by Bob Totterer

Created on: November 12, 2008

The scriptural teaching concerning the Sabbath places that special day after six days of labor. The twentieth chapter of Exodus goes on to state that God created the heavens and earth in six days, resting on the seventh. There should be no doubt, then, that the Sabbath day is, as it ever was, the seventh day. The controversy arises over its religious significance and observance. The Jewish faith and certain Christian denominations still adhere to the seventh day. But since the Sabbath is generally linked to corporate worship, and since Roman Catholics and most evangelical Christians worship on Sundays, the Hebrew Sabbath was eventually "Christianized" and moved to the first day of the week.

The Sunday Sabbath is a misapplied Christian adaptation of an Old Testament Jewish law. It is the marriage of the Old Testament admonition to keep the Sabbath holy and the New Testament teaching to not forsake the Christian assembly. It was the custom for early Christians to gather together for worship on the first day of the week, which they called "The Lord's Day". It was so named because that was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Matthew's gospel, chapter twenty-eight, tells us that this day dawned after the Sabbath had ended. Therefore, we know that the apostles of Christ were not confused regarding the Sabbath. It was still the seventh day, though they now gathered together on the first day of the week in commemoration of Christ's resurrection. Nowhere in the New Testament is the first day of the week referred to as being the Sabbath.

It is important to understand that many of the events and teachings of the Old Testament, though truly having occurred as written, were also types and shadows of greater spiritual realities which would ultimately find fulfillment in Christ. The Sabbath is one such teaching. God rested from His labors on the seventh day, not in the sense that He was exhausted and needed a breather, but in the sense that He brought His labors to an end. The Sabbath rest, then, is a commemoration of ceasing from labor. In the book of Hebrews, chapter four, one may find the true spiritual significance and application for this great doctrine in the Christian faith. Just as God rested from His labors when they were complete, there remains a rest for the people of God who have ceased in their attempts to satisfy Him through their own labors. These "rest" in Christ and trust in the work He finished in their behalf on the cross at Golgotha. The true Sabbath rest, then, is the believer's testimony that he cannot redeem his own soul through righteous works, but rests instead on the finished work of Christ.

Suffice it to say that the Sabbath, like the rest of the Law of Moses, was fulfilled by Christ and does not require physical observance by the faithful. Furthermore, corporate worship on Sunday does not constitute the keeping of the Sabbath and should not be so misconstrued. Christians should view the seventh day as representing their freedom from the works of the Law and the first day of the week as representing their resurrection to new life in Christ. The two coexist perfectly and there should all controversy end.

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