The Yoke of Christ and the True Baptism

Take care that you are not making promises that reach beyond your life. You do not know what the coming day will bring (Proverbs 27:1); do not promise what is not yours. We are calling you to life, my friend—why do you flee from the call? We are calling you to a share in good things—why do you pass over the gift? The kingdom of heaven stands open; the One who calls does not lie; the road is easy, with no need of time, expense, or trouble. Why do you delay? Why do you shrink back? Why do you fear the yoke like a heifer unaccustomed to the yoke? It is good, it is light; it does not chafe the neck but gives it glory. For the yoke-strap is not bound around the neck; it seeks the one who draws it of his own free will. Do you see how Ephraim is accused as a heifer driven to frenzy, because she wanders in disorder, dishonoring the yoke of the law? Put your untamed neck under it; become a beast of burden for Christ, so that, loosed from the yoke and living without restraint, you may not be easy prey for wild beasts. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). How can I announce the sweetness of honey to those who do not know it? Taste and see. Experience is clearer than any word for making a proof. The Jew does not postpone circumcision because of the threat: “Every soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from its people” (Genesis 17:14). But you put off the circumcision not made by hands, which is brought to completion in baptism, in the stripping off of the flesh—even though you have heard the Lord Himself say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). There, there is pain and a wound; here, there is dew for the soul and healing for the wound of the heart. Do you worship the One who died for you? Then accept being buried with Him through baptism. If you are not united with the likeness of His death, how will you share in His resurrection (Romans 6:5)? That Israel was baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2), handing down to you the types and marking out the truth that would be shown in the last times. But you altogether shun baptism—not one prefigured in the sea, but one brought to completion in truth; not in the cloud, but in the Spirit; not into Moses, your fellow servant, but into Christ, the Maker. If Israel had not passed through the sea, they would not have been separated from Pharaoh; and you, if you do not pass through the water, will not be separated from the bitter tyranny of the devil. They would not have drunk from the spiritual rock if they had not been baptized in type (1 Corinthians 10:4); and no one will give you the true drink unless you are truly baptized. They ate the bread of angels after baptism (Psalm 78:25); how will you eat the living bread unless you first receive baptism? They entered the land of promise through baptism; how will you return to paradise unless you are sealed with baptism? Or do you not know that a flaming sword has been set to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24)—fearsome and blazing for the faithless, but for those who have believed, approachable and shining with lovely light? And the Master made it turn: when it sees a believer, it gives its back; but when it sees one of the unsealed, it meets him face to face.