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The short answer is
no. The first time God commanded anyone to
keep the seventh day as a Sabbath rest was
when He gave it to Israel to keep just
before entering into the Mosaic Covenant
with them on Mount Sinai in Exodus 16. That
means Israel was about half way to Mount
Sinai before God gave them the Sabbath to
observe.
Exodus 16:22-23 says, “On the sixth day
they gathered twice as much bread, two omers
each. And when all the leaders of the
congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said
to them, “This is what the LORD has
commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn
rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what
you will bake and boil what you will boil,
and all that is left over lay aside to be
kept till the morning.’”
If the
Sabbath was a moral obligation then God
would have insisted that Israel keep the day
immediately, but he did not. God also didn’t
tell Israel to “remember” the Sabbath day in
Exodus 16 like He does in Exodus 20 because
it was the first time anyone had ever heard
about the seventh day of the week being set
aside for a day of rest.
The first
time any Jewish Holy day is mentioned in
scripture, it always lacks the definite
article (i.e. “a” Sabbath), just like Exodus 16
reads.
• None of the Jewish Holy
days are introduced for the first time in
scripture with the definite article “the”
but with the indefinite “a” or “an”.
•
The indefinite article is used both before
and after something has been instituted, but
the definite article (“the” Sabbath) is
never used the first time something is
introduced.
• This proves that the weekly
Sabbath did not exist before Exodus 16:23.
• Every Jewish Holy day follows this same
pattern!
Examples:
First Time Instituted: ⇨ After
Instituted.
Tomorrow is “a” Sabbath: Exodus 16:23 ⇨ “the”
Lord has given you the Sabbath: Exodus 16:29.
“a” memorial: Exodus 12:14 ⇨ afterwards,
the Lord’s Passover: Exodus 12:21, 27.
“a” holy convocation: Leviticus 23:21 ⇨ the Day
of Pentecost: Acts 2:1.
“an”
alter: Genesis 8:20 ⇨ the Altar: Genesis 8:20.
“a” day of atonement: Leviticus 23:27 ⇨ the
Day of atonement: Leviticus 23:28; 25:9.
Some people will argue that the Sabbath was
given before the rest of the Law was given
on Mount Sinai so it must be kept today.
Just because God made something a
requirement before He gave the other
requirements of the Mosaic Covenant doesn’t
mean they are still in effect today.
Circumcision, the Passover, and the Sabbath
were all given to Israel before God gave
them the rest of the laws in the covenant
but are not required of Christians in the New Covenant
(Acts 15:1-20; Col. 2:11; 2:16-17; 1 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-16; Gal. 4:10-11).
The Hebrew word for Sabbath, “shabbath” that is used in
the Ten Commandments is never found in the
book of Genesis. No one before Moses was
ever told to keep the Sabbath. If they did,
why are there no examples of anyone keeping
it from Adam to Moses? The Patriarchs were
never instructed about the Sabbath, but were
instructed about: being fruitful and
increasing in number: Gen. 1:26-22; ruling
over the earth: Gen. 1:28; their diet: Gen. 1:29-30; 2:16-17;
Gen. 9:1-4; marriage: Gen. 2:24; Gen. 34:9; offerings:
Gen. 4:3-4; 14:20; altars: Gen. 8:20; Priests: Gen. 14:18;
and circumcision: Gen. 17:10.
Why is there no mention of God giving
instructions on how to keep the Sabbath day
holy if anyone actually kept it?
According to Nehemiah,
the Sabbath was not made known to anyone
until God gave it to Israel in the
wilderness.
Nehemiah 9:13-14
says, “You came down on Mount Sinai and
spoke with them from heaven and gave them
right rules and true laws, good statutes and
commandments, 14 and you made known to them
your holy Sabbath and commanded them
commandments and statutes and a law by Moses
your servant.”
The Sabbath
served as a ceremonial sign for the Mosaic
Covenant.
Exodus 31:13, 16, 17
says, “You
are to speak to the people of Israel and
say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths,
for this is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations, that you may
know that I, the LORD, sanctify you... 16
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep
the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath
throughout their generations, as a covenant
forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me
and the people of Israel that in six days
the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the
seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
And Ezekiel 20:12, 20 says, “Moreover, I
gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me
and them, that they might know that I am the
LORD who sanctifies them… 20 and keep my
Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign
between me and you, that you may know that I
am the LORD your God.”
