Sabbath for the Christian

11.24.09
J.A. Matteson

"Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you." Deuteronomy 5:12

The spiritual significance of Sabbath for the Christian is summed up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The origin of the Hebrew word Sabbath is sabbat from the toot bat which means to cease or to rest. At Mt. Sinai the Lord delivered His covenant to Israel and codified the idea of Sabbath introduced earlier, “Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning" (Ex. 16:22).

At this time Israel understood the Sabbath as integral to the Lords act of creation where on the seventh day of creation He rested, and the imago dei in man required His people to rest as He rested as a perpetual reminder of His governance and provision, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex. 20:11). In this passage from Deuteronomy Moses restates the covenant to Israel given by the Lord at Mt. Sinai, but this time in the broader context he mentions Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage as the basis for the Sabbath observance, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deut. 5:15).

For the nation of Israel they understood Sabbath as the perpetual reminder of the Lord’s act of creation of the heavens and the earth and His delivering them from Egyptian bondage. The early church began meeting on the first day of the week, Sunday, rather than the last day of the week, Saturday, which had been the traditional day of Sabbath observance for the Jews in accordance to the Decalogue and the reason for this change is wrapped up in the theological significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of the Son of God signified that His atoning work on the cross was acceptable to the Father to save His people from their bondage to sin, being new creations in Christ Jesus to the glory of the Father. The description of Christians as those who are “in Christ” is a summary statement of their redemption whereby they are elected in Christ, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4), justified, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), sanctified, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….” (1 Cor. 1:2), and glorified, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:30).

The tie for the believer between the Lord’s Day of resurrection (Sunday) and the Sabbath is two fold: first, the believer is a new creation in Christ Jesus, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17); second, the believer as a new creation has been set free from the bondage of sin and death, “…and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). The old covenant understanding of Sabbath anchored in the six days of creation and deliverance from Egyptian bondage foreshadowed the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The resurrection speaks to both the Father’s approval of the Son’s atoning death for His people and to the reality of their spiritual resurrection/creation to new life in Christ Jesus.

With the resurrection the old covenant of the Law became obsolete, giving way to a new covenant—a better covenant (Heb. 7:22)--of grace with the Law of God written on the heart. The early church established the pattern of meeting for worship and Sabbath rest on the Lord’s Day in commemoration of His completed work of atonement, recognizing that in Christ they were literally new creations, set free from bondage to sin and death.

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