Question:
What is the Sabbath; is it the same as Sunday? Should Christians
worship on Sunday or on Sabbath day?
Answer:
The simple, straightforward,
one line answer is that Sabbath and Sunday are not the same, and Biblically,
Christians ought to worship on Sunday.
The word ‘sabbath’
means rest. Usually this alludes to the seventh day of the Jewish calendar, which
is the Saturday of our current calendar, because on this day the Lord God
completed His Creation work and rested (Genesis 2:2-3) and He established this seventh day as a day of rest for His
people in His Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11). But in the Old Testament, a sabbath day or a day of rest
is not necessarily the seventh day of the Jewish week – it can be any ‘day of rest’
or of ‘cessation of work’ – see Leviticus chapter 23, where the feasts of the
Lord and the methods of celebrating them are given, and see chapter 25, where the whole
particular year is called the sabbath year. Similarly, in Exodus 31:13 and Leviticus 19:3 and 26:2 also the word is
used in plural ‘sabbaths’ indicating
more days than one were designated as ‘sabbath’ and this makes it clear that in
the Old Testament the word ‘Sabbath’ was not used for just the seventh day of
the Jewish week, but was for any day appointed by God for rest or not doing the
routine work. The context of the word decided the meaning of the word; but
generally speaking it meant the seventh day of the Jewish week, our Saturday, that,
according to God’s Law and the Ten Commandments was to be a day of not doing
any work, but to be spent in worshiping the Lord God – this was the demand of the
Law, from them who were the people of God under the Law, whether they were the
natural descendants of Abraham, or those residing with the Jews (Exodus 20:10), or those who had
accepted to follow Judaism – like those people of the mixed-multitude who came out of
Egypt with the Jews
(Exodus 12:38), or those who
became Jews later on
(Esther 8:17; 9:27; Isaiah 14:1; 45:14; Zechariah 8:20-23) – they were all
under the Law of God,
and
it was necessary for them to follow it, they were to maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath, or
Saturday and observe it appropriately as commanded in the Law.
Our Sunday is the
first day the Jewish week; and is the seventh day of our current calendar. This
day is of special significance for the Christians, because the Lord Jesus rose
from the dead on this day (Mark 16:9, see verses 1-9). Therefore the followers of the Lord Jesus, started to
gather for worshiping the Lord and participating in the Lord’s Table or Holy
Communion on ‘the first day of the week’ i.e. on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) – and this God’s
Holy Spirit got recorded for us (2 Timothy 3:16-17), for our instruction and observance. Nowhere in the New
Testament have the Christian Believers been reprimanded for doing this, and
neither have they been instructed at any place to rectify this and revert back
to the ‘Sabbath’ or Saturday. In other words, worshiping God on Sunday, is
from God, is accepted by God, and is appropriate to observe for the Christians.
Later, this ‘first day of the week’ was also called ‘the Lord’s Day’ (Revelation
1:10) – again recorded in the Bible through the Holy Spirit. There is no
instruction, reason, or compulsion to revert this back to the Jewish Sabbath
day.
Today many people
are deceiving Christians into reverting to the Sabbath day in place of Sunday, and
they quote from the Old Testament to support their arguments. But what they do
not show from the Bible is that Christ Jesus has fulfilled the Law for us, has nailed it to
the Cross and has taken it out of our way, and we too have died on the Cross
with Christ for the Law (Romans 7:4; 10:4; Colossians 2:13-15) – pay attention to these verses, the Law has been fulfilled
in Christ, in other words, all its requirements have been completed; and now it has
come to its conclusion,
i.e.
by having been fulfilled it is now closed; now the Law cannot be broken – because it has
been fully fulfilled, it is a closed chapter, and in its place God has made
applicable the righteousness of His grace through coming to faith in the Lord
Jesus. By nailing the Law to the Cross Christ has taken it out of our way – we
simply don’t have to walk that path to righteousness anymore; in Christ we have
died to the Law – therefore neither does the Law have any hold on us nor are we
in any state to follow it; now we live by faith in Christ – now we have no reason to
observe the Law and its instructions; we are made righteous by our faith in
Christ, and not by observing the things of the Law (Romans 3:22-31; 10:8-11).
In any case,
right at the time of the first Church and the Apostles – the disciples of
Christ, it had been thoroughly discussed and unanimously accepted and decreed for
all times that no one had been able to keep the Law (Acts 15:10) and there is
no need for observing the Law (Acts 15:24). Moreover, Paul, writing his letters
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit has very clearly stated that no one is
justified before God by observing the Law (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:11), and
anyone wanting to live by the Law is condemned to striving to fulfill all of it
(Galatians 3:10), but Christ has redeemed us from coming into this condemnation
(Galatians 3:13); and James wrote that anyone who breaks even one point of the Law
is guilty of breaking the whole Law (James 2:10) – so why at all should we
bring ourselves under such an impossible and absolutely unnecessary burden?
Now whosoever
wants to bring himself under observing the things of the Law, he is called
‘cursed’, he is not justified and made righteous by the Law, and the Law has
nothing to do with Faith (Galatians 3:10-13).And these agents of Satan, under the garb of being
religious and righteous (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15), in the name of the Lord Jesus are trying to push us back
into observing the Law, are trying to make us cursed, so that we end up loosing
our blessings in Christ, rendering them infructuous.
Beware
of them, do not fall for their smooth talk, for the lie of the necessity of
observance of Sabbath is being very energetically being preached in many ways
and by all means, people are being deceived and led astray. Stay safe from such
people, stay away from them.
