Shepherd the Flock

This is now part 3 in a short series concerning the 4th commandment and whether New Covenant Christians are obligated to ‘keep the Sabbath holy’. P1, P2.

As I have previously stated, I am troubled by how readily Christians now days dismiss this commandment engraved on stone as if it were patently obvious that it has no eternal principle for us in this New Covenant age. Some of our greatest heroes of the faith believed that the Sabbath was to be obeyed by the NC Christian, men like Charles Spurgeon, JC Ryle, Thomas Watson, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, John Owen, etc. The issue is clearly much deeper than just a surface reading of Colossians 2:16 or Matthew chapter 12, and it would do well of us to set aside significant time to study and meditate on these things. The great men of old were in no way infallible, but the clear fact that the vast majority of historic Reformed Christians have held to a Sabbath principle should not be easily dismissed.

Today, I am going to take a ‘layman’s type approach to this subject. That is, I’m not going to go through all the scriptures pertaining to this issue one by one (this may be a post for the future), but rather, I am going to briefly lay out a few arguments for the Sabbath in a style intended to give the overall essence of the command as I see it in scripture. This isn’t going to be exhaustive, and I am not going to deal with all the pros and cons, so please be kind if you disagree with any of my arguments below.

Proposal #1: Outside of the Ten Commandments, the eternality of the Sabbath command can been seen from the following scriptures: Genesis 1 and Hebrews 4.

As previously mentioned, the creation account shows us that the Sabbath command came well before the Law, before sin entered the world, and before any temporary ‘ceremonial’ laws that were intended to point to Christ. In addition, in the 10 commandments (Exodus 20), God specifically points back to the creation account as a foundation for giving the command to Israel. Thus, we have the testimony of the creation account and the very words of God on stone that the Sabbath principle pre-dated the Law of Moses.

Secondly, Hebrews 4 teaches us that ‘there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God’. The ultimate Sabbath rest will be in eternity, in heaven, when we finally rest from our works here on earth. Therefore, if the ‘Sabbath rest’ is in actuality the heavenly state (realized that is), and that being all of eternity, as this passage clearly teaches, then the ‘ceremonial’ label is unintelligible given that the Sabbath is by definition an eternal reality and not a temporary one. The real ceremonies in the law served a temporary purpose for a temporary time before the coming of Christ.

No doubt that even those who abolish the Sabbath agree that it was given to point to a greater, heavenly reality; but they argue that this Sabbath ‘picture’ was actually realized in Christ. This is certainly puzzling given: if the Sabbath principle has now been abolished with the coming of Christ, then the sign and picture of the greater reality (heavenly rest) has now been completely done away with (prematurely). For there is no real sign if there is no real practice! To use another example: to abolish the sacrificial system before Christ appeared, even if giving lip-service to the fact that the Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of those sacrifices, would be to abolish the very sign and picture of His coming altogether (prematurely). Likewise, if the reality is still yet future, then to abolish the very reminder pointing that future, while still claiming that at one time there was a real sign pointing to this reality, is certainly contradictory and confusing.

Proposal #2: The Sabbath principle is written on the heart of every man, but especially on the heart of the Christian.

The creation account gives a principle that is for the good of mankind, of all ages, and which is written on the hearts of all men. The vast majority of cultures, through all time, designate at least one day a week as a ‘weekend’ where most take off work, and the religious ones reserve one day a week for their particular worship/practice of their religion. The fact this Sabbath principle is ingrained on the heart of man is not a disputable point; it is instead a fact clear as day. The principle was written on the heart of man before sin entered the world, has of course been seriously maligned by the fall, but can clearly be seen throughout the history of the world.

Even more so for the Christian, the law of God has been written on our hearts. There is no need to present a full treatment of this subject here in this post, but in Hebrews 8, when quoting the OT prophesy regarding the New Covenant, the writer says: “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts…”. Certainly, a full exegesis of this and similar passages will show that the very law of God has been written on the heart of every member of the New Covenant –and that the law being described is given in parallel imagery to God originally writing the law upon the stone tablets (see 2 Cor. 3:1-10). Thus, the Christian has God’s eternal moral law engraved upon the heart, and included in that law, as we see from the 4th commandment, is the law concerning Sabbath observance. This is one reason why I personally believe that most Christians, in general, obey the Sabbath command, even if they deny it with their lips. Actions speak louder than words, but I will get into the specific obedience of this command in the short future.

Proposal #3: We are mistaken if we look to the ‘letter of the law’ in the Old Testament as sufficient or full revelation into the New Covenant essence of the Sabbath command.

In 1 Cor 9, Paul quotes an OT passage about “You shall not muzzle an ox”, and then rather bluntly says ‘do you think it is for oxen that God is concerned about?’, pointing to the fact that the letter of the law, void of the Spirit of Wisdom to point us to its essential meaning, cannot always be looked at as black letters on white paper. Likewise, when Jesus teaches on the Sabbath, He clarifies the true meaning of the command (Matt 12:1-14). Jesus did not clarify other laws that have since passed away as ‘ceremonial’. But to the contrary, our Lord, just as He did with the commandment of adultery and murder, clarified, exposited, and revealed the true essence of the Sabbath command and freed it from legalistic interpretations. Only when we view the command through the love/mercy clarification given for the New Covenant, through Christ as the lawgiver and Lord of the Sabbath, and through the lens of it being a gift to man instead of a burden, can the true nature and transcendence of the command can be rightly seen and embraced. Thus, though one day of rest in seven is certainly entailed in the commandment, I am prepared to argue that just like the Ox didn’t move the Lord to write that particular law, physical rest is not what God is primarily concerned with in the Sabbath command.

In the next post I will examine the nature of the Sabbath command, and how are we are to look back on it as New Covenant Christians looking into the perfect law of liberty.