These
two passages make it perfectly clear that
God gave the Sabbath to Israel alone to keep
as a ceremonial sign of their covenant with
him.
The Sabbath could only
serve as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant if it
was unique to Israel. It had to distinguish
Israel from all the other nations. The
Sabbath could not function as a visible sign
of God’s covenant with Israel if everyone
else was expected to keep it. A sign sets
something apart from the rest. In fact, one
of the main reasons God gave Israel for
keeping the Sabbath was to remind them of
how he was able to deliver them from bondage
in Egypt (Exod. 16:23, 29; 31:13-18; Deut. 5:12-15).
We cannot understand the Sabbath
apart from its place in the Mosaic
Covenant.
The Mosaic Covenant:
Like the Sabbath, the Old “Mosaic” Covenant
was given to the nation of Israel alone (Exod. 19;
Lev. 26:46; Rom. 9:4). It was made up of
three parts: the Ten Commandments, the
ordinances, and the elaborate system of
worship that included the priesthood, the
tabernacle, the offerings, and the annual
festivals (Exod. 20-40; Lev. 1-7; 23). All of
the various Sabbaths were given to
distinguish Israel from the surrounding
nations (Exod. 31:16-17; Lev. 23; Ne. 9:13-14; Ezek. 20:12, 20).
Moses said the
Ten Commandments were not made known to “any
of the fathers” of Israel who lived before
the time of the exodus.
Deuteronomy 5:2-6 says, “The LORD our God
made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3
Not with
our fathers did the LORD make this covenant,
but with us,
who are all of us here alive
today. 4 The LORD spoke with you face to
face at the mountain, out of the midst of
the fire, 5 while I stood between the LORD
and you at that time, to declare to you the
word of the LORD. For you were afraid
because of the fire, and you did not go up
into the mountain. He said: 6 “‘I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
(cf. Gal. 3:17-19).
The Ten Commandments did not exist as a
legal code before God gave them to Israel at
Mount Sinai. They served as the framework
for the rest of the 613 laws of the Mosaic
Covenant. All the laws of the Torah were
given to set Israel apart from the other
nations (Exod. 19:5).
Nehemiah 10:28-29
says, “The rest of the people, the priests,
the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers,
the temple servants, and all who have
separated themselves from the peoples of the
lands to the Law of God, their wives, their
sons, their daughters, all who have
knowledge and understanding, 29 join with
their brothers, their nobles, and enter into
a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law
that was given by Moses the servant of God,
and to observe and do all the commandments
of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his
statutes.”
2 Kings 17:13 says, “Yet
the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every
prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from
your evil ways and
keep my
commandments and my statutes,
in accordance
with all the Law that I commanded your
fathers, and that I
sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
And 2 Chronicles 34:31 says, “And the
king stood in his place and made a covenant
before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and
to keep his commandments and his testimonies
and his statutes, with all his heart and all
his soul, to perform the words of the
covenant that were written in this book.”
The Law of God was made up
of 613 individual laws.
God
made no distinction between the moral and
ceremonial laws in the Mosaic Covenant. The
expressions, the “Law of God”, and the “Law
of Moses”, are simply different ways of
referring to the same Law.
In Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah was reading to
the people from the Book of the Law that
they had not heard read their entire
lifetimes because of their captivity in
Babylon. Nehemiah wanted to restore Israel
to a lifestyle of covenant-keeping. Notice,
the passage uses the terms interchangeably,
leaving no doubt about what the covenant can
be called.
Nehemiah used the terms,
“the book of the law of Moses” (Ne. 8:1),
“the law” (Ne. 8:2), “book of the law” (Ne. 8:3),
“the law of God” (Ne. 8:8), and “book
of the law of God” (Ne. 8:18), to show that
all of those expressions are just different
ways of referring to the same law, or
covenant. The Law of God, and the Law of
Moses are the same law.
