follow. That "grace" was doing away with the Law. However, the very definition of grace shows us that that thought is the opposite of what the Lord was saying here.

Grace = Greek charis - a divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.
Grace is God's influence upon our hearts and then reflecting outward in our lives. As we will see, that is the fulfillment of the New Covenant in which the Lord promised to write His law upon our hearts and minds in order for us to walk in His ways and be a light for all mankind.

Jesus never condemned the Law, in fact He said earlier in chapter 5 that He didn't come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. The Greek word for fulfill is pleroo which basically means to "fully preach". Jesus didn't come to do away with the Law, but to fully preach it. We can see that clearly from the context of what He said. However, here in chapter 11 we must ask the question, "What does Jesus mean by the term 'yoke'?"
The word for yoke in the Greek is zugos - which means 'to join' as in a coupling together.
A yoke was often put around the neck of an animal such as oxen in order to guide and direct that animal in the right direction. The yoke that Jesus was/is referring to is His interpretation of the Law, which of course is the right interpretation.
During this time, many of the religious leaders had inserted volumes of additional laws along with God's commandments. They did this with the intentions of helping them keep the commmandments, however in doing so they actually made the law burdensome to many because there were so many additions and subtractions made. It was a very heavy yoke.
When Jesus came He taught and showed the people how to correctly obey the Law the way He had said from the beginning. Remember, Jesus IS God and therefore He is the Lawgiver (James 4:12). His way is always the best way.
His yoke, or interpretation of HIS Law, is going to be the easiest path to follow, making it an easy yoke to bear.
That doesn't prove or show that He came to remove the Law from anyone. The Law was never burdensome, it was the additions and subtractions made by the Pharisees and other leaders that had put a huge weight on the people. God had always wanted His people to walk in His commandments freely, which of course is what can be attained under the New Covenant - the Law written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:27).
If a yoke is for direction and guidance than that perfectly illustrates the role of God's Law in the life of a believer.

"and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?" Notice Moses says the Law is for a person's good.
Romans 3:18 - Paul said "and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,"

Look at what Jesus says in John 7:16 - "Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.'" The word for doctrine in the Greek is didache which means 'teaching' or 'instruction'. Now Jesus said His doctrine/teaching/instruction was not His, but the Father's (Him who sent Me). What had been the Father's teaching or instruction? - the Law. Jesus also said in John 15:10 that we will abide in His love if we keep His commandments just as He keeps the Fathers commandments and abides in His love. The commandments haven't changed; there is no new law - it's the same commandments that were from the beginning.

1 John 5:2-3 "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome."
If the Law is such a heavy burden then why does John write this? His commandments are not burdensome, he says. It's because the Law of God is only burdensome when we walk according to the flesh and not the Spirit (Romans 8:1-11). The flesh cannot be subjected to the Law of God. In fact, the way that we crucify our flesh is to walk in obedience to the commandments of the Lord by faith. Our flesh (sinful nature) will always lie to us and tell us that we're not able to be obedient but that's because it does not want to die. Read Romans 7 for a better look at this subject.

Now back to Matthew 11. Jesus also said that His burden was light. Remember, John wrote that the commandments of God are not burdensome. The word for burden in the Greek is phortion meaning a 'task' or 'service'. Jesus was saying that to walk in His tasks for us was easy and light. Why? Because His desire for us is to walk in obedience to Him, not our flesh, which is harder than obedience to Him. We become a slave to sin through our flesh, but a slave of righteousness through obedience to God.

Another question we should ask ourselves is this: If the Law was such a yoke of bondage and a heavey burden then why does the Lord say that He will break the yoke and the bonds of His people (Jeremiah 30:8; Hosea 11:4; Nahum 1:13) and yet He still required them to keep His commandments? If the commandments are that yoke of bondage why would He still expect them to keep them all the while promising to break them? It is because He was speaking of the bondage of sin, not the Law. The Law is holy, and just, and good (Romans 7:12) and points out our sin. It in-itself cannot be sin. In fact 1 John 3:4 says that sin IS LAWLESSNESS. Without Law.

Therefore Jesus' light yoke and easy burden are His Law/Torah for His people to walk in, not adding to or taking away from it. His commandments are not burdensome and they are for our good, making them a very light and easy yoke that He lovingly guides us with. Praise the Lord!