Does God Hold The Christian Accountable To Keep The Saturday Sabbath

Preface

Many people have questions about the Sabbath. Many are unsure where they stand with God because of their lack of understanding of the Sabbath and how they should relate to it. The person who searches out the truth in Scripture, may find this booklet to be of help. A person who’s mind is already made up, will find this booklet to be of little value. I trust anyone who reads this booklet will not stop if he is still unsure about the Sabbath, but will continue on until the true freedom in Christ is clearly seen. God promises to reveal this to anyone who searches for the Lord with all his heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

Anyone who thinks that he receives favor of God by what he does, or thru his own works or actions, is on the wrong ground to walk with God. Scripture teaches that the favor of God comes by the grace of God, through faith to follow Him in what He has told us, with nothing else added (Ephesians 2:8-9).

1. The first Sabbath.

“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3).

The meaning of the word Sabbath in the Hebrew language is, repose, cessation from exertion: In the Greek, the word is Sabbaton, which means, to cease, desist (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).

The seventh day Sabbath (rest) was in the beginning, an example for Adam and his offspring to follow. The day was set apart from the six preceding days; however, no command was given to Adam to keep it. In the Sabbath, Jehovah has given an example of man’s need of rest. For Adam it was to observe the creation and to rest in God’s handiwork (Job 36:24-25; Psalms 19:1).

When sin came in through Eve and Adam, the Sabbath as Adam knew it was no more. It became a day to rest from earning his living in the world by the sweat of his brow (Genesis 3:17-19). More importantly it would show Adam and all his offspring their need for the eternal rest which he no longer possessed. This rest would only come through faith in the promised seed of God (Genesis 3:15).

God the Father and the Son worked (for the redemption of man) from the time of Adam’s sin until the cross of Jesus (John 5:17). At the cross, Jesus finished the work His Father gave Him to do (John 5:36; 9:4; 17:4; 19:30). This work that Jesus accomplished has given revelation to the true Sabbath of God. Those who keep His words, enter into His eternal rest (Matthew 11:28-29; Hebrews 4:3).

The first Sabbath (Saturday) was for the first man Adam and his offspring; for the man of this earth. The second Adam, Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45), brought a Sabbath (Himself) that was not of this earth, a Sabbath of another kingdom (John 18:36). This Sabbath is only entered into by those who follow Him.

2. The first Sabbath commandment.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).

The first time in Scripture the word Sabbath is used is in Exodus 16:23; it is called “a holy Sabbath to the Lord.” However, the seventh day rest is spoken of in the beginning of Scripture in connection with creation (Genesis 2:2).

a. The Sabbath given only to Israel among the nations.

Unlike all the other nations of the world, Israel alone was ordered to keep the Sabbath. In fact, the Sabbath was to be for a sign between God and Israel (not the nations), forever (Exodus 20:8-11; 31:16-17). The God of Israel not only ordered His people Israel to keep the Sabbath, but the land also was to keep the Sabbath (Leviticus 25:2, 4, 6).

b. How did God order the Sabbath to be kept?

God commanded Israel to rest on the Sabbath. This meant no work was to be done on that day (Exodus 31:15; Deuteronomy 5:14). Every Israelite was to remain in his place, booth, or home on the Sabbath day (Exodus 16:29). If any Israelite violated the Sabbath commandment, God ordered death to him as the penalty (Exodus 31:14-15; 35:2; Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Numbers 15:32-36, records a man who had violated the Sabbath by picking up sticks, and what God’s sentence was for his actions. God commanded Moses that he be stoned to death.

c. God commanded the land in Israel to keep the Sabbath.

God also ordered the Israelites to keep a Sabbath of the land unto the Lord on the 7th year. Six years the land was to be worked, the seventh year the land was to rest (Leviticus 25:1-7). Grapes or other produce could be eaten by the people during the Sabbath year but not harvested. God would command His blessing on Israel and the land during the sixth year to be enough for 3 years (Leviticus 25:21).

