by Kevin Morgan
When discussion about the Sabbath and its relevance to Christians today comes up, the conversation often turns to the negatives of the command. The questions that come to the minds of many are things like: What am I not allowed to do? What activities do I have to give up? How strict does my Sabbath observance have to be?
Sadly, our conversations about the Lord's Day often deteriorate into unhelpful debates over pharisaical lists of what is permissible and what is forbidden.
But Scripture presents the Sabbath very differently. God tells us in his word teaches us that he has given us this holy day of rest as a blessing, not a burden. Isaiah writes:
If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. (Is. 58:13–14)
That is the perspective we should have. The classic, confessionally Reformed understanding of the Sabbath is not that God takes something away from us on the Sabbath, but that he gives us a great blessing.
In discussing the perpetuity of the Sabbath, we must start with the fourth Commandment. Historically, Reformed churches have understood that the Fourth Commandment remains binding upon Christians.
Much more recently, some theological systems (such as Dispensationalism and New Covenant Theology) have argued otherwise. They usually claim that (1) the Sabbath command only belonged to Israel, and (2) that Christians are no longer bound to follow the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath command.
The historic Reformed position reaches a different conclusion because it understands the Ten Commandments to be a summary God's eternal and unchanging moral law. While Israel's ceremonial and civil rules have clearly ended, God's moral law reflects His own righteous character, which is unchanging. This is what is meant when Scripture repeatedly speaks of God’s law as enduring forever: "Every one of your righteous rules endures forever" (Psalm 119:160). While “endures forever” cannot be said of the rules that dictated ancient Israel’s worship (these were fulfilled by Christ), and the laws that formed their civil order (these all expired with the end of that nation), it most certainly can be said of the abiding moral standard of God which is summarized in the Ten Commandments. If this is true, then the command to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy is just as binding today as the rest of the Ten Commandments.
I will argue that the perpetuity and relevance of the Sabbath command for Christians today is seen in the fact that (1) it reflects God’s character, (2) that it is rooted in a divine pattern of work and rest, and (3) that it is further rooted in a divine pattern of redemption and rest.
The moral law didn’t start with the Ten Commandments. When God wrote them down on stone tablets, he was summarizing what had been written on the hearts of men since the creation of Adam and Eve.
One obvious example of this can be seen in the fact that murder was sinful long before Sinai. Cain’s murder of his brother Abel in Genesis 4 is condemned by God, not simply because it is one of the commandments, but because human beings bear God's image (Genesis 4; 9:6).
The same is true of the fourth commandment. The command to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy existed and was observed by Israel even before the Ten Commandments were formally codified. In Exodus 16:23, before the stone tablets were given, Moses said to the people: “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’”
Later, when the Ten Commandments are formally given in Exodus 20, the fourth commandment itself is grounded in God’s own action and example at creation, not in Israel’s history (see verses 8-11). We will turn to this pattern now.
Genesis 2:2-3 says: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
The use of the words “work” and “rest” are, I think, meant to be somewhat jarring to the reader. They should make us stop and ask “what does this mean?” If we rightly understand who the God of the Scriptures is, we know he does not “work” in the sense that he must exert effort. We also know that he does not grow weary such that he needs to rest. This language, then, must be understood figuratively. Our attention is being drawn to a divine pattern of work and rest.
Exodus 20:8-11 grounds our rest in his rest. As God worked for six days and rested for one, so too must we work and rest according to the same divine rhythm. It is worth nothing that this pattern existed even before sin entered the world. The work-rest pattern is woven into the very fabric of reality by the God who created all things.
Exodus 20:8-11 showed us that the Sabbath command is a creation ordinance. That remains true, but as the story of redemption is revealed throughout Scripture, the Sabbath command also becomes a redemptive ordinance: when God redeems His people, He brings them into His rest. This pattern can be summarized simply: God's people in God's place always receive God's rest.
The Garden
We see this pattern for the first time in Eden: God's people were Adam and Eve. God's place was the Garden. God's rest was the weekly Sabbath established at creation. As noted above, this Sabbath principle continued, even after the fall.
The Promised Land
The pattern is displayed again in Israel's redemption from Egypt. When the Ten Commandments are restated in Deuteronomy 5 to a people who have now been redeemed from slavery, there is a significant change to the Sabbath command. In Exodus 20, the Sabbath was grounded in God’s own rest at creation. Now in Deuteronomy 5, it is grounded in redemption:
"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you…. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deut. 5:12,15)
In addition to pointing back to the work-rest pattern of creation, the Sabbath now also points God's redeemed people back to the fact that He has delivered them from bondage. Just as God’s creation led to Sabbath, God’s redemption also leads to Sabbath.
The Church
The same pattern continues under the New Covenant: God's people are the Church, the whole number of the elect. God’s place is among his people gathered in local congregations. God’s rest is the Sabbath, now celebrated on the first day of the week, the day of our Lord’s resurrection: the Lord’s Day.
Just as the Sabbath was inaugurated at the first creation, the Christian Sabbath is inaugurated by Christ's resurrection, the beginning of a new creation. This is exactly what Christ brings about: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Since the resurrection on the first day of the week marks the beginning of a new creation, Christians gather on the first day of the week to honor their risen Lord by devoting themselves to worship, word and sacrament. They join with one another to hear the preaching of God's Word, pray, enjoy fellowship and to rest from ordinary labors.
The New Heavens and New Earth
The pattern of “God’s people - God’s place - God’s rest” does not end with the church. Even this is not the final Sabbath destination. Every weekly Sabbath points beyond itself to the eternal Sabbath awaiting God's people in the New Heavens and New Earth.
