- THE FULFILMENT OF THE SABBATH
Firstly, why don’t we, as Christians observe the seventh day as our day of rest, as God commanded in Genesis 2:2? How did Sunday observance originate?
In the 4th Century AD, during the reign of Constantine, he tried to eradicate the Jewish roots of Christianity including the Sabbath as the Christians’ day of rest.
“Sunday actually made very little headway as a Christian day of rest until the time of Constantine in the fourth century. Constantine was emperor of Rome from AD 306 to 337. He was a sun worshiper during the first years of his reign. Later, he professed conversion to Christianity, but at heart remained a devotee of the sun. Edward Gibbon says, “The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.”
Constantine created the earliest Sunday law known to history in AD 321. It says this:
On the venerable Day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits: because it often happens that another Day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting: lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.
Following this initial legislation, both emperors and Popes in succeeding centuries added other laws to strengthen Sunday observance. What began as a pagan ordinance ended as a Christian regulation. Close on the heels of the Edict of Constantine followed the Catholic Church Council of Laodicea (circa 364 AD):
Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday (Sabbath), but shall work on that Day: but the Lord’s Day, they shall especially honour; and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.”
(http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-Sabbath_change_Constantine)
Did Jesus keep the Sabbath and why?
This is a very broad subject which we cannot deal with in detail here. The gospels make it clear that Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the Law, including the Sabbath, but not the requirements of the religious leaders who made the Law burdensome by their petty additions.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Matthew 5:17. His intention was to show His people how to interpret and live by God’s teachings so that the world would see what God is really like.
He resisted their attempts to force their legalism on Him. He lived by His yoke – His way of interpreting the Torah, by practicing mercy, not judgment. And He could say:
“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” John 8:46.
Then why did He keep the Law when believers are no longer under the Law?
“But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons.” Galatians 4:4. Jesus did two things: He showed us how to interpret and live God’s best way according to His teachings (torah/law); and He obeyed the Law perfectly so that He could be a perfect sacrificial lamb to pay the price for our failure to keep the Law.
How does the Law apply to believers?
Jesus fulfilled the Law for us and gave us the free gift of His righteousness because we cannot obey the Law perfectly. The Law was given to expose our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves.
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Jesus cancelled the Law by His death on the cross. That means that we are no longer obliged to try to keep the Law because Jesus kept it perfectly for us and then tore it up so that it no longer becomes the standard by which we are to live.
“He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13b-15.
We no longer need the Law because the sin that the Law was intended to expose has been forgiven and removed.
“For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit to death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law, so that w
We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.’” Romans 7:5-6.
We are motivated by another law, the law of love.
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8.
“The key to understanding this issue is knowing that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel, not to Christians. Some of the laws were to reveal to the Israelites how to obey and please God (the Ten Commandments, for example). Some of the laws were to show the Israelites how to worship God and atone for sin (the sacrificial system). Some of the laws were intended to make the Israelites distinct from other nations (the food and clothing rules). None of the Old Testament law is binding on us today.
“When Jesus
died on the cross He put an end to the Old Testament law (Ephesians 2:14, 15).
“In place
of the Old Testament law, we are under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), which is to “love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind…and to love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all
that Christ requires of us: “All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). Now, this does not mean the Old Testament law is
irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the
categories of “loving God” and “loving your neighbour.”
“The Old Testament law can be a good guidepost for knowing
how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbour. At the same
time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Christians today is
incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (James 2:10). Either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ
fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, He fulfilled all of it.
“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And
his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
“The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day). Obviously, if we are loving God, we will not be worshipping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we are loving our neighbours, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them.
“The purpose of the Old Testament law is to convict people of our inability to keep the law and point us to our need for Jesus Christ as Saviour (Romans 7:7-9; Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament law was never intended by God to be the universal law for all people for all of time. We are to love God and love our neighbours. If we obey those two commands faithfully, we will be upholding all that God requires of us.”
(http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-law.html#ixzz2wrzUdtAJ)
How did Jesus fulfil the Sabbath?
“Is there a Sabbath after Calvary? Yes! Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “There remains then a Sabbath-rest to the people of God. For anyone that enters God’s rest, he also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” There are two words not found in those verses, “Sabbath” and “day.” It is because our rest is no longer a calendar day each week, but every day, which includes the seventh, and thus we keep the Sabbath by living a godly and blood-washed life every day. For we have ceased from our old works.
“Some people who haven’t come to an understanding of what covenant they are under will point out that Paul often went into the synagogues on the Sabbath. If we look at those incidents, however, we see that it was to bring those who hear out of the synagogue and that system of death. Here is what Paul the Apostle said about the seventh day as found in Romans 14:5-6: “One man considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does do to the Lord…”
“We know that the Sabbath law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and He abides within us. The seventh day Sabbath was not eliminated but fulfilled, and our Saviour added six more days to that rest and gave us the timelessness of eternal life. Thus, the seventh day is kept holy with all the other days. We can worship our Lord any day and every day. We know that Sunday is not the Sabbath but rather one of seven days, any of which can be used for worship.
Acts 20:7 says, “On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.”