Nehemiah wrote these verses
with an almost prophetic eye toward the
future when people would falsely claim that
there were two different laws (or
covenants), when in fact, there was just one.
Proponents of the two-law theory claim that
the Ten Commandments are the Law of God,
written on tablets of stone by God himself, and are binding upon
believers in every age, while the Law of
Moses was given through Moses and was
only temporary. However, there has never
been a distinction made in the scriptures
between the Ten Commandments and the rest of
the 613 laws of the Mosaic Covenant.
In the Torah
(the first five books of the Hebrew Bible),
the Jews never refer to the Decalogue as the
Ten Commandments. They are called the Ten
Words, the Ten Statements, the Ten
Declarations, the Ten Sayings and even, the
Ten Things, but they are never referred to
as the Ten Commandments (Exod. 34:28, Deut. 4:13; 10:4). For the Jews, the Ten
Sayings make up the categories for the rest
of the Law, the Torah. That is why the Jews
refer to the Ten Sayings as the Ten
Principles. The Ten Sayings served as a
framework for the rest of the 613 laws of
the Mosaic Covenant.
The website,
Judaism 101 says this about the Old Covenant
laws, “According to Jewish tradition, G-d
gave the Jewish people 613 mitzvot
(commandments). All 613 of those mitzvot are
equally sacred, equally binding and equally
the word of G-d.” [1]
The Ten
Commandments are specifically referred to as
the words of the covenant.
Exodus 34:27-28 says, “And the LORD said to
Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance
with these words I have made a covenant with
you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there
with the LORD forty days and forty nights.
He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he
wrote on the tablets the words of the
covenant, the Ten Commandments.”
Deuteronomy 4:13 says, “And he declared to
you his covenant, which he commanded you to
perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and
he wrote them on two tablets of stone.”
And Deuteronomy 29:1 says, “These are
the words of the covenant that the LORD
commanded Moses to make with the people of
Israel in the land of Moab, besides the
covenant that he had made with them at
Horeb.”
One of the most distinguishing features
of the Ten Words is that they are the only
laws specifically referred to as “the
covenant” (Exod. 34:28). They represent the
entire covenant, all 613 laws. That is why they were among
the items placed inside the Ark of the
Covenant.
As the covenant sign, the
Sabbath was placed in the middle of the
legal document as a witness for the parties
involved.
“It was customary
among the peoples of the ancient Near East
that when an overlord made a covenant or
contract with those he conquered, a copy of
the written agreement was kept in the
sanctuary of the ruling party and another in
the sanctuary of the ruled party. A typical
feature of such covenants was that the seal,
or sign, was placed at or near the center of
the treaty document. This is similar to
contracts of today. If one acquires a loan
from a bank or makes some kind of other
financial deal with another, it is common
that the parties involved receive a copy of
the agreement stipulating the benefits,
obligations, and penalties if the contract
is broken. These contracts, or agreements,
come into effect once the appropriate
signatures are in place. But in the case of
the covenant made between God and Israel,
both copies (the two tablets) were placed in
one sanctuary, since God was both the ruling
party and Israel’s God. And the signature of
this contract was observance of the Sabbath
command, which was placed near the center of
the tablets of the covenant.”
[2]
The Mosaic Covenant was conditional
upon Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant.
Exodus 19:5-6 says, “Now therefore,
if
you will indeed obey my voice and keep my
covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession among all peoples, for all the
earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These
are the words that you shall speak to the
people of Israel.”
God told Moses that “if” Israel obeyed him,
they would be his chosen people, and his “treasured possession.” Ultimately, those
blessings were going to be extended to all
of the other nations and people on earth
(Deut. 8:19; Isa. 2:2-3; 11:10; 14:1; 55:5; 56:3-8;
Jer. 3:17; 16:19; 33:9; Zech. 2:11; 8:20-23).
This conditional promise was
structured after a Hittite, suzerain-vassal
covenant treaty from 1400 to 1300 B.C. and
it was meant to bring Israel closer to
realizing the promises made by God in the
Abrahamic Covenant. This type of conditional
covenant was commonly used between nations
at the time of the exodus. God promised
Israel either blessings, or curses depending
on how faithfully they kept the covenant in
Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30.
