Are Christians Expected to Keep the Sabbath?

“Are most Christians being disobedient about the Sabbath? Recently I met some people from the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They claim that Saturday is the true Sabbath day, not Sunday. That’s why they hold their church services on Saturday. They even have Sabbath School instead of Sunday School.”

Let’s quickly deal with the easy part of the question. Then we’ll get into the heart of it. For the record, Saturday is the Sabbath day, not Sunday. The Seventh Day Adventists are correct about the day. However, we’re avoiding an even more obvious question: So what? It’s not as if we are getting a new revelation here. Those who worship on Sunday are already very aware that the original Jewish Sabbath was on Saturday. They know this even if they go their whole lives without meeting a Seventh Day Adventist. They do not worship on Sunday because they are confused as to what day of the week it is. They worship on Sunday because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. There is no command in the New Testament as to what day one must go to church. It just so happens that Sunday was chosen for a particular reason and this tradition has remained.

Now, it’s true that sometimes Christians (aware that Saturday is the Sabbath) still incorrectly refer to Sunday as a Sabbath. I say incorrectly because Sunday is anything but a day of rest and that is what the original Sabbath was about, rest. True, it was meant to be a day of reflection as well, but primarily the Sabbath was a day when people stopped working.

“For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD.” Ex. 31:15

Is Sunday a restful day for your pastor? It’s probably his busiest day of the week. Is he being a bad example by “working hard” in front of us? What about the rest of the staff? What about the deacons, the Sunday School teachers, the ushers, those who work in the nursery? In fact, to any church member, Sunday is not supposed to be a passive experience but very active with heart felt worship, meaningful fellowship and interaction, even the confession of sins. Is this a rest? If you think it is, I hope I never go on a vacation with you. On my day off, I lay on the beach. I don’t go to church. In fact, on my day off, I can think of about a hundred things I’d rather do than go to church.

OK, now that we’ve straightened out which day the Sabbath comes on, let’s press forward to what was probably the heart of the surface question: Are Christians commanded to obey the Sabbath Day whatever day of the week it is?

They are not! Jesus came to offer a New Covenant.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17).

As Christians we are no longer under the law, but rather, a fulfillment of the law. What does this mean exactly? In what way is the law fulfilled? To start with, instead of outward commands, God offers us a relationship with His Spirit who changes our hearts and makes us (hopefully) so loving that we no longer need commands such as “Don’t Kill” or “Don’t Steal” or Don’t Mess Around With Your Neighbor’s Wife.” If we are already loving, if we are already unselfish, if we are already treating people the way we want to be treated, those incentives will come naturally.

“In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. For this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).

We call this a fulfillment of the Moral Law. The other part of the law, Ritual Law, was fulfilled through Jesus’ death on the cross. The animal sacrifices of old were a foreshadowing of what Jesus would later do for all people. The blood of lambs and bulls provided a picture of atonement so that people needing to be saved by Jesus could be saved before He even came.

Admittedly, there is some confusion and controversy over exactly what kind of law the Sabbath was, ritual or moral. I would place it in the category of a ritual, such as, other commanded feasts and holy days. But wherever we anchor this custom, it is undeniable that the Sabbath was a part of the Mosaic Law one way or the other and this law has been fulfilled by Jesus who asks us to live under the New Covenant.

When people like the Seventh Day Adventists single out a command such as the Sabbath as a law that we must continue to honor, they open a whole new can of worms that Paul addressed when he wrote the Galatians. The Galatians had isolated circumcision as a practice to continue, even under the New Covenant. Paul told them that if they were going to return to the law they must embrace the entire law (Gal 5:3). They could not cherry pick the ones they wanted and ignore all the others. Nobody today, claiming to follow the law, takes Paul’s words to heart.

Oddly enough, The Seventh Day Adventists themselves serve as the greatest example of the irony. Have they returned to the animal sacrifices (almost half of the laws)? Of course not. But they have added a new a prohibition against eating meat. Yes, my Adventist friends are vegetarians! This is somewhat perplexing in as much as meat was not only allowed in the Old Testament but actually commanded in certain feasts like the Passover. So why aren’t they honoring that part of the law?

But I don’t want to address this question through arguments of logic or consistency alone. The scripture actually settles the issue quite clearly:

Col 2:16-17

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

It is difficult to hold on to some kind of New Testament Sabbath command after reading a verse like this.

“But now I’m more confused than ever. I can understand how Jesus fulfilled animal sacrifices. That makes sense. I can also see how the Holy Spirit put God’s law in our hearts, fulfilling the Moral Law. But how did Jesus fulfill the Sabbath?”

That’s an excellent question and the book of Hebrews provides a long, detailed, complicated answer. Relax. Here are the cliff notes:

Originally it was God who rested from creation on the seventh day. To some of the ancient Rabbis, this did not mean a literal 24-hour day. They believed that the seventh day, or Sabbath Day, continues and that enjoying God’s creation is an ongoing, non-stop celebration of the Sabbath Day.

Had life remained a paradise, this rest, or celebration, would have been easier to understand. Unfortunately, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, everything changed, including the world itself.

Rom 8:20-21
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

When Jesus returns, He will restore the world to the Garden of Eden type paradise it once was. This means enjoying the Sabbath and living in God’s kingdom are one and the same thing. Christ has not returned yet, but He does offer a relationship with you now, a relationship in which the kingdom of God can rule in your heart and give you peace. This experience, according the author of Hebrews, provides a sample or foreshadowing of Christ’s future kingdom. He called it “tasting of the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:5).

In short, being delivered from sin, placed in harmony with God’s kingdom, His rule and His paradise creation, is the authentic way to experience the Sabbath. It’s true that God also gave the ancient Hebrews a day of the week that looked toward this, a day to rest from their labors and meditate more on Him. This is still a good idea as far as practical advice goes, but there is no longer any commandment or any holiness associated with a particular day of the week. What is special, is resting from our own labors and basking in our relationship with the Spirit of God who gives us a sample of what it will be like when the whole world is restored to God’s Paradise, also called God’s Sabbath.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE

New International Version NIV

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.