Every Sunday is “Resurrection Day” not just Easter Sunday! This is why it is good and proper to set aside every Lord’s Day as a special day. It was the practice of the early Christians to meet together each week on the “first day” of the week. The Sabbath Day was changed from Saturday to Sunday and the name was also changed from the “Sabbath” to the “Lord’s Day”. Saturday had been a day primarily to celebrate God’s creation, but now God had done a work even greater than creation – that of redemption, and the resurrection of Christ was the seal and the proof of God’s work of redemption in Christ. The apostle Paul goes so far as to say that if Christ did not literally and physically rise from the dead our faith is in vain and we Christians are of all people most to be pitied. God condescended to enter time and space in order to give us “proofs” that this was true.
1 Cor 15:3-8
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” NIV
Recently I showed the movie Chariot’s of Fire to a Christian friend in his early thirties. He could not identify with the main theme of the film in which Eric Liddle thought that it would not be honoring to God to run on a Sunday in the heats for the 1924 Olympic Games. How could this be relevant to a Christian in today’s culture? Today many Christians go to church on Saturday evenings and often visit the office or see clients on Sundays. Sunday observance is now seen as “legalistic”. What has happened to change things so much in the last 80 years? If the Bible has not changed, were Christians wrong for nearly 2,000 years or are we “modern” Christians wrong?
In order to determine the answer to this question, we must first decide on our method of interpreting the Bible. Do we believe that the Bible is essentially one book and there is a continuity between the Old and New Testaments and that the principles of the O.T still apply unless specifically changed by the N.T.? Or, do we believe that everything in the Old Testament has passed away and that only those things which are specifically reaffirmed by the N.T. apply? Most Christians for nearly 2,000 years believed the former. This changed in the late nineteenth century with the coming of “dispensationalism”, which in its early years basically believed the latter. Many Christians still look at the O.T as a book for another time. I do not agree with this point of view.
1. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever (Hebrews 13:8). This means that the character of God is unchanging. For this reason orthodox Bible-believing Christianity since the Reformation has always believed that the Moral Law of God will never change, because it is a reflection of the very unchanging character of God. On the other hand, since the coming of Christ and the New Covenant, the Ceremonial Law (including the sacrificial system and the dietary laws) no longer applies. The Book of Hebrews teaches us that these ceremonial laws were looking forward to Christ’s coming, and are no longer valid now that Christ has died on the cross once and for all for our sins. Similarly, the Civil Law was only intended for ethnic national Israel during the time that Israel was a theocracy. Therefore, the Civil Law ceased to apply when Israel as a theocracy was destroyed in AD 70. This civil law may have some unchanging “principles” which are relevant for all times, but the civil law as given and applied was never intended for “The Nations” but only for Israel when it was a theocracy.
2. The question then is whether keeping the Sabbath was part of God’s Ceremonial Law or part of His Moral Law? I believe that there is no doubt whatsoever that the keeping of the Sabbath is part of the Moral Law for two reasons. First, keeping the Sabbath was a creation ordinance of God before the fall of Adam and the human race. Like marriage, sabbath-keeping was given by God before the Fall. Creation ordinances, such as Sabbath-keeping and marriage, are therefore not related to redemption, as there was no need for redemption before the fall. On the other hand, the Ceremonial Law, which is primarily concerned with redemption, was instituted after the Fall and was eventually given in written form to Moses. The second reason why I believe that sabbath-keeping is part of God’s Moral Law is that the keeping of the Sabbath is part of the Decalogue. When God gave his law to Moses, keeping the Sabbath was part of the Ten Commandments, which summarizes God’s moral law, and it was not given as part of the ceremonial or civil laws. This is fundamental. We need to understand this if we are to properly interpret the Biblical teaching on the Sabbath.
3. There is no doubt that sabbath-keeping had degenerated into a form of legalism by the time of Jesus. The Pharisees had developed a complex set of rules and regulations as to what did and did not constitute sabbath observance. Yet Jesus did not abolish the Sabbath. Instead, He authoritatively taught that the Pharisees had misinterpreted the Sabbath. Jesus taught that God had given the Sabbath for man’s benefit and not the other way around. He taught that He was Lord of the Sabbath and that works of necessity and mercy had always been permitted on the Sabbath (as far as God was concerned). Thus, Jesus affirmed the proper keeping of the Sabbath to celebrate creation and redemption as given by God and rejected the hypocritical legalism of the Pharisees.
4. Originally, the main purpose of sabbath rest was to celebrate creation. If God thought that it was right to rest after creation, then we who are made in His image also should rest from our labor. It is interesting, however, to compare the Sabbath commandment given in Exodus with the same commandment given later in Deuteronomy, which was written after the Exodus. In the Deuteronomic version, in addition to celebrating creation we are told that we are to use the Sabbath to celebrate redemption – the deliverance of God’s people out of slavery in Egypt (which represents slavery to sin) to the Promised Land (which represents freedom from sin and living in fellowship with God). I suggest that you take the time to compare Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
5. By the time that we get to the New Testament, Hebrews 4 makes it clear that when we enter into Christ by accepting Him as Lord and Savior, we enter into the Sabbath rest. Christ has now accomplished redemption and therefore we can rest in Him, and in so doing, enjoy Sabbath rest not only on the first day of the week but every day of the week. This is similar to the concept of the tithe. By giving at least one-tenth of our “first fruits” to God, we acknowledge that God is the owner of all our material possessions. In this same way, as we give over the first day of the week to God, we acknowledge that He is the Lord and owner of all our time. It is significant that the early Christians celebrated Sunday and not Saturday and changed the name to the Lord’s Day. The meaning is obvious, as the redemption achieved on the cross and sealed by the Resurrection of Christ is much more central and significant than even such a great event as creation. This is what the Hebrews passage is all about. The early Christians were simply practicing the theology of the New Covenant as opposed to the Old. This is what Eric Liddle believed. This is what I believe. The day has changed to Sunday instead of Saturday, and the name has changed from the Sabbath to “Lord’s day” but in every other regard the Sabbath principle is unchanged.
6. It is part of our moral duty to worship God on “Resurrection Day”, the first day of the week by celebrating Him as creator and primarily as redeemer and Lord. We also honor Him on the Lord’s day by doing works of mercy and necessity.
7. In this way we continue to believe that everything in the Old Testament is still applicable except in so far as it is fulfilled by the New Testament. Now that Christ has died and is risen from the dead we must live under the terms of the New Covenant which does not nullify or contradict the Old but instead fulfills it.
Isa 58:13-14
“If you keep your feet from trampling the Sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable;
and if you honor it by not going your own ways
and seeking your own pleasure or speaking merely idle words,
then you will take delight in the Lord,
and he will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;
and he will make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob, your father.
“Yes! The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (NIV)
April, 15, 2006 (slightly amended October 22, 2007)
DAVE SEIVRIGHT
