Author : David Tant
(1) The Sabbath was given only to Israel. During the Patriarchal Age, there is no command or example of people observing the Sabbath as a religious requirement, and no penalty is mentioned for not observing the Sabbath. During the Mosaical Age, we have all three—commands, examples of observance and a penalty for failing to keep the Sabbath. The penalty? “So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Num. 15:36). His crime? He had gathered wood on the Sabbath. During the New Testament age—no command, example or penalty. Note also that this penalty of “stoning” is said to be a part of the “ceremonial” law or Law of Moses. Yet this passage said it is a commandment of the Lord. Therefore, by the reasoning of the Sabbatarians, those who break the Sabbath today should be stoned to death. If not, why not?
The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel, commemorating their deliverance from Egypt. In the midst of giving the Ten Commandments, we have these words in Deuteronomy 5:15: “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.” (Cf. Ex. 20:2) The same thought is expressed in Nehemiah 9:13-14: “Then You came down on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. So You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law, Through Your servant Moses.” Note that the Law was given on Sinai when they came out of Egypt, not before—not with their fathers.
In the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5, note what was said about the covenant: “The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today” (5:2-3). If the Ten Commandment covenant was not made with their fathers, then the Sabbath commandment was not given until Moses! Therefore it was not “from the beginning.”
(2) The entire covenant ended at the cross. Earlier we noted Colossians 2:14-17, but let us be reminded again: Christ “blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.” Note further that the Sabbath day and the things associated with it are said to be a shadow of things to come, but Christ is the substance. If you see the shadow of a person coming around the corner, you know that is not the real thing. Then when the real person appears, the shadow is gone. So it is, Paul says, with the things connected with the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments.
When Solomon had completed the building of the temple, he addressed the people who had assembled for the dedication. His remarks are recorded in I Kings 8:12-21. That last verse (21), reads, “There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD, which He made with our fathers when He brought them from the land of Egypt.” What was made when Israel came out of Egypt? The “covenant of the Lord.” What was included in that covenant? The Ten Commandments — the law concerning the Sabbath.
The writer of Hebrews elaborates on the change in the covenants in Hebrews 8. “But now has he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, And I regarded them not, says the Lord” (vv. 6-9). Then v. 13: “In that he says, A new covenant he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxes aged is nigh unto vanishing away.” Who is it that made the covenant? God. And what did he say about the first covenant? He made it “old” and it was “vanishing away,” because he made a “new covenant.”
“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET’” (Romans 7:4-7). Paul says we have been “released from the Law,” meaning we are no longer bound under it. Which Law? The one that included “you shall not covet.” Which Law is that? The Ten Commandment Law! The same one that tells us to “remember the Sabbath.”
(3) Those who would be justified by the Law given on Mt. Sinai are severed from Christ and fallen from grace. “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother” (Gal. 4:21-26). Hagar represents what was given on Mt. Sinai—the Ten Commandments, and Paul says this represents slavery. Thus those who wish to be under that Law are in slavery, but Paul says there is something better—a new law coming from the Jerusalem above—heaven.
Then Galatians 5:4: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Paul is referring to the same law, the one given at Mt. Sinai, and says if we seek to be justified by it, we have fallen from grace and are cut off from Christ. Why would anyone desire that condition? Yet those who seek to bind the Sabbath are in that very situation.
(4) All commands of the Decalogue are repeated in the New Testament, as was mentioned earlier, except for the fourth command concerning the Sabbath. The first commandment is referenced some 50 times either by direct statement or by inference; the second, 12 times; the third, 4 times; the fourth, none; the fifth, 6 times; the sixth, 6 times; the seventh, 12 times; the eighth, 6 times; the ninth, 4 times; and the tenth, 9 times. Does it not seem odd that if God wanted Christians to observe the Sabbath, he would have communicated that to the early church in some manner? Yes, the Sabbath is mentioned many times, but not once are Christians commanded to observe it. Yet, in the Old Testament there are many ways in which God expressed his desire for the Jews to keep this day.