Exodus 19:3-24:11 “describes events
surrounding the making of the covenant
between the Lord and Israel, using practices
and terms familiar in the culture. When a
powerful king (the suzerain) would send a
treaty to a less powerful king (the vassal)
informing him and his people of the
suzerain’s intention to rule them, the
treaty contained: (1) formal
self-identification of the more powerful
ruler; (2) a review of the history between
the parties as grounds for issuing and
accepting the covenant; (3) the requirement
of loyalty to the suzerain; (4) stipulations
regulating future conduct of the vassal; (5)
positive and negative consequences for
obedience or disobedience; and (6)
instructions for copying, storing, and
publicly reading the covenant.”
[3]
God
warned Israel repeatedly that they could
lose their special status as His covenant
people and be rejected if they were
unfaithful to the covenant.
Jeremiah 18:5-11 says, “Then the word of the
LORD came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I
not do with you as this potter has done?
declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in
the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O
house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I
will pluck up and break down and destroy it,
8 and if that nation, concerning which I
have spoken, turns from its evil, I will
relent of the disaster that I intended to do
to it. 9 And if at any time I declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will
build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil
in my sight, not listening to my voice, then
I will relent of the good that I had
intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say
to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am
shaping disaster against you and devising a
plan against you. Return, every one from his
evil way, and amend your ways and your
deeds.’” (cf. Jer. 12:14-17; 26:1-6; Lev. 26; Deut. 28-29).
Throughout their
long history, Israel rebelled against God
and sadly broke the covenant he made with
them many times because of unbelief (Num. 14:11;
Deut. 1:32; 9:23; 2 Kings 17:14; Ps. 78:22, 32; 106:24;
Jer. 17:21-27; Ezek. 20:12-24; Heb. 8:7). God used the
illustration of the potter and the clay in
Jeremiah 18 to represent the connection he
had with his people. God said he has the
right to tear down any nation, or build them
up as he sees fit. He had promised blessings
to his people if they were faithful to him
(Deut. 28:1-14), but since they persisted in
doing evil, he said he would rethink the
good he had planned for them and bring
judgment on them instead (Deut. 28:15-29:29). God also promised not to bring
the disaster on them if they would repent of
their wickedness and return to him (Deut. 30:1-3). Finally, God sent His people into
captivity in 586 B.C. as a punishment for
their disobedience. God allowed Israel to
return to their homeland 70 years later when
the Persian King Cyrus allowed Jerusalem and
the temple to be rebuilt (Ezra 1:1-4). It
was God’s desire that the nation of Israel
would finally learn to be faithful to him
and his covenant.
After their return
from captivity, Israel broke the covenant
with God again for the final time by
rejecting Jesus as their messiah and king so God
brought the Old Covenant to an end. Just
before his death, Jesus warned his disciples
about the soon coming destruction of Israel
as a nation along with their temple
services
(Jer. 12:14-17; 18; 26:1-6; Dan. 9:26-27;
Matt. 23:37-39; 21:42-44; Luke 13:34-35;
1 Kings 9:7; Jer. 22:5; Heb. 8:6-9:4; 1 Pet. 2:9).
The promised New
Covenant:
Jesus lived and
taught under the terms of the Old Covenant
to show Israel their need for redemption and
provide a sacrifice for their sins. Then,
the night before his death he announced the
coming New
Covenant to his disciples. Luke 22:19-20
says, “And he took bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it and gave it to
them, saying, “This is my body, which is
given for you. Do this in remembrance of
me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had
eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out
for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”
Jesus saw his death as the fulfillment
of the Old Testament promise of a new
covenant. Christ’s covenant is “new” because
it is a covenant of forgiveness and grace
based on his shed blood, not on the Old
Covenant Law (Luke 16:16-17; cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Isa. 42:6; 49:8).
The Jerusalem Council.
There was a controversy in the early
church over whether or not the Gentile
converts had to keep the laws of the Mosaic
Covenant so a council was convened in
Jerusalem to decide the matter in A.D.
49/50.
Acts 15:1-5 says, “But some
men came down from Judea and were teaching
the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised
according to the custom of Moses, you cannot
be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had
no small dissension and debate with them,
Paul and Barnabas and some of the others
were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the
apostles and the elders about this question.