One year out of 7 years (for seven Sabbaths) the land would rest for a total of 49 years, and on the first year after the seventh Sabbath was the 50th year. God proclaimed it His year of Jubilee for Israel (Leviticus 25:8-24). On this year, liberty was to be proclaimed throughout the land. There would be two Sabbaths years in a row, year 49 and 50. God would supply their material needs for 4 years in these Sabbath years. A person’s land was his inheritance; if he sold it, he could buy it back any time up to the year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee it was to revert back to its original owner (Leviticus 25:28).

d. Other Sabbaths.

Besides the Saturday Sabbath, God commanded many other Sabbaths. For example, in Leviticus chapter 23 there are 7 feasts to Jehovah. These Sabbath feast days were commanded by Jehovah to be kept once a year. They were called Sabbaths (Leviticus 16:31; 23:3, 7-8, 21, 24, 28-32, 35, 38-39). These Sabbath days may be one day or several days, depending on which holy day was being observed.

The Sabbaths that God gave Israel were not optional to the Israelite, but mandatory, with penalty for violation. They were always connected with the land that God had given to Israel, the land of Canaan.

3. Did Jesus keep the Sabbath?

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19).

Jesus was a Jew and kept the Law of Moses, including the Sabbath, perfectly for the first 30 years of His earthly life. When He was baptized (Matthew 3:16-17), He started His ministry of teaching the kingdom of God. He then became Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8). He no longer was subject to the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was subject to Him.

God had given the Law of Moses to Israel but they had not kept it (John 7:19: Acts 7:53). Jesus, as the Son of God and the second Adam, came to fulfill the Law to completion. Scripture teaches He did not come to destroy the Law of Moses or to make it void. He lived in perfect obedience to the Law (John 8:46; 1 Peter 2:21-23). This included all 613 of the commandments of the Law of which the Sabbath and the Sabbaths were a part.

Jesus entirely pleased His Father in His obedience in keeping the Law of Moses (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Hebrews 4:15). In His death on the cross, as God’s sacrificial Lamb, He fulfilled and completed the Law of Moses (God’s Law) by shedding His life’s blood for the redemption of all men (John 19:30; 1 John 2:2).

Jesus, in His body, completed the Law at Calvary, and God received His sacrifice. His sacrifice being received, the Law of Moses was completed. This brought an end to man attempting to keep the law and find favor with God and receive His righteousness (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24-25). With the Law of Moses now fulfilled, God began a new dispensation at the resurrection of Jesus, “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2). In the dispensation of the grace of God, gaining God’s righteousness does not come by attempting to keep the Law of Moses or any of its commandments (including the Sabbath), but by faith in Jesus Christ, plus nothing (Ephesians 2:8-9). Scripture teaches us a person in this present day who is attempting to keep the Law of Moses without keeping all 613 commandments is living under a curse (Galatians 3:10-12).

The Christian pathway in the present time is to live his life unto and “in Christ,” in the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:9). The Christian’s subjection and obedience is not to the Law of Moses which includes the Sabbath (Saturday), but to Christ and His kingdom alone.

4. Did the apostles’ keep the Sabbath?

“Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:6.9).

Some have said and taught that the Apostle Paul kept the Law of Moses, including the Sabbath. The evidence as seen by some, is the many times he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as recorded in the book of Acts. Paul, in laboring to make Christ known, wherever the Holy Spirit led him, went to the “Jew first” (Romans 1:16). The Jews would be gathered at the synagogue on the Sabbath. That was Paul’s first stop every where he labored to make Christ known (Acts 13:14, 42; 17:1-2; 18:4, 19).

Nowhere in Scripture do we find that the Apostle Paul taught individuals or the Church to keep the Sabbath. When he met with an assembly (a church) it was on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). He instructed the assembly at Corinth to put money aside on the first day of the week (when they came together on the Lord ’s Day) (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). So when he came and gathered with them on the first day of the week, there would be no collection.

When Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch, men from Judea came saying that without being circumcised you cannot be saved (Acts 15:1). This caused a dispute with Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas determined that the apostles and elders at Jerusalem should answer this question about circumcision given in the Law of Moses. They then went to Jerusalem to put this matter before the apostles and elders. The brethren at Jerusalem, after hearing the matter of whether Christians should keep the Law of Moses, said “we gave no such commandment” (Acts 15:24). They said these men who teach such things are unsettling and subverting your souls (Acts 15:24).

As has been stated earlier, the Law of Moses is made up of 613 commandments, each one as valid as the next. No one can pick and choose which commandment he will or will not keep, including keeping the Sabbath (Deuteronomy 27:26). As has also been stated previously, Scripture instructs that a curse abides upon anyone who tries to keep one or only some of the commandments but does not keep all 613 (Galatians 3:10-12).

5. Is the Church spiritual Israel?

“Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God” (1 Corinthians 10:32).

In the Scripture above, we gain understanding of how God has divided the world into 3 separate people groups. He deals differently with each group. God has chosen the Jews as His earthly people (Ezekiel 20:5-7). To Israel, He has revealed His adoption, glory, covenants, giving of the Law (Law of Moses), service of God and His promises (Romans 9:4). God revealed through Jewish Prophets that a Messiah would come to save Israel.

God has revealed to the Church of Jesus Christ, that all who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, are His elect heavenly people for eternity (Ephesians 3:1-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18). They are Christ’s body, His bride; His Holy Spirit dwells in everyone that belongs to Him (John 3:29; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Revelation 21:2, 9). Everyone that is His, constitutes the true Church, whether Jew or Gentile (Romans 10:11-12).

The Greeks, meaning Gentile unbelievers without the knowledge of God, occupy the place of being under the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-3, 11-12; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Revelation 20:11-15). In this day, the Holy Spirit is bidding all men (unbelievers) everywhere to receive the gift of God. God’s method for man to receive this gift, is to believe the gospel of Christ and become His people and a part of the Church of Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-13).

Every word of God, we are told, is divinely inspired (2 Timothy 3:16). However, every Scripture does not apply to every person. What God has instructed for the Jews (the Law of Moses) was given to the Jews, not Gentiles, unless a Gentile was a proselyte to Judaism (Exodus 12:48-49; Mark 7:25-28).

To the Church, God has given the revelation of Christ to His apostles and prophets, to build His Church (Ephesians 2:19-22). These truths are called the “doctrine of Christ” (2 John 1:9). The doctrine of Christ (the Apostles’ Doctrine) is primarily found in the epistles which were written by the apostles.

What needs to be understood by all is this; the promises of God to Israel are yea and amen. The promises of God to the Church are also yea and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). However, these promises to Israel and to the Church are not the same promises. For Israel, the promises of God are natural and entirely earthly. For the Church, the promises of God are spiritual and heavenly.

The Law of Moses that God gave to Israel was for Israel alone and those Gentiles who were proselytes to Judaism (Acts 15:22-24: Galatians 2:11-19). The divine revelation in Christ, given to the Church, is only for the Church. When these two are not distinguished as God’s separate entities, confusion is brought into the professing church. This attempt to Judaize the Church is readily seen in the Church today by those who take God’s word which was only given to Israel and try to apply it to the Church.

Neither Jesus, nor His apostles gave any instructions to the Church to keep the Sabbath. The result of keeping the Sabbath or any of the other 613 commandments today is to Judaize the Church and bring saints of heavenly calling back to a place of living after the first Adam and after natural purposes. This place is not of faith, nor is it from the Spirit of God. Some are confused today about the Sabbath. If these people will seek the Lord only for their answer, they will see the Church as God’s building of heavenly people (1 Corinthians 3:9-11), and the Sabbath question will disappear as the heavenly glories of Christ are seen.

6. Types and shadows.

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward…” (Colossians 2:16.18).

