A Light Burden

“All of you who labor and are burdened”

In this second first episode of THE Common Calvinist, I wanted to try to get at the heart of things. I have plans for where we might head after this episode, but I want to lay the ground work. We are starting with first things. We are starting with the heart of everything else this podcast will touch on. This is a theology podcast, and we will talk about what that means a bit more in a later episode. It’s a theology podcast put on by a Calvinist, a reformed baptist, a father, a husband, a church member, many things that we will explain further in the future. And I thought about what this first episode would be, and I wanted to leave no confusion as to what this podcast is really about. The center, I hope from now on, of this podcast is the gospel. The person and work of Jesus Christ and all it’s various applications and contours and appendages. The tagline of this podcast comesw from Petrus Van Mastricht’s Theoretical Practical Theology, where he defines theology as “Living unto God through Christ.” So we are going to zoom in on that second half, “Through Christ.” You may think you know the gospel plain enough, or you may be completely at a loss for what that may mean. Either way, I think you will benefit from meditating on the gospel with me for the next 20 or so minutes. For the christian, we are prone to be forgetful of the gospel, and for those outside of Christ, as simple as the concept is, it can seem ungraspable. So let’s start here. Matthew 11:28–30 “Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς. ἄρατε τὸν ζυγόν μου ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς καὶ μάθετε ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ ὅτι πραΰς εἰμι καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἀνάπαυσιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν.”

English Standard Version Chapter 11

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

First, let’s consider who he is calling. Are you tired? Have you made a mess of things? Does it feel like you are trapped? You cannot do the simple things you know you ought to do? Maybe you hate yourself. Because you cannot stop doing the things you hate. The things that are separating you from family. From friends. That make you comfortable with the people who are ruining your life? Every day you fall short even of the standards you have set for yourself. Or you work every day to fill a bank account that you know will no longer be yours when you die. Maybe you are unsure of what death will bring. Every day is the same. You are trying to outrun something. Even your attempts to shrug off your responsibilities, to shirk goodness, have left you more exhausted than before. Anxious. Maybe you are bitter at the support systems that you feel cause you to fail in turn. Are you hungry? Always filing yourself and finding yourself empty? What is it? To-do lists? More work? Drugs? Sex? Maybe lashing out seems like the last effort you have when everything remains out of control because noone or nothing cooperates? I want to get you to just look at the things you are doing that aren’t work, and just say, “Yeah, those aren’t working.” Insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you would look up from yourself, you would hear Christ saying, “Come to me, all of you who labor and are heavy laden.” You just did. The God who created the universe and all within it, has moved all of history and every atom of the created universe to bring such a sweet word right now. Literally right now. It’s no coincidence when we hear the gospel. It’s benevolent, sovereignty bringing us good news we do not deserve. So pay close attention. Christ says come to me. The object of this invitation is Christ. There is no solution to your laboring except for him. He will give you rest. And what comes next may surprise you. He has a yoke for you. He has a burden for you. But it is a burden and a yoke unlike that one you carry today. It is easy. It is light. It is resting in him. He says learn from me. Come sit under his word, his covenant. You have failed to do what is plainly known. To love your God and love your neighbor. To tell the truth. And maybe you have opened the Bible and found commands you know you can not keep. The problem isn’t your support systems, or conditions, or the external temptations like stressors and hunger and being tired. You have failed in these things because the problem is you. Christ is the solution. Come to him. And he will teach you to rest in Him. And he will write his word upon your heart. He will make the labor he sets before you light and as if it were rest. You can do good in Christ because he will make you to delight in what is good, rather than laboring to please a God with a kind of work that has already not been pleasing him. Your trying to earn His favor has already been failing. SO just stop trying to be the solution to your own problem. Come to Him. Get to rest. He will make you able to be truly human. To do what you ought. And to do it out of the joy of a son, rather than the duty of a slave, of an ox. A beast. Do you fear to come to him? You know you are layed bare before Him, even now before you have come. How much more fear do we all feel to bring what we are ashamed of into His light willingly. But he is gentle and lowly of heart to all who come to him. I’ve heard somewhere, how prideful must you be to think you could out-sin the infinite grace if God. It is not humility to cringe at coming to Christ. It is pride and unbelief. He will not cast out. He cannot cast out because he has said he will not. Come to him. Set him as your merit and your reward. Do you not see how beautiful this offer is? He doesn’t say to bring anything, except yourself. Your inadequate self. The self who nailed Christ to a tree, and he still says come. The self who owes Him an eternity of wrath. And for those who come to him, he has drank up the last drop of wrath. To come to him with clothing to offer, and he himself is the down-payment, the principle, the loan, the payback. The whole of it. It’s Christ. He is the gift, the giver. He is the one to who we owe such a great debt and he has acted as debt payer. The gospel is all of Grace. That is a thing undeserved. The gospel is all mercy. Mercy is not giving you what you DO deserve. Christ sees all those who come to Him, anyone who would cast themselves upon him, and he sees a patient to be healed, not a disease carrier to be quarantined. Christ stretched out his hand to the leper, unafraid of the disease because he willed to make him clean. Come to Him boldly. Do not shrink back form Him, I promise, He will not shrink back from you. If you would be saved from the just judgement you have earned and are making even bigger every moment. If you would live your life no longer a slave to yourself, and to sin, and the Law. If you would rest. If you would be made whole, truly human, clean. Come to Him. He has layed down his Life, to give true life to you. He has recieved the punishment of all who would come to him. I hope that has made things clear. It’s a short meditation. We will get into much more in the future. A lot more will be filled out. So stay tuned.