A full treatment of this can be found in Richard Barcellos’ book Getting the Garden Right. There, he demonstrates how Hebrews 4, rightly understood, shows us that Christ has entered His own Sabbath rest after accomplishing redemption and has given His people a weekly first-day Sabbath until He returns.
Our weekly Lord's Day is an anticipation of heaven itself. As long as God's people have not yet entered their final rest, this earthly symbol remains.
Now that we’ve established the perpetuity of the Sabbath, I want to return to the primary burden of this article: Christians should see this day as a gift, not a burden. When I share this Reformed perspective on the Sabbath with people, the response is often: “So, what are you saying I need to give up on the Sabbath?” or another common response: “What are you saying I have to do on the Sabbath?”
That is quite simply a terrible perspective. We should be asking: “What is God giving me on the Sabbath?” and “What do I get to do today?”
The Sabbath is a gracious invitation from God to us. He is inviting us to break from the burdens and responsibilities of life that we carry every other day of the week. Spend a moment thinking about your weekly responsibilities, and you will likely find that you have countless tasks, to-do lists, appointments, projects, conflicts, work-related stresses, family concerns, and health issues – all of which are important and more than enough to max out your mental capacity 24/7.
God meets you in the midst of these things and says “on my Sabbath, you can rest from that. Trust me with these burdens. I know you feel that everything will fall apart if you don’t give it your full attention, but I promise you it won’t. Trust me, rest and be renewed.”
An imperfect illustration of this can be found in the world of normal employment: some employers only ever reluctantly allow vacation and make their employees feel guilty the entire time they are away from their work. This means that even during time off, work continues to dominate their lives, and they aren’t able to truly rest at all.
On the other hand, a good employer gladly encourages their employees to take vacation time and rest assured that everything will be taken care of while they are gone. That peace and confidence allows their employees to truly rest and be renewed. Our heavenly Father is, in this imperfect illustration, the “ultimate good employer.”
On Wednesday nights at CRBC, we have been studying the Heidelberg Catechism. We recently covered question 103, which says the following:
Q. What does God require in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained and that, especially on the day of rest, I diligently attend the church of God to hear God’s Word, to use the sacraments, to call publicly upon the LORD, and to give Christian offerings for the poor.
Second, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, let the LORD work in me through his Holy Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.
This questions show us at least 10 gifts and duties God gives His people through the Sabbath:
1. The ministry of the gospel
2. The training of faithful ministers
3. Rest
4. Public worship
5. Learning God's Word
6. The sacraments
7. Prayer
8. Works of mercy
9. Growth in sanctification
10. Anticipation of eternal glory
In each their own way, these things remind us that the Lord's Day is not primarily about what Christians avoid but by what God graciously gives us. Space won’t allow for all of these to be fleshed out in one place (perhaps that will be a future series), but this article will conclude with some brief thoughts about each of them.
The Ministry of the Gospel
The gospel should, of course, be shared every time the Lord gives opportunity. Still, God has appointed a special day when His people gather to hear it, sing it and see it through the ordinary means of grace. The public preaching of God’s word by his ministers is a particularly meaningful blessing in this regard. Through it, Christ encourages believers and calls unbelievers to himself.
The Training of Ministers
The catechism's reference to maintaining "the schools" likely refers to the formal educating and training of faithful ministers. The main point is that churches need faithful pastors in order to be healthy churches, so supporting the training of pastors is part of preserving the faithful ministry of the gospel.
Rest
The Lord's Day is an intentional interruption of our ordinary weekly labors. Business, commerce, and regular employment are laid aside so that God’s people will have freedom to worship and rest. The command to rest is not meant to bind consciences with endless rules about what we can and can’t do. Rather, it reminds us that the Lord's Day belongs to God in a unique way.
Worship, Word, Sacraments, and Prayer
The heart of the Lord’s Day gathering is corporate communion with God through the ordinary means of grace. Whatever distinctive, secondary differences exist between various churches’ Lord’s Day services, we must always remember that the main thing believers gather to do is: hear His Word, receive his sacraments, pray to him, and sing his praises.
Works of Mercy
The Sabbath command does not prohibit acts of necessity or mercy. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and his disciples plucked grain to eat on the Sabbath. We must also remember our Lord’s own words: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is meant for human flourishing.
Sanctification
Believers are called to pursue holiness daily by putting off the old man with its sinful desires, and to put on the new man that is being renewed (Eph. 4:22-24), but the Lord's Day is an entire day devoted especially to that purpose. On it, the Spirit uses the ordinary means of grace to conform believers more fully to Christ.
Anticipation of Heaven
Perhaps the most beautiful and hopeful aspect of the Lord’s Day is that it points us to the eternal Sabbath to be enjoyed in the New Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21:1-4).
R. Scott Clark states beautifully: "The Lord's Day is an anticipation of being before the face of the living God... grace is restoring us and preparing us for that communion."
Every Lord's Day is a foretaste of heaven.
The Fourth Commandment is not a relic of ancient Israel nor a legalistic burden placed upon Christians. It is a gracious gift rooted in creation and redemption that should be celebrated in anticipation of the new creation.
Every week. the Lord's Day reminds us that our ultimate rest is found not in our own work, but in Christ alone.
Until we enter our eternal Sabbath rest, God graciously gives us one day in seven to worship Him, delight in him, enjoy the means of grace, and receive a foretaste of the rest that will one day be ours forever.
