When the believers go forth outside the camp to follow Jesus, bearing His reproach, they are following in His steps (1 Pet. 2:21). We enter the Holy of Holies to receive grace, and by this grace we go outside the camp to follow Jesus, to bear His reproach, and to follow in His steps.
First Peter 2:21 says, “To this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.” The common usage of the word model cannot fully convey its meaning in the original Greek. The literal translation of this word is a “writing copy, an underwriting” (used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them). In ancient times teachers would write letters on writing materials, and those letters became a master copy. Another piece of writing material was put upon the master copy. Then children would practice writing by tracing the letters from the master copy onto their copy. The Greek word model is the word that denotes a master copy for people to use in the teaching of writing. The Lord Jesus has set His suffering life before us as an underwriting copy for us to copy by tracing and following in His steps.
Our following in the steps of the Lord Jesus is not by endeavoring to imitate Him outwardly; rather, it is by experiencing the all-inclusive Spirit with the riches of the divine life to become His reproduction. The result of this process is that Christ is reproduced in us. As His reproduction, we can follow in His steps.
The believers enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” To take the Lord’s yoke is to take the will of God. It is not to be regulated and controlled by any obligation of the law or religion or to be enslaved by any work; rather, it is to be restricted by the will of the Father. The Lord Jesus lived such a life, caring for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:19, 30; 6:38). He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42). Hence, the Lord wants His believers to learn from Him.
In Matthew 11:30 the Lord Jesus continued, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The Lord’s yoke is the Father’s will, and His burden is the work of carrying out the Father’s will. Such a yoke is easy, not bitter, and such a burden is light, not heavy. The Greek word for easy means “fit for use”; hence, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, and pleasant are in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, and bitter.
The will of God is our yoke. Because we have taken His yoke, we are not free to do as we please. How good and pleasant it is to take the Lord’s yoke and to learn from Him.
In Matthew 11:29 the Lord tells us to learn from Him. He is meek and lowly in heart. To be meek means to not resist any opposition. To be lowly means to not have any self-esteem. The Lord Jesus submitted Himself to the will of His Father, not wanting to do anything for Himself or expecting to gain something for Himself. Regardless of the situation He had rest in His heart; He was fully satisfied with the Father’s will.
To be meek is to not struggle or resist but to submit. To be lowly is to not have high thoughts. Lowliness is deeper than humility. We may be humble, but we may still have high thoughts concerning ourselves or our work. Hence we need to be lowly. We should not consider ourselves as anything or that we are higher than others; on the contrary, we should remain in a lowly state. This is to take the Lord’s yoke, not in an outward form but in the heart, in the meekness and lowliness of Christ.