SABBATH

DEFINITIONS OF LAW AND GRACE

LAW – the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

The word for law in the OT is torah. Torah usually refers to what human beings are commanded to do. Generally speaking, when we think of the law, we think of the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Does anyone know what the first commandment was? “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…” (Genesis 2:17a). God’s commands, wherever they are found in Scripture, are His laws. THE LAW IS BASED ON WHAT MAN DOES. IT IS WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

GRACE - “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” Here’s another definition: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. GRACE IS WHAT GOD DOES. IT IS A GIFT.

Grace and works don’t go together in the sense that grace without works is insufficient. “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6). God does impart grace that enables us to do the works that He has called us to. “And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8, NLT)

The answer to the question of whether we are under law or grace is found in the very first book in the Bible, Genesis 2:2-3: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” It had to do with the Sabbath.

To gain a clearer understanding of the biblical meaning of Sabbath I will use the law of first mention, that scholars of the Bible use for studying Scripture. The law of first mention states that, “To understand a particular word or doctrine, we must find the first place in Scripture that word or doctrine is revealed and study that passage. The reasoning is that the Bibles first mention of a concept is the simplest and clearest presentation; doctrines are then more fully developed on that foundation. So, to fully understand important and complex theological concepts, Bible students are advised to start with its first mention.”

The first mention of the Sabbath in the Bible is Genesis 2:3, “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

“The actual word for rested in Hebrew is “shabath;” hence Sabbath, the name of the seventh day, signifying a day of rest” (Clarke Commentary).

We understand by reading through the Old Testament how the Jews observed the Sabbath. The question at hand for us is how does the definition of Sabbath apply to us as New Testament Christians? Does it mean the same thing for us as it did for the Jews?

I believe the best way to determine that is through typology. The simplest, and best definition that I found of typology was on gotquestions.org. “Typology is a special kind of symbolism. (A symbol is something that represents something else.) We can define a type as a ‘prophetic symbol’ because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in Scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament that foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament."

The first Sabbath mentioned in Gen. 2:3 Is a type or “foreshadowing” of what was to come. I see the purpose of God declaring a Sabbath as threefold.

1. God created us in such a way that we needed a day of rest, in order for our bodies to recuperate from six days of work.

2. God wanted the Israelite's, and in the future, all men, to remember that He created all things, and He is God. God didn't rest because He was tired. He is all powerful. When He created everything His power never diminished, not one iota. Thus, He rested on the third day as a reminder to man that He was the one who created everything. When we honor the Sabbath we remember why we are to rest and not work.

3. Because he rested from all His works of creation on the seventh day, He was looking forward to the day when all who believed in Him and would enter into his eternal rest. He was looking forward to the day when we would rest from “our works.”

Here is the glorious truth for us as Christians today: “Christ is our Sabbath!” When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan river, John protested that he was the one that needed to be baptized. Jesus said, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus, by living a life free from sin, completely satisfied the requirements of the Law. When we received Christ as our savior, His righteousness was imputed to us, and we now rest (Sabbath) from our works (the Law), and rest in His completed work.

The third commandment says, “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.” When we honor the Lord by the way we live our lives in worship of Him, we are honoring the Sabbath, our Savior. There is the present-tense that we have already entered our Sabbath/rest (Christ), and a future-tense when we will enter our eternal Sabbath/rest (heaven).

“The old system of living under the law presented us with only a faint shadow, a crude outline of the reality of the wonderful blessings to come. Even with a steady stream of sacrifices offered year after year, there was still nothing that could make our hearts perfect before God. And then he said, God, I will be the one to go and do your will. So, by being the sacrifice that removes sin, he abolishes sacrifices and replaces that entire system with the new covenant. By God’s will we have been purified and made holy once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus the Messiah!” (Heb. 10:1,9-10,26-27, emphasis added).

“For this old pattern of worship was a matter of external rules and rituals concerning food and drink and ceremonial washings which was imposed upon us until the appointed time of heart-restoration had arrived. Under the old covenant the blood of bulls, of goats, and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on those who were defiled and effectively cleansed them outwardly from their ceremonial impurities. Yet how much more will the sacred blood of the Messiah thoroughly cleanse our consciences! For by the power of the eternal spirit he has offered himself to God as the perfect sacrifice that now frees us from our dead works to worship and serve the living God. So, Jesus is the one who enacted a new covenant with a new relationship with God so that those who accept the invitation will receive the eternal inheritance he has promised to his heirs. For he died to release us from the guilt of the violations committed under the first covenant" (Heb. 9:10,13-15, emphasis added).

In the first covenant, man was made righteous through obeying the law - by works. In the new covenant we are made righteous through Christ’s work – by faith. He has freed us from our works, and we are now resting (observing Sabbath) in His work of salvation on the cross. That is why we, as Christians, have set aside Sunday as our day of rest (Sabbath), not as the Jews do, on Saturday. It is a type (reminder) of what Christ did when He arose from the grave, victorious over death, hell, and the grave. And when He ascended into heaven, He entered into His eternal rest. He foreshadowed what we, as His bride, will do when we go either by the grave, or when He returns for us. So, every time we observe Sunday, we are looking forward to entering into our eternal rest, just as He did.

