Recently Josh Harris, former Reformed author and pastor, announced he was “no longer a Christian.” Because he was an influential young pastor and Christian writer, articles upon articles have surfaced since his announcement. Why did this happen?, we wonder.
Harris follows in the line of three other influential, younger leaders who recently have made news for abandoning their Christian faith. Specifically, three prominent Christian music artists: Derek Webb (formerly of the band Caedmon’s Call) Michael Gungor (of the band Gungor), and Marty Sampson (songwriter and worship leader from Hillsong United). All three artists wrote and performed inspiring, even worshipful, Christian music, but now state they do not believe in the Jesus they once sang passionately about. Again, why did this happen?
Seeking Freedom from Christ’s Yoke
Derek Webb recently gave us some insight to the why question on Twitter. At the recent bombshell announcement of Joshua Harris’s apostasy, Webb came frequently to Harris’s support on the social media site, commenting and replying to people who were surprised and frustrated at Harris’s announcement. This sparked Webb to be more transparent about his own leaving of the faith.
Webb tweeted two posts which shed light on why he—and perhaps Harris and others—turned away from Christ. Both of Webb’s tweets have to do with the quest for freedom.
“A Needless Yoke”
First, Webb replied to a Christian who tweeted him saying that he was sorry that Webb and others left the faith. The Christian said that if they ever decided to come back, the church is willing to receive them with open arms (referring to the prodigal son story in Luke 15:11-22). Webb responded graciously and kindly, tweeting,
- “thanks, brandon. i receive that as an expression of care. respectfully, i feel the same way. i hope you can one day feel free of the need for a needless yoke, regardless of how light.” (7/27/19)
Referring to Jesus’s statement in Matthew 11:30 (“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light”), Webb stated that when he left the faith, he saw it as freeing himself from “a needless yoke, regardless of how light.”
Apostasy Leading to Liberty
Second, Webb tweeted a pithy statement connecting his leaving Christianity to freedom. He tweeted,
- “one man’s apostasy is another man’s liberty.” (8/25/19)
In Webb’s view, then, no longer believing in Jesus brought him freedom. He admits that Jesus’s yoke might be “light,” but in his mind it’s still a yoke.
I don’t want to speculate much, but something similar may be the case for Josh Harris. Harris recently expressed, “I am not necessarily better or happier or healthier. But I am open and wide awake.” And from watching his TED talk and reading his Instagram posts, it becomes clear that he views his leaving Christianity as a change where he is becoming more open, more apologetic for the past, more willing to listen to others, more open to other view of morality—essentially more “free” and less confined to Christian beliefs.
Can You Be Yoke-less?
But for Derek Webb at least, he left Christianity for the sake of “liberty.” And this is nothing new. Often those who leave Jesus do so in a search for liberty and freedom, which they sometimes claim they have found.
But that brings us back to Webb’s first tweet mentioned above. I think he summarizes the issue well when he writes he now sees Christianity as “a needless yoke, regardless of how light.” That’s the issue for many who won’t embrace Christianity as well as for many who leave their confession: they believe Christianity to be a yoke, a burden, something that hinders us from being who we could be, and that without Christianity, they don’t have any such yoke. Without Christianity, they believe, they are free.
Which begs an important question: Can you truly be yoke-less? Is yoke-less-ness what “freedom” is?
These people think Christianity is a burden, and if they cease being a Christian that they’ll be free. And in response to such a claim, we usually focus on how Christianity is true. This is well and good, but perhaps the question we must pose and answer in response to people who think Christianity is a burden is not mainly, “Is Christianity true and helpful?” (which would be a question of apologetics—proving and defending the faith), but more poignantly, “Are you, non-Christian, truly without a yoke? Can anyone actually be yoke-less?”
Three Reasons No One Can Be Yoke-less
So what is the answer? Can anyone be yoke-less?
Certainly not. None of us can be. It’s impossible. And I think with some thinking we’d all agree on this. We can see this is the answer by looking at three places: the Bible, real life, and then how we were made.
1) You Can’t Be Yoke-less According to the Bible
First, biblically no one can be yoke-less.
It’s important for us to notice that when Jesus stands up and lovingly invites people to come to him, take his yoke, and find rest, he doesn’t believe he is talking to people who have no yoke; he’s offering people with heavy yokes his lighter yoke (Matthew 11:28-30). He is inviting tired, weary, sinful people—those who “labor and are heavy laden” (there’s the yoke)—a better, gentler, restful yoke.
