Sabbath Rest in Christ

What subject is worth studying most?

Most people spend at least twelve years of their lives studying a plethora of subjects in order to graduate from high school. College presents additional years of study in a specialized field for those who choose it. A college graduate, therefore, spends at least sixteen years acquiring knowledge that will (hopefully) be of use for the rest of his or her life. But there is a field of study that can benefit us far beyond the typical human life expectancy of seventy to eighty years. Its blessings, in fact, are infinite, eternal, never-ending. At its core, it is so simple that even children can understand it (Matthew 19:14), and yet, at its depth it is so infinite that the human mind will never fully comprehend it (Job 11:7-11).

Here is the truth: the only thing essential to know in this fleeting life is God. When we know Him, we know all that is worth knowing. Yet we often devote very little—or no time at all—to knowing Him. Why is that?

What did God set aside to help us know Him?

God gave the Sabbath to Adam and Eve—before their fall—that they might know Him. In other words, God considered the Sabbath a needed—even in their unfallen state—weekly reminder that He was their Lord and Creator. After all, neither Adam nor Eve witnessed God create anything, for they were created last on the sixth day. Keeping the Sabbath, therefore, was a weekly acknowledgment that He was their Creator—an act of faith in His word, an agreement to rest in His word. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve ceased to rest in God’s word when they chose to rest in the serpent’s word instead.^[1]

If the Sabbath was needed as a sign to humanity before the fall, when the earth was in a state of perfect rest—when God declared everything that He had made “very good”—how much more do we need the Sabbath after the fall, when the world is in a continual state of unrest, full of disappointment, conflict, weariness, sorrow, and stress? Now more than ever, the Sabbath is a weekly haven from the tumult of life for all who choose to recognize God as their Creator and Lord.^[2]

Who blessed and sanctified it?

The fourth commandment declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, that He made heaven and earth in six days, rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it. Since both John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 identify Jesus as the Creator, it was He who rested on, blessed, and sanctified the day. Jesus later confirmed this when He declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath, saying, “The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:28). The fourth commandment and Jesus Himself thus confirm, in no uncertain terms, that the Sabbath is His day (Exodus 20:10).

Was any other day blessed?

Since God placed His blessing upon the seventh day only, and since what has been blessed cannot be unblessed, the Sabbath blessing cannot be transferred to or found on any other day. The seventh-day Sabbath, therefore, is the only day that can rightly be called the Sabbath—the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10). If another day, such as Sunday, is claimed to be the Sabbath, then logically it cannot be the Sabbath of the Bible nor belong to the Lord of the Bible; there must be another entity claiming to be God and seeking to be worshiped as one (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Why was the Sabbath made?

Christ did not give us the Sabbath arbitrarily—or worse, to disrupt our schedules or to prevent us from being productive or earning more money. Peter tells us that God in Christ has given us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness,” and the Sabbath is surely among those gifts. It is a blessing—for our good, for our help.

How does it benefit us?

Paul tells us that the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator are revealed by the things He has made (Romans 1:20), and in Colossians 1:16-17 we learned that Christ is the Creator who made all things. 1 Corinthians 1:24 identifies Christ as the power of God, and Colossians 2:9 declares that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Putting these truths together, we come to a marvelous conclusion: the works of God—of which the Sabbath is a memorial—display the power and divinity of Jesus Christ. The Sabbath, therefore, stands as a glorious sign and a weekly reminder of His divinity; and those who honor the Sabbath declare that they acknowledge that divinity. All who acknowledge it open the door to receiving the blessings of His divinity by faith.

What is the blessing of Christ?

When God promised to bless Abraham, He promised to make of him a great nation, and that blessing was to extend to the whole world: “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). Peter explains in Acts 3:25-26 that this promise was fulfilled in Christ and that it involved turning us away from our sins. John confirms this in 1 John 3:8, declaring that Christ came to “destroy the works of the devil,” which he equates with committing sin.

Abraham was to be a blessing to the entire world because Jesus would come from his lineage (Galatians 3:16, 28-29), offering salvation from sin to all who would accept Him (John 3:16). These will form the great nation promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:2), whose fulfillment is the great multitude that John saw in vision, “which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, [who] stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (Revelation 7:9-10).

The spiritual nature of Abraham’s blessing—saving us from our sins—was first explained by God Himself in Deuteronomy 30:6, then repeated by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jeremiah 33:7-8; Ezekiel 36:25-29), and later affirmed by Peter and John. This blessing remains freely available today to all who desire it.

What is the blessing of the Sabbath?

