In Genesis 2:2-3, God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it as holy because on that day He rested from His works. Thus, immediately, from the very beginning, God’s Word identifies the 7^th day Sabbath with rest (Hebrew, shabbat, means “to cease, to desist” from labors), or specifically a day of rest.

This text (Genesis 2:2-3), therefore, presents the 7^th day Sabbath as a type or foreshadowing of the ultimate rest, the rest of faith in Christ. Christians find this rest when we cease working to earn our soul’s repose (or rest in righteousness, or right-relation to God) and instead rest in Christ and His finished work on the cross alone (Romans 3:28 and 5:1; Hebrews 4:3-10). Thus, it points to, not a day of rest, but an age of rest, that is, this age of grace in which believers rest in faith. During the age of law, men worked the works of the law to find the rest of right relationship with God (Matthew 19:17-20). During this “day” or age of grace we shabbat, or cease and desist from all our self-effort to earn righteousness and rest in faith alone. Because of this, as we will see in the following discussion, there is no single day of the week in which Christians are directly ordered to observe shabbat in the New Testament. Notably, there is no mention of men keeping a 7^th day Sabbath rest from Genesis to the advent of the Jewish law (Exodus).

The origin of the 7^th day Sabbath as a divinely ordered day of rest is found in the OT Law, the first mention being Exodus 16:23-30. Thus, God ordered the Jewish people to keep a literal 7^th day rest, as a distinctive sign of His unique (singular) covenant relationship with them—and no other Gentile group (Exodus 31:17). God mandated that the Jewish people, their guests, and their animals rest on the Jewish Sabbath (Exodus 20:10-11) and non-compliance was a capital crime (Exodus 35:2).  Interestingly, no religious convocation for worship was ordered by the Law on the 7^th day shabbat, though Jews gathered then for prayer and Torahic instruction. This Jewish 7^th day Sabbath rest was kept until the cross. Because Jesus of Nazareth lived under the law (Luke 17:14; Galatians 4:4-5), He faithfully kept a 7^th day Sabbath all His life (Luke 4:16), though His Pharisaic enemies repeatedly groundlessly accused Him of being a Sabbath breaker (Mark 3:1-6). God’s legal requirement for keeping a literal 7^th day Sabbath ceased at the cross, where all the ordinances of the Law were nailed to the cross, having been paid in full by Christ, who kept the works of the Law perfectly for all who repent of sin and believe on Him (Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:14-18).

A stated above, the entire age of grace is a “day,” or divinely appointed period of time, of “rest,” or soul-rest found in Christ by grace through faith in Him “apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28, ESV). Then why do some professing Christians insist we must keep a 7^th day (Saturday) Sabbath, while others (the vast majority) maintain a 1^st day (Sunday) Sabbath?

The most well-known, professedly Christian groups keeping a 7^th day Sabbath are Messianic Jews and Seventh Day Adventists. (There are other “seventh day Sabbatarians”; see list at:  List of Sabbath-keeping churches - Wikipedia.)  Messianics (ethnic Jews embracing Yeshua as their Messiah) do so out of respect for their Jewish heritage, specifically the Jewish OT law, although, like Gentile Christians, they are not required to do this either for salvation or for spiritual growth. Seventh Day Adventists have from their inception (late 19^th century), and through the writings of their founder, Ellen G. White, blatantly misunderstood the NT’s message on Gentiles’ relation to the Jewish Law, still holding the 7^th day is the only proper day of worship (claiming those worshiping the 1^st day have taken the “mark of the beast” and are damned), and also adhering to Mosaic dietary laws. They believe they are being judged throughout their life (in the so-called, biblically unfounded “investigative judgment” of Christ in heaven) on their faithfulness to Him and the OT Law. There are numerous other heresies that they hold, though they pose as normal Evangelicals.

The rest of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Protestants) worship on the 1^st day, called in the NT “the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10), since Christ rose on the 1^st day of the week (Matthew 28:1). The NT clarifies that this practice (a) is not the Sabbath keeping ordered by the OT law, (b) has neither saving nor sanctifying value, and that (c) non-conformists (worshiping on other days, including the 7^th) are free to worship on any day they choose—though the unquestionable practice of the church beginning in the 1^st Century was 1^st day worship, which many Christians call the “Christian Sabbath.”

