There are two areas where the Bible says we have freedom in Christ. They are what we eat and drink and whether or not we keep a day. In a previous post I discussed some basic principles for Christian liberty. This post is devoted to the question of whether or not we are to keep a day.
The phrase from Romans 14 about keeping a day is clearly about whether or not there is a Christian Sabbath which has the same regulations that the Jewish Sabbath had. First I will examine the rules governing the Jewish Sabbath. Below are some of the applicable scriptures.
Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exodus 31:12-17
12 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Exodus 35:1-3
35 And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them.
2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
Numbers 15:30-36
30 But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
31 Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.
From the above scriptures, we see that the nation of Israel was to keep a Sabbath rest on every seventh day because the Lord had rested from His creative work on the seventh day. The Sabbath was a perpetual covenant between the Lord and the nation of Israel. No work could be done on the Sabbath days and no one could kindle a fire on a Sabbath day. The punishment for breaking the Sabbath was death by stoning.
Jesus further clarified the Sabbath law in Matthew 12 where He said that it was lawful to do well (good things) on the Sabbath. Acts of mercy and healing are certainly lawful on the Sabbath. However, it should be clear that no one keeping the Sabbath can kindle a fire. The man in Numbers 15 was stoned to death at the command of the Lord for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. He never actually got to start the fire but was caught preparing to kindle a fire. Although I am getting ahead of myself, it may be helpful to consider that the cars everyone drives to church on Sunday morning are powered by an internal combustion (kindling a fire) engine. The only Sabbath Christians keep is one made up in their own mind to prove they are more religious than someone else.
Hebrews 4 contains a dual application for the Sabbath.
Hebrews 4:1-11
4 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
In Hebrews 4, Christians have a promised rest in Christ. We have ceased from our works in trying to please God and have now entered into the rest which is Christ by faith (believing the promise). Jesus is my Sabbath and I rest in Him by faith every day of the week. The second application in Hebrews 4 is for the nation of Israel during the Millennium. There is a physical rest for the people of God (Israel) where they will be the head of nations and not the tail. This is the seventh of the seven 1000 year periods of God’s history for earth.
Now, I will turn to the more direct question @ hand: do Christians have to keep a Sabbath? The clearest and most direct scripture passage on this subject is found in Colossians 2.
Colossians 2:8-17
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
The very clear teaching here is that Sabbath days were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. I don’t need the shadow anymore. I have Christ Himself. I am complete in Christ. Christians are not keeping Sabbath days and we are told not to let anyone judge us with respect to Sabbath days.
Galatians 4:9-11 is a second witness to Colossians 2.
Galatians 4:9-11
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Paul’s teaching in Galatians is that to observe days is to go back under the bondage of the law. The entire teaching of Galatians can be summed up by saying that salvation is not the Mosaic law plus Christ, it is Christ alone.
Acts 15 is a third witness to say that Christians do not keep a Sabbath day. Acts 15:5-6 describe the question that was brought to the apostles and elders.
Acts 15:5-6
5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
Peter brought this answer before the council in verses 10 and 11.
Acts 15:10-11
10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
The complete decision of the Jerusalem council is given in Acts 15:28-29.
Acts 15:28-29
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
The burden of Sabbath keeping is not given to the Christian Church. Again, Jesus is our Sabbath by faith. It brings to mind another passage of Scripture spoken by Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30. Please notice that this passage of scripture is just before Jesus’ discourse on the Sabbath in Matthew 12.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The final part to consider is in regards to corporate worship and whether it should be on a particular day of the week. Acts 20:7 suggests that the first day of the week was when the disciples (in Ephesus) gathered for corporate worship.
Acts 20:7
7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
In 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, Paul commands the Corinthians to set aside money on the first day of the week for the collection for the saints. This does suggest that the Corinthians were coming together also on the first day of the week for corporate worship. The pattern as set forth by the apostles is for the Church to come together for corporate worship on the first day of the week. It should be noted that it was Paul’s pattern when preaching to the Jews to go into them on their Sabbath, the last day of the week (Acts 17:2)
These are the only two verses in the New Testament where a day of corporate worship is prescribed (prescribed is probably too strong of a word) for the Church. Sometimes Revelation 1:10 is given as a third witness.
Revelation 1:10
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
The Lord’s day mentioned above has nothing to do with worship on the first day of the week or corporate worship. Lord’s day refers to the Day of the Lord or the second coming of Christ. The way to know this is to go back 3 verses and see where Revelation 1:7 quotes Zechariah 12:10. In chapters 12-14 of Zechariah, the phrase, “in that day” is used 15 times to refer to the coming of the Lord on the Lord’s day. It is so obvious what “Lord’s day” refers to in Revelation 1:10 that you almost have to be a Seventh Day Adventist to miss it.
Here are a few summary points. The Sabbath was for Israel as a nation. They could not work on that day or kindle a fire on that day. They could do acts of mercy. The Sabbath was a shadow pointing to the rest Christians have by faith in Christ. Jesus is my Sabbath rest. I have come to Him and found rest for my soul.
Christians do not keep a Sabbath day. They should come together on the first day of the week for corporate worship. How Christians worship God is regulated by scripture. However, Christians are free to enjoy the first day of the week like any other day of the week. They are not restricted in their activities on the first day of the week other than what is profitable for Christian living.