Adding a yoke

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” – Acts 15.7-11

The requirement to be circumcised to be saved was only the first of two thousand years of trying to tie works to grace in salvation.

‘Why do you test God by adding a yoke to the gospel what no on has ever been able to bear?’ The gospel presented to free gift of salvation by grace alone and through faith alone and nothing else could be added. He it was circumcsion but people have always tried to add yokes since then.

There are those who think that the best way to prove your faith is to meet a bunch or rules and regulations. I’ve been in churches where man-made rules were the way to show everyone how ‘godly’ you were. Some of them had Bible principles behind them, but some were just men’s idea and opinions about what they thought was Christian behaviour.

Too many people are wandering to day partly because they could never meet up to those man-made rules. The yoke of trying to carry them was just to heavy, especailly in the light of Jesus saying ‘share My yoke with Me.’ The gospel is supposed to lighten the burden, not add to it.