What is The Christian Sabbath?

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." - Exodus 20:8‭-‬11 NIV

"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." - Hebrews 4:9‭-‬10 NIV

Several years ago after my painful divorce, I made a trip to Minnesota to reconnect with my extended family. On the way, I stopped to meet up with a man who has been a mentor to me for more than 20 years. Before I left to continue my journey, I asked him a question: 

"You have been my teacher and mentor for 18+ years. It is possible that we may not see each other again on this side of eternity. What do you want to say to me?"

He thought for a moment and replied,

"Finish well, knowing who you are in Christ and REST. Rest in the work that was completed on your behalf by Jesus Christ on the cross."

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said these words:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The Old Covenant Was The Shadow of The New 

The Sabbath command is the one commandment that generates a lot of confusion today. The rest of the Ten Commandments are very straightforward and clear. But somehow we get puzzled with the fourth command. Should we be observing the Sabbath as it was commanded in the old covenant? Did the apostles actually change the Sabbath to Sunday? And if the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, should we completely abstain from work on that day? 

To wrestle with such questions speaks to a deeper issue. Many in the church do not understand what it means that the old covenant was merely the shadow and not the reality. In Hebrews 10:1:

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."

Jesus Illustrated this on the Sermon on the Mount when he spoke about the commands to not murder and commit adultery. The law could not change the sinful heart, it could only restrain it. Paul repeated this idea in the first few chapters of Romans that the law could only condemn and that justification was through faith.

The writer of Hebrews emphasized that the new covenant REPLACED the old covenant. This was nothing new. Jeremiah prophecied that this would be the case in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The all important point in verse 31; Jeremiah said this new covenant would NOT be like the old covenant. The old covenant was about rules and regulations. It was actually the constitution that governed the nation of Israel. The new covenant would not be about rules and regulations. It would be about the new heart and the new spirit which would be acoomplished in the rebirth which was prophecied by Ezekiel:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." - Ezekiel 36:26‭-‬27 NIV

It is important to understand what exactly the old covenant was. Moses explains it in Exodus 34: 28:

"Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments." - Exodus 34:28 NIV

The Ten Commandments were the foundation of the old covenant. This is what has been replaced by the new covenant. Now some have objected to this by saying, "If the the Ten Commandments are done away with is it OK to murder or cheat on your spouse?" First of all, for someone to seriously ask such a question would cause me to question whether they are truly saved or not because they obvioulsy don't understand what the gospel accomplishes through the rebirth. But it is important to understand that God's moral law is in no way done away with. There is still a standard of righteousness that must be met. The problem with the old covenant is that righteousness could not be achieved by keeping rules and regulations. The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 8:6-7:

"But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another."

In a nutshell, the Ten Commandments have been replaced by something that is much better.

The Old Covenant Sabbath Observance Was a Shadow of The New.

The old covenant Sabbath was an observance that was repeated every week. It hearkened back to creation where it tells us that after the 6 days of creating God rested on the seventh day and set it apart. God did not rest because he was tired. He rested because his work was finished. In Exodus 31:13 it explains that the Sabbath was a sign to the Israelites.

“Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy."

The purpose of this sign was to remind them of who God was and it was HE who made them holy.

The Sabbath in Hebrews 4 has a similar reference to the creation:

"Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” (10)for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience." - Hebrews 4:3‭-‬4‭, ‬10‭-‬11 NIV

It is important to note that when God rested on the seventh day he didn't go back to work creating on the next day. His work was finished. And we must finish our work just as He did his. Someone once told me that when the new covenant came into reality it wasn't the Sabbath that was done away, it was the other six days. When we are saved we enter His rest. Unlike the Israelites who went back to doing THEIR work on the first day of the week and repeated the cycle, we FINISH our work and rest in Him. 

That is the reality of the Sabbath.

May God richly bless you all and may you enter his rest.