D. Scott Meadows

Reformed Christians have long held to the Christian Sabbath. For example, The Baptist Catechism of 1693 says,

Q. 64. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? A. Before the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. (Gen. 2:3; John 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2; Rev. 1:10).

Let us consider how the verses cited here and other parts of Scripture support the doctrine that so few Christians seem to understand and embrace today. Eight lines of evidence begin the case, but these barely scratch the surface. Worthy fuller treatments include “The True Doctrine of the Sabbath” by Nicholas Bownd (1606) and “The Christian Sabbath” by Dr. Robert P. Martin (2016).

1. The Sabbath Is a Creation Ordinance

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen 2.2, 3). The “rest” highlighted here was not for God’s sake (Isa 40.28) but for ours (Mark 2.27). The Fourth Commandment as stated in Exodus 20 is described as a creation ordinance, sanctified by the Lord for religious observance by His worshippers in this world from creation onward (Exod 20.11). A pattern of one day’s sacred rest and worship with six days of work is appointed by divine wisdom and helpful to our flourishing even as Christians today.

2. The Sabbath Was Kept Prior to the Ten Commandments

Divine regulation of manna-gathering in Exodus 16 illustrates that the Sabbath was not a new concept, but already known to God’s people. This account is not only prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments canonically (in Exodus 20), but also chronologically. “The rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord” (Exod 16.23) alludes to the institution of the Sabbath rest at creation. The repeated mention of the Sabbath without much explanation implies preceding familiarity with it (cf. vv. 25, 26, 29).

3. The Sabbath Is Part of God’s Unchanging Moral Law

Upon two tablets of stone symbolizing permanence, under the mercy seat within the ark of the covenant, requiring annual sprinkling with blood, symbolizing peculiar sanctity and importance, the law of Sabbath keeping is found (Exod 20.8-11), in the midst of the other fundamental moral requirements for God’s holy people (Exod 20.1-17; in order: 1-worshipping only God, 2-worshipping only His way, 3-keeping His name holy, 4-keeping His day holy, 5-respecting authorities, 6-preserving life, 7-maintaining chastity, 8-respecting property ownership, 9-speaking only the truth, 10- guarding the heart against covetousness). It is most implausible to imagine, and would be alarming to teach, that only nine of these holy commandments are moral and perpetually obligatory to God’s people (cf. Matt 5.19). Indeed the later OT prophets often condemn Sabbath-breaking in the most severe language alongside breaches of other fundamental precepts of God’s moral law (e.g., Ezek 22.23-31). The Sabbath is moral law, even while its Old Testament form has aspects of ceremonial law.

4. The New Covenant Promises This Moral Law Written on the Heart

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant . . . After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people” (from Jer 31.31-34). This prophecy of future blessing has its realization in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which the sacred cup of His table is the symbol (1 Cor 11.25). The “law” in view, in substance, is none other than that formerly upon the stone tablets (2 Cor 3.3). Regeneration of the souls of all God’s people by the Holy Spirit, with the fruit of evangelical obedience to His commandments, is a feature of these New Covenant blessings (Ezek 36.25-27). By Him we truly call the Sabbath our delight (Isa 58.13).

5. The New Testament Sacralizes the First Day of the Week

To “sacralize” is “to treat as or make sacred” (MWCD), to “imbue with or treat as having a sacred quality” (COED). “Sacred” means “holy; pertaining to God or his worship; separated from common secular uses and consecrated to God and his service; as a sacred day” (Webster 1828). The first day of the week, Sunday, is treated as sacred by the NT. All four gospels insist that the Lord Jesus rose on that particular day of the week (Matt 28.1; Mk 16.2; Luke 24.1; Jn 20.1). He also appeared on that day over the several weeks before He ascended (Mark 16.9; Jn 20.19, 26). The descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was also on a Sunday. The first day of the week, then, was providentially associated with the inauguration of the New Covenant age. This is why it replaces the previous seventh-day Sabbath associated with creation and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The Christian Sabbath continues to be observed in this present New Covenant age beginning with Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

6. The Early Church Settled into a Pattern of Worship on Sundays

Acts 2 describes the first Christians in Jerusalem as “continuing daily with one accord in the temple” (v. 26), but this did not last long. By the time of Paul’s ministry at Troas, Christians had settled into a pattern of weekly gatherings for worship on Sundays rather than Saturdays. This distinguished them from unbelieving Jews in their synagogues. When it was written, “and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20.7), Luke expressly notes the day of their custom, its association with religious gathering, and the importance to them of the Lord’s Supper. This breaking of bread was not a common meal.

Likewise, Paul’s directive for all the churches in 1 Corinthians 16.1, 2, to collect contributions “upon the first day of the week” implies that it was on that day in particular that they customarily gathered for worship. This fact is obvious to every unprejudiced reader of the New Testament.

7. Hebrews 4.9 Expressly Teaches a Keeping of a Sabbath Remains for Christians

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (KJV) renders as “rest” a special word in the Greek text, σαββατισµός (sabbatismos). The word means “a Sabbath rest” and connotes “a Sabbath-keeping” (BBE translation), since the word form “indicates an action and not just a state” (Robert P. Martin, Exegetical and Theological Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, in loc., q.v.). In the Septuagint (the OT in Greek) and extrabiblical literature of the period, it denotes Sabbath observances. The human writer of Hebrews, by using this particular word, “would not have [been] allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath” (John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 2.422, q.v.). Interested readers should investigate the matter further in the larger context of Hebrews 4. These works of Owen and Martin are helpful.

8. Revelation 1:10 Recognizes Sunday as “the Lord’s Day”

The apostle John, exiled as an old gospel preacher to the miserable island of Patmos, received prophetic visions from Jesus and wrote, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1.10). Implied is that his first-century readers would have known what he meant by the phrase. The “Lord” is a term especially referring to the risen Lord, even Jesus. Yet the Sabbath was
known as the Jehovah’s holy day even in the OT (cf. Isa 58.13 NKJV). That “the Lord’s day” in Revelation 1.10 most likely refers to Sunday follows from the fact that “the phrase is clearly and consistently used of Sunday from the second half of the second century on” (Gregory Beale, The Book of Revelation [NIGTC], in loc.). Revelation 1:10 is probably “the first mention in Christian literature of the Lord’s day as a technical term for the first day of the week” (Robert Mounce, The Book of Revelation, in loc.).

Though much more might be argued, the cumulative weight of evidence is massive in these eight biblical considerations in favor of recognizing that Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is the Christian Sabbath, as many centuries of Christian teaching have held. The Lord be praised for giving us the weekly holy day for our refreshment and edification to His honor until He returns to consummate His kingdom of grace and glory. Amen. Ω

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