One may ask the question; what are types and shadows as seen in Scripture? To answer this question, we need to understand that before the world’s foundation was set, Christ was predestined to come into the world as its Saviour (1 Peter 1:19-20; Revelation 13:8). God chose the nation Israel and its people, to reveal His Son Jesus Christ as the Messiah who would come into the world. The prophets in Israel prophesied of His coming, over many centuries. There were also direct divine messages, dreams, the appearance of angels with prophetic messages, types, shadows, and God Himself appearing in human form, which foretold of the Messiah to come.

The Law of Moses that God gave to Israel has many types in it of which Christ is the antitype (fulfillment). We will look at some of these types and shadows along with their fulfillment:

Christ

Type: God tells Abraham to take his only son and go to Mount Moriah. There he to was sacrifice him as a burnt offering on an altar (Genesis 22:1-12).

Antitype: Eighteen hundred years later God gave His only Son as a blood sacrifice on Mount Moriah for the sins of the world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2).

Type: Abraham sent his servant to his own people to take a bride for his only son, Isaac (Genesis 24:1-14). The servant revealed all the wealth and glory of his master’s son to the bride to be (Genesis 24:34-37).

Antitype: God the Father sent the Holy Spirit (the Servant) on the day of Pentecost to take a bride for His Son Jesus Christ (Acts 2:1-4, 14-40). The Holy Spirit woos those who would be the Son’s bride by revealing His glories and wealth (Ephesians 3:8).

Type: Jacob’s son Joseph, was betrayed, hated and rejected by his brethren; they sold him for silver to the world’s powers for his destruction (Genesis 37:20-28).

Antitype: Christ, the Son of His Father, was betrayed, hated and rejected by His Jewish brethren and sold for silver to the world’s power for His destruction (Matthew 26:14-15, 47-56).

Type: In the Feast of the Passover, God commanded that Israel take a lamb, kill it and put it’s blood over the doorpost. The feast was a remembrance that God delivered them from their slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-14).

Antitype: Christ, the true Passover Lamb, shed His blood to deliver the believer from the slavery of the world and asks us to remember Him in His death (John 1:29; Romans 6:14-23; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 11:23).

Type: God commanded Israel to keep the Feast of Firstfruits. This feast was to celebrate the first of the barley harvest (Leviticus 23:9-10).

Antitype: Christ, risen from the dead, is the Firstfruit of all who are His, who will rise from the dead unto eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

Type: God commanded that Israel sacrifice a sin offering, it was to be most holy. Its blood was to make atonement for an Israelite’s sin (Leviticus 6:24-30).

Antitype: Jesus, is God’s sin offering for all time. In His blood, people receive forgiveness of their sins, leading to their salvation (Hebrews 10:1-14).

These types are only a few of the many types and shadows that Christ fulfilled in Scripture.

Next, we will look at the types and shadows that reveal the first or eighth day as a day of new life and new beginnings.

The first day of the week

Shadow and type: The Feast of Firstfruits was started by the sheaf (ears of the grain harvest) waved before the Lord on the first day after the Sabbath, which is Sunday (Leviticus 23: 9-11).

Antitype: The Feast of Firstfruits is fulfilled on the first day of the week, on the Resurrection Day. Also in the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit as He creates new life in the believer. No longer laboring for God’s power, but abiding in the Firstfruit power of the Sabbath of God, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:23).

Shadow and type: Melchizedek, a priest and king, of Salem (Jerusalem), broke the bread and drank the cup with Abraham (Genesis 14:18).

Antitype: Christ, the High Priest and King of the heavenly Jerusalem, gives the bread and the cup to His disciples and tells them to worship Him by remembering Him in His death. The disciples practiced this worship on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7)

Shadow and type: The Feast of Weeks was to be kept on 7 Sabbaths, plus a day, or fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits. Sunday was the day this feast was to start (Leviticus 23:15-16).

Antitype: The antitype of the Feast of weeks is Pentecost. It was the day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room, baptizing them into the body of Christ. This happened on Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 2:1-4).

Shadow and type: God gave the Sabbath to Israel to keep and reverence (Exodus 20:8-11).

Antitype: Christ as a Jew, kept the Sabbath for the first 30 years of His life. He then stated His ministry of revealing Himself as Israel’s Messiah and taught and proclaimed the kingdom of God and Himself as the Sabbath and Lord over the Sabbath of the Jews (Matthew 11:28;12:8).

Shadow and type: God ordered a man executed for working on the Sab-bath day (Numbers 15:32-36).

Antitype: Jesus, the author of eternal life after starting His ministry, works on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-7). He being the Sabbath of God, works the work of His Father, and brings life to those without it on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10-13; John 9:1-7).

Shadow and type: Jesus, as the Messiah, was prophesied to rise from the dead in resurrection life (Psalms 16:10).

Antitype: Jesus arose from among the dead on Sunday, resurrection day (Matthew 28:1).

Shadow and type: Jonah was swallowed by a great fish into its belly for 3 day and 3 nights. God raised Jonah to life from death (Sheol) out of the fishes mouth, by resurrection power (Jonah 1:17; 2:1-10).

Antitype: Jesus, in death (Sheol), was 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth. He was raised on Sunday, the day of new beginnings (Matthew 12:40).

Shadow and type: It was prophesied the Christ would announce the victory of His resurrection from the dead to His brethren (Psalms 22:21-24).

Antitype: Christ, after His resurrection on Sunday, went to His disciples, His brethren, and announces His victory over death (John 20:19-20).

7. The first three centuries.

“Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, …(Acts 20:7).

“Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

The professing church in the first three centuries brought forth many cults, sects, and divisions that turned away from the truths that the Holy Spirit taught through the apostles of Christ. Legalism at that time was at the center of most of these abnormalities, and is today as well. Almost every epistle the apostles wrote, spoke to the error of turning away from Christ through following the Law of Moses.

Some have made the claim that the Church practiced meeting on the Sabbath for the first three hundred years. They also claim that the Council of Laodicea (4th century), and Constantine the Roman Emperor (4th century) changed the Sabbath to Sunday. To find out what the Church practiced for the first three hundred years concerning the Sabbath, we will go to those who lived and wrote on the Church practices during that period of time. They are commonly called, “The Apostolic Fathers.” What they wrote is not Scripture, and may contain doctrinal errors, but they recorded the common practices in the Church of their day.

The following are a series of quotations from these historians:

“Is there any other matter my (Jewish) friends in which we Christians are blamed than this: that we do not live after the law … and do not observe Sabbaths as you do?” (Justin Martyr, 160 A D).

“This fact is evident, for Abraham himself — without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths — Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness: (Irenaeus, 180 A D).

“Melchizedek also, the priest of the most high God, although uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God” (Tertullian, 190 A. D.).

“…For concerning their (Jews) Sabbath, Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, … He abolished the Sabbath” (Victorinis, 280 A D).

The eighth day is also the first day of the week

“I will make a [new] beginning of the eighth day, that is a beginning of another world. For that reason, also, we keep the eighth day with joy in fullness, the day also which Jesus rose again from the dead” (Barnabas, 70 – 130 A D).

“… for the eighth day (that is the first day after the Sabbath) was to be that day on which the Lord would rise again, enliven us, and give us the circumcision of the Spirit. The eighth day (that is, the first day after the Sabbath), the Lord’s day, was foreshadowed” (Cypian, 250 A D).

Sunday

“No longer observing the Sabbath, but living in observance of the Lord’s day” (Ignatius 105 A D).

“But Sunday is the day we all hold our common assembly, …” (Justin Martyr, 160 A D).

“Others … Suppose that the Sun is the god of the Christians … because we make Sunday a day of festivity” (Tertullian 197 A D).

Lord’s Day

“But every Lord’s Day gather yourselves together, and break bread…” (Didache, 80 – 140 A D).

The previous quotes are from, “A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs,” Hendrickson Publishers.

From another book more quotes are found:

“If then, those who had lived in antiquated practices came to newness of hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath but living in accordance with the Lord’s Day, on which our life also rose though Him and His death…” (The letters of Ignatius), The Apostolic Fathers, Baker Book House Company.

“For the first three centuries of the Christians era the first day of the week was never confounded with the “Sabbath;” the confusion of the Jewish and Christian institutions was due to declension from apostolic teaching,” Vines Complete Expository Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publisher.

8. God’s Sabbath for the Christian in the Church Age.

“And He said to them, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5).

The following is a comparison between what God gave to the (A.) natural man Adam, (who is only of this earth and this world), and the (B.) Christian who has risen from the dead, and has been placed in another kingdom and the world to come.

1. Shows what God made for the natural man of this world (Genesis 1:28-30; 1 Corinthians 15:47-49).
2. Shows what God has made for the new man risen from the dead and alive with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenlies (1 Corinthians 15:45; Ephesians 2:4-6).

A. The Natural Man: Work to be 6 days a week, and then rest on the seventh day (Deuteronomy 5:12-13).

B. The Christian: Rejoice and rest in Christ on the first day, Resurrection Day; work 6 days (Acts 20:7).

A. The Natural Man: The Sabbath for the natural in the first creation (Genesis 2:1-3).

B. The Christian: Christ, the Sabbath, for, Adam the new man in the kingdom of Christ (Matthew 12:8; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

A. The Natural Man: The Jewish Feast of Weeks; seven Sabbaths plus a day (Leviticus (23:15-22).

B. The Christian: Feast of Weeks, seven Sab-baths plus a day is fulfilled at Pentecost, the first day of the week, Resurrection Day; the day, the Church received divine life, the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4).

A. The Natural Man: Day 7, Saturday, the Sab-bath (Genesis 2:2).The Sabbath, for the old man Adam, in the first creation of God (Exodus 16:23-30).

B. The Christian: Day 1 or 8, Sunday, the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10). Resurrection Day, for the new man in Christ, in Christ’s kingdom (Acts 20:7).

A. The Natural Man: The promise of the Law of Moses fulfilled (Matthew 5:17).

B. The Christian: Christ, the fulfillment of the Law (John 19:30; Romans 10:4).

A. The Natural Man: Those in the professed church who are trying to be Jews, judged of Christ (Revelation 3:9-12).

B. The Christian: Those commended of Christ, those who keep Jesus as their Sabbath of God (Revelation 3:9).

A. The Natural Man: God gave the Sabbath to Israel as a sign between them and Himself (Ezekiel 20:12).

B. The Christian: God’s separated place in the world for the Christian is Christ, He is the Resurrection, the new beginning (Matthew 28:1; John 11:25); the first day and the eighth day; “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End, says the Lord” (Revelation 1:8).

A. The Natural Man: On the night before Jesus was crucified, He broke bread with His disciples after the Passover Meal and told them of the New Covenant (Mark 14:22-24).

B. The Christian: On Sunday, Resurrection Day, Jesus, broke bread with His disciples, on the day of God’s New Covenant (Luke 24:30), starting the new “Dispensation of the Grace of of God” (Ephesians 3:2).

A. The Natural Man: God gave Israel the Sabbath as a day of rest (Exodus 31:15).

B. The Christian: God sent Christ, for the Christian to receive a life of rest (Hebrews 4:3, 10).

The Christian is not a Jew or an Israelite, nor is his ground of fellowship with Christ on the basis of the Law of Moses. Christ is the Christian’s total and complete Sabbath. He is told not to keep holy days, Sabbath (s) (Galatians 4:8-11; Colossians 2:14:17) but to keep only the person of Christ as holy.

The Holy Spirit uses the Greek word “Sabbatismos” in Hebrews 4:9. This word is related to the word Sabbath (rest) and refers to the eternal rest which will be enjoyed by all those in Christ, forever. It is the believers eternal Sabbath and will never end.

A Christian who goes back to Judaism (keeping the Sabbath, circumcision or other laws) rejects the grace of God given through His Son, and has fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).

D. Neely

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“…these things says He who is Holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie…” (Revelation 3:7-9).