Self-Denial and Sacred Delight

The principle issue behind the Sabbath command is love for the Lord. In fact, it is the principle issue behind the entire moral law of God (see Matt.22:37,38). But the application of our love to God by keeping the Sabbath focuses on loving God with our "time". This is why God says:

"Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day (or the first day now under the New Covenant) is a Sabbath to the Lord your God" (Ex.20:9,10).

How gracious and generous God is to us. He grants us six full days to pursue all our legitimate interests of work and recreation; while requiring only one day to be devoted entirely to His worship and service. This doesn't mean of course that we do not worship God the other six days, but our worship of the Lord in those six days are fraught with much distraction! But on the Sabbath, on this one day, we have the privilege to show unfettered love to our Lord by self-denial and sacred delight.

Consider how Isaiah 58:13,14 unfolds this two-fold dynamic of what we deny and what we enjoy on the Lord's day:

"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

In the first place, our love to the Lord on the Sabbath is shown by self-denial. We do not profane this holy day by treading upon it with our selfish ambitions and pursuits: "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath..." The outworking of such desecration would be to do those things which only please us rather than God. Again, it is all about the use of our time on this day. How do we spend the day in our thoughts, conversation, and activity? Are we doing those things that bring us into closer communion with God - like reading Scripture, praying, witnessing to others, ministering to the sick, gathering in public worship? If the time we spend on the Lord's day is anything less than what will bring us directly into fellowship with Christ, then we are profaning His holy day! So turn off the T.V., refuse to do business with the world, and leave your household chores alone. The Sabbath is God's day not family day, not sports day, not work day. We must therefore deny ourselves on this holy day.

But on the other side of self-denial, our love to the Lord on the Sabbath is shown by sacred delight. There is no day in all the week that encourages greater joy in the heart of the Christian than the Sabbath. "Call the Sabbath a delight," God says through Isaiah. A delight! Why? Because we have the justified opportunity and advantage to devote all of our time in one day to the worship of our God. Moreover, when we honor the Lord on His day, He in turn blesses us with the joy of Himself: "I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father." In figurative language, God promises to bless us with Himself. Can anything be greater to the Christian heart than to enjoy more of God? This is our heritage as God's people and it is the heavenly reward of calling the Sabbath a delight.

The Sabbath Command Still Exists

As hard as it is to believe in our lawless age, God's command to keep the Sabbath is still a viable and binding moral requirement for every Christian. Let me give at least three biblical reasons which prove that the Sabbath command still exists for today. First, the perpetuity of the "moral law" as a whole proves the continued existence of the Sabbath command. Nowhere in the Bible is God's command to keep the Sabbath isolated from the binding nature of God's moral law as the rule and standard for how we are to live. For instance, in God's promise for the New Covenant, He declared through Jeremiah: "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts..." (Jer.31:33). He does not say, "I will put My law, except for the Sabbath command, in their minds, etc..." It is the whole of the moral law that God promises to inscripturate on the new hearts and minds of His people in the New Covenant (see Heb.8:8-13). And this includes the Sabbath command which is "the fourth commandment" in God's moral law (see Ex.20:8-11).

There is also the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself regarding the moral law, where our Lord maintained that He came to fulfill it and not to destroy it; and whoever teaches men to break one of the least of the law's commands would be called least in the kingdom of heaven (Matt.5:17-19). The Sabbath command was no exception to this standard Christ laid down. Moreover, there are the descriptions of the moral law as being "holy, just, and good", along with "spiritual" (Rom.7:12,14). Again, the Sabbath command is not excluded from these descriptions. Henceforth, by the perpetuity of the moral law as a whole, establishes clearly the perpetuity of the Sabbath command for today.

Second, the extensive teaching of Christ Himself regarding the Sabbath establishes its continuation for today (see Matt.12:1-14; Mk.2:23-3:6; Lk.6:1-11; 13:10-17; 14:1-6; Jn.5:1-18; 7:20-24). In all four Gospels , no less than eight times, Jesus is recorded as giving a thorough teaching and clarification on the Sabbath command. Nowhere does Christ undermine or abolish the Sabbath. Rather He clears the confusion which the Jewish leaders in His day were propagating about it. Concerning this fact, J.C. Ryle elaborated:

"The plain truth is that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath: He only freed it from incorrect interpretations, and purified it from man-made additions. He did not tear out of [the Ten Commandments] the fourth commandment: He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had encrusted the day, and by which they had made it, not a blessing, but a burden. He left the fourth commandment where he found it, - a part of the eternal law of God, of which no jot or tittle was ever to pass away. May we never forget this!"

Now one of the most prominent errors of the Jewish leaders regarding the Sabbath was that a "day of rest" meant a day of total inactivity and non-exertion. But human dormancy in which one becomes completely passive has never been the point of keeping the Sabbath. In response then to such gross misinterpretation, Jesus advocated three types of activity that were lawful for the Sabbath. First, there are to be works of piety. This is the most obvious reason for God ordaining a day of rest from our normal employments: it is to redirect our energies and efforts toward the work of worshipping and serving the Lord with unhindered devotion (cf., Isa.58:13-14; e.g., Matt.12::5; Jn.5:17).