When God called Israel out of Egypt it was a symbol (type) of God calling us out of this world. And when He attempted to lead them into the promised land under Moses’ leadership, the promised land was a symbol of heaven.

That’s why the writer of Hebrews says this: “Now the promise of entering God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it. For we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did, yet they didn’t join their faith with the word. Instead, what they heard didn’t affect them deeply, for they doubted. For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise, and we experience the realm of confident rest! For he has said, ‘I was grieved with them and made a solemn oath, they will not enter into my rest. God’s works have all been completed from the foundation of the world, for it says in the Scriptures, and on the seventh day God rested from all his works. And again, as stated before, they will not enter into my rest.’ Those who first heard the good news of deliverance failed to enter into that realm of faith-rest because of their unbelieving hearts. Yet the fact remains that we still have the opportunity to enter into the faith-rest life and experience the fulfillment of the promise! For God still has ordained a day for us to enter into called Today. For it was long afterwards that God repeated it in David’s words, ‘If only today you would listen to his voice and do not harden your hearts!’ Now, if this promise of rest was fulfilled when Joshua brought the people into the land, God wouldn’t have spoken later of another rest yet to come. So we conclude that there is still a full and complete Sabbath rest within for believers to experience. As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates his finished works and rests in them. So then we must be eager to experience this faith rest-life, so that no one falls short by following the same pattern of doubt and unbelief” (Heb. 4:1-11, TPT, emphasis added).

As I was reading this again, I saw something in the highlighted verse which I had never seen before. Just a reminder, the Sabbath was a type (symbol) of something/someone to come in the future.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. The Hebrew word for holy is “set apart.” The seventh day of creation was different from all the other days. It was set apart. 1 Samuel 2:2 says, “No one is holy like the LORD! There is no one besides you…”. Hebrews 12:14 says, “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Sabbath = holy. Christ = holy. Christ was God clothed in the flesh. There was no one more holy than Him. Without Him no one will see God.

The writer to the Hebrews, in the passage above was speaking of the Sabbath/rest and he now renames the Sabbath “Today.” By saying this he is saying that the day we put our faith in Jesus, that day (Today), becomes our Sabbath. Jesus has become our “Today,” so every day is our Sabbath/rest day, for we are to honor our Lord and Savior every day. Every day for us is holy unto the Lord. We find our rest in Him every day.

There’s something we dare not miss here. There is something we must do every day to truly enter into His rest. The Old Covenant (Law) required a Whole–Burnt--Offering to be sacrificed every morning and evening. The reason “whole” is added is because other offerings were offered on the altar but not the entire animal. In Ezra, chapter 3, the Israelite's have returned to Jerusalem after 70 years exile in Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple. The very first thing they did was to build an altar (killing place). The priests could not enter the temple until atonement was made for their sins through the sacrifice laid upon the altar.

2 Timothy 3:1-2,4 says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves…rather than lovers of God.” If ever there was a strong sign that we are living in the last days, it is found in this passage of Scripture. We have a relatively new word for it. We take “selfies.” We like to think that "people will be lovers of themselves" is speaking of the world, and it is. But sadly, all too often, believers are consumed with self too. It has grieved me greatly that many of my “Christian” friends live a lifestyle, for the most part, hardly any different from the world. They sleep around, use vulgar language, and pretty much do what pleases the flesh. They justify their actions because they have needs. That’s the way God made them. They love themselves more than they love God and His Word. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Self is on the throne of their hearts.

Here's the truth that many have forgotten today. God doesn’t share His throne with anybody. We don’t sit with Him on His throne until we get to heaven.

There is one part of the Old Covenant that resembles very closely what we as Christians have to do today if we are going to daily enjoy His rest. Paul gives us the secret to living every day in the rest Jesus has provided us in Romans 8:36: “As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’” We have to come to the killing place, where we kill self: self-love, self-focus, self-esteem, self-will, self-righteousness.

First Corinthians 15:31 says, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (NASB). “I die daily” echoes Jesus’ command to those who want to follow Him: “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

The Jewish day was computed from sunset to sunset. The approach of the Sabbath, and then it’s actual commencement, were announced by three-fold blasts from the priest’s trumpets. The first three blasts were blown when one-third of the evening sacrifice was over, about the 9th hour, that is, abut 3pm on Friday. When the priest’s sounded their trumpets for the first time, all business was to cease, and every kind of work to be stopped. Do you remember another time in Scripture when the 9th hour is mentioned specifically? (The Temple – Edersheim) It was at the 9th hour that on the cross, Jesus cried out “IT IS FINISHED.” His work was done. When we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, our works are done.

This saying of Jesus, in light of these passages, takes on a whole new meaning for me: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28, NIV).