The Creation of our world
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3), therefore God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, and he called it “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:8-11).
For about four thousand years this day was kept holy by the faithful people of God. But if you ask Christians today why they do not keep the Sabbath holy, they generally answer: “We do not observe the Sabbath because it is Jewish. We honor Sunday, the first day of the week, because the day of rest was transferred from the seventh day to the first day of the week – Sunday.” But this notion is not Biblical and it is not based on the gospel. The seventh day, Sabbath, is God’s day of rest that was blessed and made holy in the Garden of Eden, before the fall of man. This day was observed and kept holy by all the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets.
The Sabbath was sanctified before the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, when God gave the two tables of stone that contained the Ten Commandments which were written by the finger of God.
The giving of the Law from Sinai
Through the Fourth Commandment, God explicitly declared that the Sabbath must be kept holy.
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8-11.
The Fourth Commandment is the last commandment that was written on the first table of stone, containing the duties of man to God.
Just as the other nine commandments were written by God (Ex. 24:12; Deut. 5:22), so the Fourth Commandment was also written by Him. The Law of God is holy, “the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12.
David says: “ The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes… Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Ps. 19:7-11.
The psalmist says: “Thy law is the truth.” “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Ps. 119:142; 165.
The Sabbath – a perpetual sign between God and His people
Those who love God and his holy law will not consider the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment to be a stumbling stone, but – on the contrary – they will consider it to be a sign between them and God who sanctifies them.
They will celebrate the Sabbath according to the commandment, having faith in God, as an everlasting covenant which will be kept also in the new earth. Ex. 31:12-18, Ezek. 20:12, 20; Isaiah 56:1-4, 6; Isaiah 58:13-14; Isaiah 66:22-23.
Some may say that when we keep the seventh day, the Sabbath, we observe a “Jewish” Sabbath. Yet we must not forget that we do not have any other Savior than Christ who said that the Sabbath is made for man, meaning for all people, and that he is the Lord of the Sabbath. In other words, Jesus says that the Sabbath has a lord over it, and this lord is not Moses, but Jesus Christ.
This day of rest was meant to provide rest from the daily labors of man and to provide an opportunity for him to have a closer communion with his God – the Creator of heaven and earth, of whom this special day testifies.
Here Christ doesn’t say: “The Sabbath was made for the Jew only.” But he speaks for man in general. In his life on earth, Christ honored the Sabbath. In the Gospel of Mark, we are told:
“And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” Mark 1:21-22.
Jesus observed the Sabbath
According to Luke 4:16-31, Jesus would usually read the word on the Sabbath day. When Christ, before his death, described all the disasters that would come (according to the prophecy of Deut. 28:47-57) upon Jerusalem as a result of the wickedness of its inhabitants, he told his disciples: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day…” Matt. 24:20.
Here Jesus gave counsel not to the Jews but to his disciples who believed in him. He prophesied about the terrible siege of Jerusalem that took place in 70 A.D. Jesus wished peace and rest to his disciples on the Sabbath. On the day of his earthly life, Christ was condemned and crucified.
On Friday, when he was on the cross, Jesus cried: “It is finished!” (John 19:30), and his body was laid in the tomb because that Sabbath was a high day (John 19:31).
Jesus suffered and gave his life for us on Friday, for the redemption of mankind from sin. On that day he said: “It is finished!” On the seventh day, he rested in the grave. On the other hand, Luke 23:56 talks about those who were his followers, and says that “they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment”. They rested on the Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue.
The immutability of the Law of God
Today many think that Christ, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, changed the observance of the seventh day Sabbath with an observance of the day on which he was resurrected. This is what many people preach, but Jesus knew beforehand that such a notion would prevail, and to prevent this, he said:
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17-18.
Regardless of this clear counsel by which Jesus assures them that he has not come to change the law, they still think that he has changed the Fourth Commandment. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples for forty days with many faithful testimonies and he spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, but he never told them about any change in the Fourth Commandment.
The apostles kept the Sabbath
After receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostles went forth with great power and preached among the people of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead, and they did this on the Sabbath day.
Of Paul and Barnabas, we read: “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.” Acts 13:14.
In his sermon, Paul said that the prophetic writings were read every Sabbath (verse 27). And when he finished his sermon, the Gentiles pleaded with him to preach to them also these words on the next Sabbath (verse 42).
“And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” Acts 13:44.
In Acts 16:13 we read: “And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.”
Here we see worship and this was done on the Sabbath of the Lord. Acts 17:2 says: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures…” This verse informs us that Paul preached on the Sabbath, “as his manner was”, or as it was customary for him, just as Christ did. See Luke 4:16.
When Paul arrived at Corinth, he met Aquilla and there “he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Acts 18:4. In verse 11, we read: “And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”
Here we see how Paul was working with his hands to earn his daily bread, and every Sabbath he preached the Word. The account is given here of 78 Sabbaths which Paul observed. But nowhere does the Bible say that he kept the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection.
In 54 A.D. Paul wrote the following declaration, in his epistle to the Hebrews: “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” Heb. 4:4. And in verse 10 he said: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Here Paul called the seventh day Sabbath a “rest” for the Christians.
In verse 11 he urged the faithful with these words: “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” And in verse 9 he says: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” “Rest” is what the word “Sabbath” means.
Yet many people say: “We cannot know for certain which rest Paul talks about.” The apostle speaks here of the holy rest of the Lord – the Sabbath. See Exodus 16:21-30.
The Word of God says very clearly which day we are to keep holy – not the first day but the seventh day of the week – the Sabbath of the Lord. The apostle wrote his epistle tens of years after the resurrection of Christ and he expressed the desire that those who believed in Christ would enter by faith in God’s rest, i.e. sanctify the Sabbath.
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