“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11
How shall we understand the relationship between the seventh day Sabbath and the first day Sabbath? The London Baptist Confession 1689 explains this in the following words: (The Westminster Confession is very much the same.)
(Chapt. 22, Par. 7) It is the law of nature that in general, a portion of time specified by God should be set apart for the worship of God. So by His Word, in a positive-moral and perpetual commandment that obligates everyone in every age, He has specifically appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy to Him. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, the appointed day was the last day of the week. After the resurrection of Christ it was changed to the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day. This day is to be kept to the end of the age as the Christian Sabbath, since the observance of the last day of the week has been abolished.
Did you read it? Did you notice the parts I underlined? Let me comment on these each in turn:
The law of nature is a reference to the fact that the Sabbath was ordained, blessed, and hallowed by God from creation. The Sabbath is a creation mandate.
The Sabbath is a positive-moral and perpetual commandment that obligates everyone in every age. The Sabbath is a creation mandate, for all people throughout all of time. It is not merely Jewish law, nor exclusively a Christian precept.
The Sabbath is to be observed on one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy to Him. The word Sabbath does not refer to which day, but to one day in seven set apart for rest and worship.
From creation forward to the resurrection of Christ, the appointed day was the last day of the week. Those living under the Old Covenant observed the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week, our modern Saturday. The seventh day aspect of the historic Sabbath was exclusively for the Jewish religion and nation.
After the resurrection of Christ it was changed to the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day. Since the resurrection of Christ, the day was changed, but the Sabbath remained. Why? To commemorate not merely God’s finished work of creation, but Christ’s finished work of salvation. The seventh day commemorated the original creation, and the first day (the Lord’s Day) commemorates the new creation in Christ. Beginning in Acts and the New Testament epistles, the day of Sabbath worship for Christian rest and worship has been the Lord’s Day, Sunday. Every Sunday (not just Easter) is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection!
The Lord’s Day, observed on the first day of the week, is to be kept to the end of the age as the Christian Sabbath. Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, and it will be until Christ comes again.
Observing the Sabbath on Saturday, the last day of the week has been abolished. The only aspect of the Old Testament Sabbath that has been rendered obsolete by the resurrection of Christ, is observing it in the seventh day.
More on this next time…