Why do we, as christians, keep
the Sabbath?
Many people wonder why we worship on Saturday instead of Sunday as do most christians. Our option is based, as we will demonstrate in this article, on the Bible.
As opposed to the Sabbath, the Scriptures never refer to the "first day of the week" (Sunday) as a day to be kept or celebrated in any way by the people of God. God’s commandment says:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God..." Exodus 20.8-10
This text clearly identifies the seventh day as the Sabbath as do others. Such is the case of Matthew 28.1 which describes the day prior to the "first day of the week" as the Sabbath.
In our calendar Saturday is the last day of the week. In spite of recognizing that our special relationship with God should be lived every day of the week, we worship especially on Saturday because we believe it to be the seventh day the Bilbe refers to as the Sabbath and, as such, it should be observed because God so commanded it. Moreover, the people of Israel never abandoned or changed this day consecrated by God as didn’t Christ or the apostles.
There are many reasons why the Sabbath should be observed as a special day by all christians. Lets see some of them:
- After the six days of Creation God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2.2) and instituted the Sabbath (Sabbath = rest) (Genesis 2.3) not because He needed rest but as an example to mankind (Mark 2.27).
- "God blessed the seventh day" (Genesis 2.3) and made it a special day of gratitude long before the law was given in Sinai and even before the first israelite came to be.
- God "sanctified / made holy" the seventh day (Genesis 2.3 + Exodus 20.11) and called it "My holy day" (Isaiah 58.13) and "Sabbath of the Lord thy God" (Exodus 20.10) thus making it His special day.
- Mankind is called upon to keep and sanctify the seventh day (Exodus 20.8) because God rested on that day and made it holy (Exodo 20.11).
- "Remember" (Exodus 20.8) is a word that carries us back to Creation. The Sabbath is, thus, a memorial of Creation and, as such, is not restricted to Old Testament times (Exodus 31.17).
- The observance of the Sabbath (instead of any other day) as "the day of the Lord" is the sign by which we, as creatures, show faithfulness / loyalty toward our Creator. Without this memorial there would not be a way of remebering His authorship forevermore. By comemorating Creation every week, we recognize the power of the great Creator and set Him apart from the false gods (Ezekiel 20.19-20).
- Christ, as Creator (Colossians 1.16; Hebrews 1.2) was involved in the establishment of the Sabbath and can thus state what we can and can not do on the seventh day (Matthew 12.12); He can claim to be the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2.28).
- Jesus oserved the Sabbath during His earthly ministry (Luke 4.16) and gave it the true sense of Love that God desires for this special day. If He claims that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath (Luke 6.9), then we can easily see that anything which goes beyond that is unlawful.
- God expected the Sabbath to be observed by His people long before He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 16.23, 26).
- The commandment that tells us to keep the Sabbath day is one of the Ten Commandments of God’s Eternal Law, written by His own finger on stone tablets (Exodus 31.18; 32.16; 34.1, 28) and now written by His Holy Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 3.3; Hebrews 8.10); As a Law written by God Himself, the Ten Commandments are inalterable and universal (Ecclesiastes 3.14).
- The blessings given to all who remember the Sabbath day are attributable to all peoples and not just to the jews (Isaiah 56.1-8).
- Several of the episodes portrayed in the book of Acts clearly show that the primitve church considered the Sabbath a special day (Acts 13.42-44; 17.2-3; 18.4, 11; 16.13).
- Keeping the commandments is essencial to all who wish to become God’s children (Matthew 19.17; Revelation 22.14; James 2.10-12).
- The Sabbath tipifyes the rest in God’s eternal Kingdom (Hebrews 4.1-10) and will continue to be observed after the second coming of Christ during His Millenial Kingdom over all the earth (Isaiah 66.22-23).
- Since the Sabbath is a part of God’s Eternal Law (the Ten Commandments) not to observe it is to disobey and to reject a gift from God designed to provide humanity with a day for rest, renovation and renewal (1 John 3.4), (Note: Iniquity = Transgression of the Law).
- To sanctify the Sabbath in our lives is a way to express our love towards God and towards our brethren in Christ (1 John 5.2-3).
We know that we are not justified before God by the observance of the Sabbath or by any other act or practice, but only through the acceptance of Christ as our Saviour (Romans 3.20; Galatians 2.16). However, it is important that every christian should lead his or her life according to God’s will because that is the way of sanctification that God desires (Romans 7.7, 12; 1 Corinthians 7.19). God arranged things so that we might have a day to study, worship and commune with Him. God knew that, as time went by and life became more and more complex, we would have the tendency to forget our relationship with Him. That is why He reserved this special period of rest. As we have seen, there are several reasons why we should have towards the Sabbath a special fondness and consideration and use that day to build a stronger relationship with our Creator and grow ever closer to Him. We should never forget that the church Christ loves is refered to in Revelation as being made up by those "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 12.17; 14.12).