3 So, being sent on their way by the church,
they passed through both Phoenicia and
Samaria, describing in detail the conversion
of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to
all the brothers. 4 When they came to
Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church
and the apostles and the elders, and they
declared all that God had done with them. 5
But some believers who belonged to the party
of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is
necessary to circumcise them and to order
them to keep the law of Moses.”
The
issue at the Jerusalem Council was whether
or not the Gentiles needed to become Jews
and follow all of the Old Covenant laws in
order to join the Church. Under the terms of
the Old Covenant, a male Gentile had to be
circumcised and become a Jew to be a part of
the covenant community. Circumcision was one
of the signs of the covenant that God
established to show that a man was a
follower of the God of Abraham and Israel
(Gen. 17:9-14; Exod. 12:43-49; Lev. 12:1-3).
The Pharisees were thinking in terms of the
Old Covenant requirements to join the
community. But when Christ gave us His New
Covenant to keep, He replaced the Old
Covenant laws and regulations with the New
Covenant, law of Christ (Mark 12:28-31;
Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
The Apostles
taught that trying to keep the law of Moses
was too hard for anyone to bear.
Acts 15:6-11 says, “The apostles and the
elders were gathered together to consider
this matter. 7 And after there had been much
debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
“Brothers, you know that in the early days
God made a choice among you, that by my
mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of
the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows
the heart, bore witness to them, by giving
them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9
and he made no
distinction between us and them,
having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10
Now, therefore,
why are you putting God to the test by
placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples
that neither our fathers nor we have been
able to bear? 11 But we believe that
we will be saved through the grace of the
Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
The Jerusalem Council’s decision.
Acts 15:28-29 says, “For it has seemed good
to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you
no greater burden than these requirements:
29 that you abstain from what has been
sacrificed to idols, and
from blood, and
from what has been strangled, and
from
sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves
from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Notice that it was the Holy Spirit that
made these requirements, and the Apostles
were careful to say that “no greater burden”
was to be laid upon the Gentiles than these
four requirements. The Church leaders made
it clear to all the churches that they would
never place the burden of keeping the Mosaic
Law upon the new converts.
Those were
the only restrictions placed upon the new
converts. Nothing is said about keeping the
Sabbath, or the dietary restrictions from
the Law of Moses. It is also important to
note that the controversy in Acts 15 seems
to be concerned with Jews and Gentiles
coming together to have fellowship and
sharing
meals together.
Look at how the New Covenant clearly
describes the end of the Old Covenant Law.
The New Covenant made the Old
Covenant obsolete and brought it to an end.
Hebrews 8:13 says, “When he said, “A new
covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.
But whatever is becoming obsolete and
growing old is ready to disappear.”
Any change made to the Old Covenant
required that the Law had to change as well.
Hebrews 7:12, “For when there is a
change in the priesthood, there is
necessarily a change in the law as well.”
The Old Covenant Law was only a
temporary guardian until Christ came.
Galatians 3:24-25, “So then, the law was
our guardian until Christ came, in order
that we might be justified by faith. 25 But
now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a guardian,”
We have
been released from the Old Covenant Law to
live by God’s Spirit.
Romans 7:6, “But now we are released from the law,
having died to that which held us captive,
so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit and not in the old way of the written
code.”
The Old Covenant Law
has come to an end.
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone who believes.” And
2 Corinthians 3:11 says, “For if what was
being brought to an end came with glory,
much more will what is permanent have
glory.”
The Old Covenant Law
was set aside and moved out of the way.
Hebrews 7:18, “For on the one hand, a
former commandment is set aside because of
its weakness and uselessness.”
The obsolete Old Covenant included
the Ten Commandments.
Hebrews 9:1-4 says, “Now even the first
covenant had regulations for worship and an
earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was
prepared, the first section, in which were
the lampstand and the table and the bread of
the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3
Behind the second curtain was a second
section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having
the golden altar of incense and the ark of
the covenant covered on all sides with gold,
in which was a golden urn holding the manna,
and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the
tablets of the covenant.” (2 Cor. 3; Rom. 7:1-8; cf.