Second, there are to be works of necessity (see Matt.12:1-6). This would include such things as food, sleep, and cleanliness which all meet basic human needs and are in full accord with keeping the Sabbath. The third and final type of work Jesus advocated for Sabbath-keeping was works of mercy (see Matt.12:7-13). Above all other conflicts Jesus had with the Pharisees over the Sabbath, it was at this point that the greatest contention ensued. The Pharisees were infuriated with Christ for healing people and feeding His disciples on the Sabbath (Mk.2:23-3:6). But Jesus reproved their Sabbath errors and lack of love for God and others by both example and teaching. He fed hungry disciples and healed the sick. And in this way, Jesus teaches us what is lawful and right and honoring to God in keeping the Sabbath.

Making a pointed application by Christ's example concerning these "works" which should be carried out on the Sabbath, Walter Chantry noted:

"When you confront specific questions regarding behavior on the Sabbath, you will find some issues of application to be obvious, while others are less clear. If you think of the issue of necessity, all will at once recognize that it is proper on the Sabbath for armed forces and police to defend society. It is appropriate for ambulance drivers, nurses and firefighters to work on God's holy day. None will question in these cases. On the other side of the continuum it is altogether clear that the work of athletes, clowns and trinket salesman is unnecessary on the Sabbath. Some cases are black and white."

The final reason for the continuation of the Sabbath, is that the New Testament clearly teaches a continued Sabbath-keeping for the Church; having only changed the day of worship from the seventh to the first, as the result of Christ's resurrection which accomplished the redemption the Old Covenant looked forward to which the New Covenant now fulfills. The essential and greatest proof of this continued Sabbath-keeping in the New Covenant is seen in the historical narratives immediately following Christ's resurrection. In all four Gospel accounts of the resurrection, at the head of each narrative, we see the words: "Now on the first day of the week..." (Matt.28:1; Mk.16:1; Lk.24:1; Jn.20:1). And what follows this revelation of time, is the several appearances that Christ makes on this "first day of the week" to all His disciples. The whole of the day from "morning" (see Matt.28:1-10) till "evening" (see Lk.24:13-32; Jn.20:19-23) becomes a "holy day" of worship to the risen Lord. Hence, by the events of this first day of the week, the Lord Jesus Christ was setting a new pattern: the seventh-day Sabbath of the Old Covenant was changed by Christ Himself to the "Lord's day" as the Christian Sabbath for all New Covenant believers. This means therefore that the substance of the Sabbath commandment (Ex.20:9-11) remains unchanged except for the day itself that is now to be observed on Sunday (see Acts 20:6-7; I Cor.16:1-4; cf. Heb.4:9-11). The famed church historian, Philip Schaff, summed up the continuation of the Sabbath on Sunday in this way:

"This is the beginning of the history of the Lord's Day, which to this day has never suffered a single interruption in Christian lands...Sunday is here pointed out by our Lord Himself and honored by His special presence as the day of religion, and public worship, and so it will remain to the end of time. God's word and God's day are inseparable companions and the pillars of God's church."

Too Much Like The World

In Romans 12:2 there is a divine imperative given for all Christians in every age: "Do not be conformed to the world..." In other words, do not let the world shape you into its mold. This means that we are not to allow the way we think or feel or conduct our lives to be "conformed" into the thoughts, affections, and actions of the world outside of Christ. A Christian therefore is to be separate in how he lives before the world. Another term for this way of life is "holiness." Christians are to live holy (see II Cor.6:14-7:1; Heb.12:14; I Pet.1:15,16). And the supreme way in which every believer in Christ lives holy is by living in obedience to God's Word, which calls for an evident non-conformity to how the rest of the world lives.

Thus, for the Christian, he is to talk in a manner that obeys God's Word. This would exemplify gracious words that build others up, rather than engaging in words which are coarse, gossiping, slanderous, and deceitful (Eph.4:25,29; 5:4). A Christian is also to think in obedience to God's Word. What we think about God, about Jesus Christ, about man, about sin, salvation, heaven, hell, marriage, family, government, and everything else in life - must all come under the divine authority of God's Word (II Tim.3:16-17). And from thinking in obedience to what God's Word teaches will also spill over into the very manner and conduct that we carry into the world everyday. The world that is outside of Christ should therefore see a difference in how Christians live! A difference that openly follows Jesus Christ in a spirit of love and devotion that seeks to make much of Him and His glory no matter what that may cost them in the eyes of the world (Matt.10:16,34-39; Lk.9:23; 14:26).

And one of the greatest opportunities Christians have every week to show such selfless and sacrificial devotion to Christ, is on the first day of the week - which is called "the Lord's day" or "the Christian Sabbath" (see Acts 20:7; I Cor.16:2; Rev.1:10; cf. Ex,20:8-11; Isa.58:13-14). But the sad truth is, the vast majority of professing Christians in our day fail greatly to express their love for Christ in this way. For many Christians, to speak in terms of "keeping the Sabbath" or "observing the Lord's day", is a language and activity which is foreign at best and scolded at worst for being "too rigid" and "legalistic". To say this another way: despite God's command to set apart one day out of seven for His worship alone, most Christians find such a command a taxing burden on their time rather than an expression of love to the Lord.

Therefore, it seems to be at this point more than any other, where Christians are too much like the world rather than being different from the world. In other words, how often is Sunday - the Christian Sabbath - treated by many Christians as just another ordinary day? How many Christians are there who buy, sell and work on this "holy day"? Or how many Christians celebrate things other than the worship of God on this day, or in addition to the worship of God on this day? The point is, when God commanded in His Word, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Ex.20:8), much of the Church in these modern times have turned a deaf ear and have followed after the passions and pursuits of the world. To say it again, we are too much like the world when it comes to how we treat the Lord's holy day.