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Is the Sabbath Binding
on Christians Today?
by John MacArthur
It is believed that the Old Testament regulations
governing Sabbath observances are ceremonial, not moral, aspects of the law.
As such, they are no longer in force, but have passed away along with the sacrificial
system, the Levitical priesthood, and all other aspects of Moses' law that prefigured
Christ. Here are the reasons we hold this view.
- In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul explicitly
refers to the Sabbath as a shadow of Christ, which is no longer binding
since the substance (Christ) has come. It is quite clear in those verses
that the weekly Sabbath is in view. The phrase "a festival or a new
moon or a Sabbath day" refers to the annual, monthly, and weekly holy
days of the Jewish calendar (cf. 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 31:3;
Ezekiel 45:17; Hosea 2:11). If Paul were referring to special ceremonial
dates of rest in that passage, why would he have used the word "Sabbath?"
He had already mentioned the ceremonial dates when he spoke of festivals
and new moons.
- The Sabbath was the sign to Israel of
the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 31:16-17; Ezekiel 20:12; Nehemiah 9:14). Since
we are now under the New Covenant (Hebrews 8), we are no longer required
to observe the sign of the Mosaic Covenant.
- The New Testament never commands Christians
to observe the Sabbath.
- In our only glimpse of an early church
worship service in the New Testament, the church met on the first day of
the week (Acts 20:7).
- Nowhere in the Old Testament are the Gentile
nations commanded to observe the Sabbath or condemned for failing to do
so. That is certainly strange if Sabbath observance were meant to be an
eternal moral principle.
- There is no evidence in the Bible of anyone
keeping the Sabbath before the time of Moses, nor are there any commands
in the Bible to keep the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai.
- When the Apostles met at the Jerusalem
council (Acts 15), they did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers.
- The apostle Paul warned the Gentiles about
many different sins in his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was never
one of them.
- In Galatians 4:10-11, Paul rebukes the
Galatians for thinking God expected them to observe special days (including
the Sabbath).
- In Romans 14:5, Paul forbids those who
observe the Sabbath (these were no doubt Jewish believers) to condemn those
who do not (Gentile believers).
- The early church fathers, from Ignatius
to Augustine, taught that the Old Testament Sabbath had been abolished and
that the first day of the week (Sunday) was the day when Christians should
meet for worship (contrary to the claim of many seventh-day sabbatarians
who claim that Sunday worship was not instituted until the fourth century).
- Sunday has not replaced Saturday as the
Sabbath. Rather the Lord's Day is a time when believers gather to commemorate
His resurrection, which occurred on the first day of the week. Every day
to the believer is one of Sabbath rest, since we have ceased from our spiritual
labor and are resting in the salvation of the Lord (Hebrews 4:9-11).
So while we still follow the pattern of designating
one day of the week a day for the Lord's people to gather in worship, we do
not refer to this as "the Sabbath."
John Calvin took a similar position. He wrote,
There were three reasons for giving
this [fourth] commandment: First, with the seventh day of rest the Lord
wished to give to the people of Israel an image of spiritual rest, whereby
believers must cease from their own works in order to let the Lord work
in them. Secondly, he wished that there be an established day in which believers
might assemble in order to hear his Law and worship him. Thirdly, he willed
that one day of rest be granted to servants and to those who live under
the power of others so that they might have a relaxation from their labor.
The latter, however, is rather an inferred than a principal reason.
As to the first reason, there is no doubt
that it ceased in Christ; because he is the truth by the presence of which
all images vanish. He is the reality at whose advent all shadows are abandoned.
Hence St. Paul (Col. 2:17) affirms that the sabbath has been a shadow of
a reality yet to be. And he declares else-where its truth when in the letter
to the Romans, ch. 6:8, he teaches us that we are buried with Christ in
order that by his death we may die to the corruption of our flesh. And this
is not done in one day, but during all the course of our life, until altogether
dead in our own selves, we may be filled with the life of God. Hence, superstitious
observance of days must remain far from Christians.
The two last reasons, however, must not
be numbered among the shadows of old. Rather, they are equally valid for
all ages. Hence, though the sabbath is abrogated, it so happens among us
that we still convene on certain days in order to hear the word of God,
to break the [mystic] bread of the Supper, and to offer public prayers;
and, moreover, in order that some relaxation from their toil be given to
servants and workingmen. As our human weakness does not allow such assemblies
to meet every day, the day observed by the Jews has been taken away (as
a good device for eliminating superstition) and another day has been destined
to this use. This was necessary for securing and maintaining order and peace
in the Church.
As the truth therefore was given to the
Jews under a figure, so to us on the contrary truth is shown without shadows
in order, first of all, that we meditate all our life on a perpetual sabbath
from our works so that the Lord may operate in us by his spirit; secondly,
in order that we observe the legitimate order of the Church for listening
to the word of God, for admin-istering the sacraments, and for public prayers;
thirdly, in order that we do not oppress inhumanly with work those who are
subject to us. [From Instruction
in Faith, Calvin's own 1537
digest of the Institutes, sec. 8, "The Law of the Lord"].
For further study:
D.A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord's
Day (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982).
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