Besides being a memorial of God’s power to create, the Sabbath is also a memorial of His power to sanctify—to transform us into completely new persons in Christ. We learned earlier that the blessing of Christ is to turn us away from our iniquities (Acts 3:25-26), and now we see that the Sabbath memorializes His power to do so. He has the power, and Scripture is clear that it is His will to accomplish it (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Peter 1:16). What, then, is stopping Him? Could it be our unbelief?

Is redemptive power different from creative?

The power to create from the dust of the ground is no different from the power to redeem from the “dust” of sin. It does not matter to God whether the starting medium is physical dust or spiritual; the end product is the same—a new creature. In John 3:3, Jesus describes this spiritual reality as being born again, and John confirms it by saying, “…which were born… of God” (John 1:12-13). Ezekiel explains what this means in practical terms in Ezekiel 36:25-27: a new heart and a new spirit. In Colossians 3:10, Paul describes the new man in Christ as being ”renewed… after the image of him that created him.“ The power to sanctify, therefore, is the power to create—both of which the Sabbath memorializes, for when God sanctifies, He creates anew.

Whose rest are we to keep?

The fourth commandment instructs us to rest from our works (Exodus 20:10), but is there a deeper meaning that extends beyond the mere cessation of labor? The Hebrew word for Sabbath (shabath) means “rest.” When the Bible says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath [rest] of the Lord thy God” and “Remember the sabbath [rest] day, to keep it holy,” it is, in fact, inviting us to keep God’s rest (Genesis 2:2-3), for He rested first, setting the example for Adam and Eve to follow. It is His Sabbath and, therefore, His rest.

What kind of rest is this?

First of all, God could not have been tired, for He spoke the world into existence: “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” and so on (Genesis 1:3, 6). The Psalmist declares, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6). Everything in the natural world that we see around us came into existence in obedience to His word. But even if He had labored to create, He could not have been physically exhausted, because Isaiah says He “fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isaiah 40:28).

John says that “God is a spirit” (John 4:24), which means His rest could not have been physical but spiritual. To keep His Sabbath, therefore, is to keep His spiritual rest. The physical cessation from labor serves as a reminder of the more important spiritual reality that God wants us to enjoy, and when we neglect the latter, we deprive ourselves of the full blessings the Sabbath provides.

The person who rests physically on the Sabbath receives the blessings of bodily restoration, but that is not God’s primary concern, for the “outward man”—the body—is perishing, but “the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16; Luke 12:23). God desires both blessings for us, but He is far more concerned with the rest that has eternal consequences.

What does spiritual rest entail?

Blessings are meant to be delighted in. When God blessed the Sabbath, He made it a day of delight—to Himself and to Adam and Eve—because it was a special time of communion between the Creator and His creation, a day on which Adam and Eve, undistracted by their ordinary activities, were able to devote themselves fully to Him. This quality time is the foundation upon which any lasting relationship is built. Its presence or absence can determine whether a relationship thrives or gradually dies. If the Sabbath is not a delight but a yoke of bondage, it is likely that the spark of love is missing, for any couple genuinely in love will never protest that they must spend time together.

Thus, it is possible to rest from labor on the Sabbath and yet fail to delight in our Lord, and therefore never experience its spiritual rest. Can we really call this true Sabbath-keeping?

Can spiritual rest be forced?

God is a gentleman who does not use force or coercion as methods of conversion, because they only fill the church with hypocrites, which He calls an abomination (Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:13-15; Amos 5:21-24). Even more importantly, such methods are completely antithetical to His character of love, which seeks to draw—not drive—people to Him. This is why John portrays Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts, waiting to be let in (Revelation 3:20). Satan, on the other hand, has no problem barging in uninvited; in fact, when his preferred tactic—deception—fails, he defaults to force and coercion, for his kingdom is not built on the principle of love. Consequently, followers of Christ should be as far removed from such methods of “evangelism” as the east is from the west.

We previously learned that Sabbath rest goes beyond the merely physical to include the spiritual. Even though both are needed, it is the spiritual that God is most concerned about because it carries eternal consequences and thus the greater portion of the Sabbath blessing. Since Sunday laws have already been enforced in the United States in the past and, according to prophecy, will be again in the future, the question must be asked: how can a legislative body hope to enforce spiritual rest? Can government compel its citizens to be saved?

What does Sabbath rest teach us?

Besides giving us quality time to spend with our Father, the Sabbath also gives us an opportunity to walk by faith, trusting that He will provide for our temporal needs. If the budget is tight and we cannot see how we will pay the bills by taking a day off from income-generating work, God invites us to step out in faith and trust Him. He has a thousand ways to provide for our needs of which we know nothing (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We must never forget that even the ability and the opportunity to generate income come from Him. We are indebted to Him for our talents, for favor in the workplace, for our very life. If our decision to honor His Sabbath happens to cost us our job, He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10; Haggai 2:8) will provide for us in another way. He who keeps our hearts beating, our lungs breathing, and the planets spinning in perfect order will also provide food on the table and shelter over our heads.