Originally, all Christians were Jews, and thus worshiped on the 7^th day because that was their custom and because the church did not yet understand the distinctions between law and grace, as later elucidated by Paul’s epistles (Romans, Galatians, Colossians). Paul himself habitually visited Jewish places of worship on the 7^th day, since Jews, whom he consistently presented the gospel to first in every locale (Romans 1:16), were gathered there and he could both worship with them and also evangelize them (Acts 13:14-15; 16:13; 17:1-3; 18:4). As Gentile churches began forming, they met for worship early on the morning of the 1^st day of the week, to honor the Lord’s resurrection, as described above. (Then they went out to work, since it was the first day of their work week.) Scripture establishes this by showcasing the 1^st day worship in Troas (Acts 20:7) and Corinth (1 Corinthians 16:2), both of which occurred well before the end of the 1^st Century. In the 2^nd Century, all Christians, Jew and Gentile, gradually settled on 1^st day worship. (The claim that the church’s 1^st day worship originated with Constantine is patently false, as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, and Revelation 1:10 prove.)

Despite these facts, controversy has swirled around the Sabbath throughout this church age, beginning with the Judaizers who contended with Paul. These former Pharisees-turned-Christians visited (or invaded!) the first largely Gentile church in Antioch, claiming Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes before they could become Christians. Thus, they required they be circumcised and keep all the ordinances of the law, including the 7^th day Sabbath. When Paul contended with them, they and he deferred judgment to the Jerusalem church leaders. At the church’s first council, a landmark ruling was issued by the apostles (and the “Holy Spirit,” Acts 15:28) that Gentile Christians need only (1) avoid fornication, (2) avoid eating unbled meats, and (3) avoid idolatry (Acts 15:28-29). Significantly, no mention was made of keeping a 7^th day Sabbath (or other Jewish ordinances: dietary laws, circumcision, festivals, and so forth). Either these leaders (and the Holy Spirit) erred or Christians were not then, and are not now, obligated to keep a 7^th day Sabbath.

Paul made this a part of NT doctrine, ordering Gentile Christians to not observe “days, and months, and times, and years” - an obvious reference to the Mosaic calendar, including Sabbaths (Galatians 4:10). He also ordered Gentile Christians not to submit to anyone (Judaizers, Sabbatarians, other legalists) judging us for failure to observe “holy days” and “sabbaths” (Colossians 2:16), explaining that holy days, along with all other ordinances of Jewish Law are mere “shadows” of the real, ultimate life we now enjoy in our grace-given, Spirit-filled life of fellowship with and worship of Jesus under grace (Colossians 2:17).

Therefore, if in fact 7^th day Sabbath keeping is legally binding on Christians, we must conclude: (a) Paul, the church’s greatest theologian, was in error, and (b) the whole church has been in error since the 2^nd Century (working on the 7^th day, worshiping on the 1^st).

To the contrary, insistence on keeping a literal 7^th day Sabbath has tended to focus professing Christians minds on our work of Sabbath-keeping rather than on Christ’s work on the cross, which alone enables us to enjoy the true soul rest Jesus offered us (Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:3-10).

In conclusion, we may rest in these facts. Lord’s Day (1^st day) worship is biblical (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10), though not required, since the NT merely suggests it by example yet stops short of explicitly ordering it. While not a literal and legal act of obedience to the OT Jewish Sabbath, our 1^st day worship is an act of spiritual, or figurative, compliance, as we honor the principle of the law (resting one day out of seven) though not its letter. Doing so honors Christ’s resurrection—the day we, too, rose with Him to newness of life and rest of soul in Him (Romans 6:3-4). The Lord’s Day begins our 7-day week, just as our resurrection with Christ (in New Birth) begins our eternal life with Him.

Keeping this 1^st day Sabbath, however, is entirely voluntary. Christians are free to rest, gather, and worship on any day of the week they choose, including the 7^th day, provided they (a) do not believe they are saved or sanctified by such practice, and (b) do not condemn other Christians who worship on a different day. Finally, we end this study where we began it, by emphasizing that God’s original shabbat (Genesis 2:2-3) is a foreshadowing of the rest of faith, and we are keeping this ultimate Sabbath every day we live and walk by faith in Jesus Christ. And without living in this rest, all other Sabbath-keeping is vain.

Shalom,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES