Should Christians keep the Sabbath? This has been a subject of contention among modern day Christians. The early church was rather unanimous of the view that Christians ought not to observe the Jewish Sabbath.

The word Sabbath means to cease. Its first reference in the Bible is in Genesis 2:3

God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:3

Now this first reference is simply a statement of God’s rest with no obligation on man’s part to keep the Sabbath. How do we know? This is owing to the fact that for the next two and a half millennia not a word is mentioned about it in scriptures, and God never told anyone to to keep it. Even Adam was not told by God to keep it. God gave him instructions but the Sabbath was not added. Seth, Enoch, Noah, down the lane, no one, not even Abraham (Genesis 26:5). God gave Abraham laws, statutes and commandments, but minus the Sabbath. Neither Isaac nor Jacob kept the Sabbath, yet none was guilty before God.

The Sabbath obligation was specifically given to the children of Israel under the covenant of Moses at Mount Sinai, though God rested since creation, the covenant that carried the sabbath obligation was never made with the fathers, Moses said so:

Deuteronomy 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. 5:2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 5:3 The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 5:4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, 5:5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, 5:6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 5:8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 5:10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 5:13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 5:14 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

In Exodus 20:8-11 the Sabbath law is made part of the ten commandments.

The reason God did not mention Sabbath in all those 2500 years is clear from the purpose for which the Sabbath was given.

God’s Purpose For the Jewish Sabbath Law

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:15

Exodus 31:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 31:13 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. 31:17 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.

Ezekiel 20:12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

It is clear from the above scriptures that the Sabbaths were instituted as a special sign specifically for the Israelites.

Some days in the Jewish calendar as well as the 7th and 50th years, were Sabbaths. In Sabbath years, the land was to lie fallow and debtors would not be forced to pay a debt. Lev 16:29-31; 23:6,7,32; 25:4,11-14; Deut 15:1-3

A Ceremonial Law

The Sabbath was a ceremonial law which applied only to the Israelites under the Mosaic covenant. (Deut 5:2-5) A covenant which God changed through Christ. It was in the light of this that the Apostles unto whom Christ committed the mystery of his kingdom did not ask the Gentiles to observe it, at the council of Jerusalem, though the Sabbath was a high day in Israel and a serious matter in the law of Moses. Whether the Sabbath was part of the 10 commandments or not makes no difference: it was simply ceremonial. Being ceremonial, it was not God’s true rest for his people, but a shadow of a rest (Col 2:16-17). This shadow would later give way, for the law was only a school master preparing the Jews for Christ. The new covenant established by Christ did not include a Sabbath law and that was why the Church in the Apostles days did not observed a Sabbath but the Lord’s Day. We can’t know the Bible better than the Apostles who met with Jesus firsthand, the very Lord of the Sabbath himself, who never added the Sabbath to all what he commanded his disciples to teach.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, …Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19

Jesus, however, himself kept the Sabbath as a Jew under the first covenant and its laws in order to fulfill away the old covenant, thereby taking away the first to establish the second, which is indeed a better covenant. Matt 5:17; Hebrews 8:6,13

God’s true rest in Christ

Jesus on one occasion said come unto me all ye that labour and heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28). In Christ is God’s true rest as the Scripture says:

Hebrews 4:3-4
[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.

He that hath entered into rest hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his, Hebrews 4:10.

Every true believer hath ceased from his own works of righteousness, and from the burdensome works of the law, as God and Christ have ceased from their works of creation and redemption.

The Jewish Sabbath was modelled after God’s rest for a covenant sign specifically for the children of Israel under the law of Moses, Christians are not under the law of Moses but the faith of Christ. We enter into God’s true rest by faith in Christ who said in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And since we are spiritual Jews, we need no ceremonial rest, we have come into God’s spiritual rest. The Jewish Sabbath was to them a shadow of a good thing to come of which Christ was the fulfilment. That was why Apostle Paul could say:

Colossians 2:16 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: 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.