So according to Jesus, the choice isn’t to be yoke-less or take his yoke. The choice is: Will you keep your heavy, difficult yoke or will you come to me, take my yoke, and find your rest? Becoming a Christian isn’t changing from being totally “free” to then having a yoke. Conversion is changing your yoke.
Paul gives a similar answer in Romans 6 when he is expounding what it means to be a Christian. But Paul doesn’t use yoke language but rather more direct slavery terminology. He explains we each are born slaves to sin (yoked). Meaning, this powerful force we call sin controls us and influences our thoughts, words, and actions—something we all know too well. And what happens when someone becomes a Christian? Yes, they are “no longer enslaved to sin” and “set free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). But does that not mean Christians are yoke-less? No. Rather, freed-from-sin Christians are then “slaves of God” and “slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18, 22).
So just like Jesus, Paul in Romans 6 agrees that no one is yoke-less. A non-Christian is enslaved (yoked) to sin, while a Christian is enslaved (yoked) to God. Again, becoming a Christian is changing your yoke.
Therefore, in the Bible the question we’re pressed to ask ourselves is not, “Am I wearing a yoke?” but rather “Which yoke am I wearing? A heavy, hard yoke or Jesus’s loving, light yoke?” There is no autonomous “freedom.” And this brings us to our second reason why no one can be yoke-less.
2) Experience Shows Us No One is Yoke-less
Second, life experience teaches us no one is truly without some sort of yoke. Everyone loves the idea of “freedom,” especially in our current culture, but ask yourself, Are those who advocate for this “freedom” truly free? Do they live “free”?
The answer is always no. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Our desires, choices, and lifestyles betray us. We don’t know what’s best for us. Pulled this and that way, with consequences galore, our “freedom” isn’t liberty.
This is why depression, loneliness, fear, and anxiety are all on the rise in the name of “freedom.” It’s because those who say they are living free, when you analyze their lives, still have yokes. They’re enslaved, if you will, by the culture’s ideas, or by the allure of money, sex, power, or fame (and we could list many more).
And to be clear, this is true on the political left and political right. It’s true that those on the political left usually push for this “freedom” in moral issues, such as “freedom” of abortion and “freedom” in sexual ethics. But it’s equally true on the political right, where the “freedom” is often the “freedom” to live for my rights, my merits, my business, and my resources.
Both sides (but in different ways) are pushing for a yoke-less-ness, a certain “freedom.” But as experience shows, neither is living truly yoke-less. Everyone is being guided and pulled by something(s). No one lives without some sort of yoke guiding them. And with the amount of things guiding us this way and that, and with the numerous consequences that our decisions bring, the searched for “freedom” is elusive. We aren’t truly “free.”
This is true for Josh Harris and Derek Webb, too. As stated earlier, Josh Harris has said he is “open and awake,” but he also admitted he is “not necessarily better or happier or healthier.” His new yoke hasn’t produced that freedom. Furthermore, reading his posts on Instagram it is evident that he is not now someone who is totally independent and free. He and his wife recently divorced, and he seems to have slowly been swept up in the morality of the culture (which perhaps is a main influence in his recent denial of Christianity).
Derek Webb tragically seems to have a similar story. I don’t want to gossip nor speculate too much, but it seems his downfall away from Christ began when he admitted to having an affair a few years ago, which led to a divorce with his wife. Through many unknown turns, this then has led to Christianity now being a “needless yoke.” But with that background, the guilt that he admits he felt because of his mistake, and the current state he is now in promoting atheism, can we say that he has found yoke-less freedom?
In brief, yoke-less-ness is unbiblical because it does not exist. Everyone has a yoke (or numerous influencing yokes they’re wearing). Which once again proves the brilliance of Jesus’s question he posed two thousand years ago: It’s not will you have a yoke, but which yoke?
3) It’s Not How We Work as Human Beings
Third, this brings us to the final reason we should agree that no one can be yoke-less: It is simply not how we work as human beings. We’d like to think that we’re neutral wills which are free and uninfluenced. We’d like to think that we are totally “free” in our choices, loves, and desires. But as we all know, we aren’t.
Look in your heart and look around at everyone around you. We’re complex and influenced in a myriad of ways. We may wish we could, but we don’t control our own lives. We can’t. We just don’t have that ability. And as we talked about above, if we do try to control our own lives, overtime we’ll realize that we’re not as in control as we thought—that we’re really being controlled and guided by some other yoke, whether it be money, comfort, fame, sex, power, influence, uniqueness, etc.
Whether we like it or not, we are a yoked race. And this is the case because God made us this way. He designed us dependent. Dependent not only for existence, but for purpose, peace, and joy. He designed us as people who can’t do it on own own and who don’t know what’s best for us, but also people who were meant to have a joyful relationship with him who does. This is why Jesus’s yoke is Matthew 11 is so wonderful; it’s what we were made for.
When we leave God and his yoke, we don’t become yoke-less. We just take other yokes. We exchange him and go elsewhere (Romans 1:23; Jeremiah 2:12-13). This is the greatest problem in the world, and this is how we work as human being.
As a result, when anyone forsakes their Christian confession of faith, they are not becoming yoke-less (even if they think they are). It’s not possible. It rather is an exchange of yokes, turning from Christ’s yoke we were all made for to whatever other yoke(s) they choose.
Christ’s True Freedom and Rest
But that finally brings us to what’s at stake in this argument about yoke-less-ness. It’s not just that yoke-less-ness is technically incorrect. It’s a bigger issue than that. It’s an issue of finding true human freedom, joy, and rest.
When someone decides to exchange Christ’s yoke for another, they leave him to turn to whatever they think will guide them to peace, joy, happiness, contentment. That’s why they leave the faith: the supposed relationship with Christ they thought they had wasn’t sufficient, so they go elsewhere (even if they don’t know where that elsewhere is at the moment). They put on yokes, hoping to be guided to greener pastures.
But there’s two tragic results about such a decision.
First, in doing so they miss out on true human freedom. Contrary to popular belief, freedom is not simply “doing whatever I want.” It can’t be. Is a fish waddling on the land “free”? Is a bird with its wings cut off “free”? Not at all. Instead, freedom must include “doing what I want and what I was made for.”
But that’s not all. Freedom also can’t be simply “doing whatever I want” because often “what I want” has tragic consequences. Are you acting in “freedom” if you know you will certainly be punished for your actions? Is a robber robbing a bank which he knows is surrounded by a SWAT team truly free, even if he is vehemently throwing money from the vault into his bag? Freedom is not just “doing what I want,” but, as John Piper has said well, true freedom is “being able to do whatever you love to do and not regretting it in a million years.”
The second tragic result of such a yoke exchange is that these other yokes won’t provide that peace, joy, and rest they’re looking for. They don’t work. We wandering sinners were made for Christ’s yoke. But when we leave it and try to go at life with our own wisdom, following our own desires, we not only get confused but hurt. The yokes which promises greener pastures lead us to deserts of discontentment. This is the reason Jesus said his yoke was not only easy and light, but also the avenue to rest.
Only Christ’s yoke brings true freedom—a freedom where we gladly do what we want, what we were designed for, and what will bring about not consequences but glorious joy in the future. And only Christ’s yoke brings us true joy and peace—joy and peace we yoked human beings are all searching for. That’s what’s at stake.
So, for anyone who is reading this who has abandoned Christ or never been a Christian, I encourage you to reconsider Christ’s yoke. It’s the yoke we were made for. We don’t know what’s best for us. We don’t know what to do, how to live. But he lovingly saves us and guides us to the greenest pastures.
And for anyone who is reading this who is a Christian, may we praise Christ for his loving yoke. We know that we are no better than anyone else, that our hearts are desperately wicked, but praise Jesus, he takes us in and through his yoke gives us rest.
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Side note: In talking about exchanging Christ’s yoke, I am not saying they were ever truly saved or that they lost their salvation. The Bible does not teach that someone can genuinely be saved (justified) and then lose their salvation (Romans 8:30; John 10:28). However, the Bible does speak about people who claim to be Christians but then leave the faith (as is the case in these men here; although, Lord willing, my hope is that they will return). In this case, it is still fitting to talk about them abandoning their faith (eg. 1 Timothy 1:19), even though their abandonment only proves that they were never genuinely Christians (1 John 2:19). (For more on this, and on how we should be careful lest we too fall away from Christ, see these posts about biblical assurance and biblical warnings here and here.)