What is the Sabbath a promise of?

The promise of rest to the people of God includes that future heavenly rest in the new heaven and the new earth John saw in vision (Revelation 21:1). The Sabbath is one of the blessings introduced in Eden before the fall that remained with us after the fall (the other being marriage), serving as a reminder of that perfect world which God had declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Because of Christ’s great redemptive work for humanity, it becomes a promise to His followers of that perfect world fully restored—God’s heavenly kingdom that will stand forever (Daniel 2:44).

What kind of people is that perfect world for?

Before the fall, God’s perfect world was inhabited by His perfect people because they were created in the image of their Maker (Genesis 1:27). Incidentally, their perfection extended beyond the physical to include the spiritual (character); however, it was not their own nor did they do anything to earn it. God simply gave it to them as a gift. Consequently, He gave them the Sabbath to remind them of Him—the source of their perfection.

Obviously, Adam and Eve’s fall marred God’s perfect world by introducing sin into it, but the Bible is also clear that God’s word cannot fail (Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 55:10-11). Since Isaiah 45:17-18 says that He did not create the earth in vain but to be inhabited, while Isaiah 60:21 and Psalm 37:29 teach that it will be inhabited by the righteous, the conclusion must be that the earth will be restored to its original perfect state to be inhabited by a perfect people. Can the God who created the universe out of nothing and Adam out of dust not restore His image in the person defaced by sin? He can—and He will, for His word cannot fail. The only question is: will we be a part of it?

The rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9), therefore, is their future heavenly rest, of which the Sabbath is a weekly reminder. But we need not wait for heaven to experience it, because the kingdom of God can begin in us now (Luke 17:21). Just as Adam and Eve found rest in the perfect works of Christ, to which they contributed nothing, so we can find spiritual rest now in His perfect righteousness, to which we contribute nothing. In Christ, and only in Him, can we find true Sabbath rest—complete deliverance from all our sins. In Him, the Sabbath, instead of being a burden or a yoke, offers release from burdens.

Can we keep the Sabbath holy?

According to Isaiah, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” and Paul declares that “there is none righteous, no, not one,” yet God asks us to keep the Sabbath holy. How can an unholy person keep a day holy? He can’t.

If we are called to keep it holy, then it must already be holy. Christ made it holy by sanctifying it in Eden (Genesis 2:3), and there is nothing we can do to make it more or less holy. We cannot add to its holiness because we have no holiness of our own to give. We can desecrate it, whether through ignorance, rebellion, or even legislation, yet it remains as holy as it ever was in Eden. In order to keep it holy, we must be holy, but Isaiah and Paul tell us this is an impossibility. In other words, we have a conundrum only Christ can solve.

If Christ was able to sanctify a day, can He not sanctify a person? He can. In fact, He already did when He created Adam and Eve in His image.^[3] Since Christ is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), He who sanctified the Sabbath in Eden can still sanctify us today; the Sabbath is a weekly reminder of this (Ezekiel 20:12).

Why does Christ give us rest?

The Psalmist compares sin to a heavy burden: “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:4). Before Christ’s birth, the angel told Joseph to name his Son Jesus because He would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). After Jesus began His public ministry, He invited all who were “heavy laden” with the burden of sin to come to Him for rest (Matthew 11:28-29), because He is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Christ is our sanctification, and He sanctifies us by the same power with which He created the world in six days, for “redemption is simply the power that created all things, working to restore them.”^[4] Whenever we look up at the starry skies and see them declaring God’s glory and handiwork (Psalm 19:1), they are proclaiming His infinite power to save us from our sins—all of them (1 John 1:9; Romans 5:20).

Do we have reason to glory in ourselves?

Paul invites us to be strong, but not in ourselves, for we are no match for the power of sin. Having originated in the heart of an angel (Lucifer), sin precedes and transcends humanity, and its existence can be neither explained nor justified. Sin is a mystery that possesses supernatural power and therefore requires supernatural power to overcome.

Christ’s power and might alone enable us to stand strong against it. The Bible tells us that He shared our weak human nature and was “tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), and that He “spoiled principalities and powers, … triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15). The battle has already been won. The sins we struggle with He has already conquered in His flesh. We need only to accept it by faith and thank Him for it. Like the Israelites of old who praised God before they went out to battle, we can praise Him before we see any outward evidence of victory (2 Chronicles 20:21-22). This is walking by faith: choosing to rest in His Word and going forth in His strength to victory. This is why the Sabbath is the sign, or seal, of God (Ezekiel 20:12)—because it identifies all who have chosen to find rest in Christ and thus experience the glorious victory He brings.^[5]