Exod. 20:1; 34:1, 4; 34:27-28;
Deut. 4:13; 9:9; 5:2-3; 1 Kings 8:9, 21; 2 Chron. 6:11).
According
to 2 Corinthians 3:2-11, the Old Covenant Law of
the Ten Commandments (and the rest of the
laws of the Mosaic Covenant) were made
obsolete by the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-9:4).
• The Ten
Commandments are called the “letter” that
“kills” in 2 Corinthians 3:6.
• The Ten
Commandments are called a “ministry of
death” in 2 Corinthians 3:7.
• The Ten
Commandments are called a “ministry of
condemnation” in 2 Corinthians 3:9.
• The
Ten Commandments are said to have “no glory
at all” in 2 Corinthians 3:10-11.
There can be no doubt that Paul was talking
about the Ten Commandments in 2 Corinthians 3.
It is the law of the Ten Commandments that “fades
away” in light of the “glory that surpasses it.” The
New Covenant made many changes to the laws
of the Old Covenant. It is a “New Covenant”.
We have a new legal contract that is now
based on a new law, the law of Christ!
The Old Covenant Law had to be
done away with entirely to establish the New
Covenant.
Hebrews 10:9,
“then he added, “Behold, I have come to do
your will.” He does away with the first in
order to establish the second.”
The Mosaic Covenant served as a
dividing wall, or partition that was meant to
separate Israel from the unbelieving
Gentiles.
Ephesians 2:11-16
says, “Therefore, remember that formerly you
who are Gentiles by birth and called
“uncircumcised” by those who call themselves
“the circumcision” (that done in the body by
the hands of men)— 12 remember that at that
time you were separate from Christ, excluded
from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to
the covenants of the promise, without hope
and without God in the world. 13 But now in
Christ Jesus you who once were far away have
been brought near through the blood of
Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who
has made the two one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15
by abolishing in his flesh the law with its
commandments and regulations. His purpose
was to create in himself one new man out of
the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this
one body to reconcile both of them to God
through the cross, by which he put to death
their hostility.” (NIV)
The Old Covenant
was given to separate Israel from all the
other nations.
Christ brought both groups together into one
new body of believers by doing away with the
Law that served as a partition.
Christ abolished the
dividing wall by fulfilling it and removing
the Law’s condemnation for all who believe
(Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:1; Heb. 9:11-14; 10:1-10). When we are in Christ, we become a
new person, part of a new human race made in
the image of Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, 49; Eph. 4:24). The word “new” refers
to something completely new. It was
different and unlike what came before it. It
refers to being different in both kind and
quality. Spiritually speaking, when we are
in Christ we are no longer a Jew or a
Gentile, we are simply a Christian, a
follower of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:12-13;
Gal. 3:28).
When we come to
Christ, our spiritual debt gets paid in
full. The Law no longer has power or
authority over us!
Colossians 2:13-14 says, “And you, who were
dead in your trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all
our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record
of debt that stood against us with its legal
demands. This he set aside, nailing it to
the cross.”
In the Greco-Roman world,
the “record of debt” (Greek: cheirographon)
was a written note of indebtedness. Our
sinful nature put us in debt to God and
brought us under the sentence of death (Rom. 3:23; 6:23;
Gal. 3:10; James 2:10; Matt. 18:23-27). God in his mercy resolved this
problem for all those who put their faith
and trust in Jesus Christ by taking their
note of indebtedness and nailing it to the
cross (Eph. 2:1-5; 5:14; Luke 15:32; John 5:21;
1 Jn. 3:14; cf. Luke 9:23; 1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:21;
Rom. 4:25; 6:23; Isa. 53:4; Eph. 2:11-16; Heb. 9:28; 12:2;
Gal. 2:20; 3:13; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:2).
The New Testament explicitly teaches
that the Holy days and dietary restrictions
of the Mosaic Covenant were not binding on
the church.
Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Therefore do not let anyone
judge you by what you eat or drink, or with
regard to a religious festival, a New Moon
celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a
shadow of the things that were to come; the
reality, however, is found in Christ.” (NIV)
False teachers in the Colossian church
were evidently insisting on abstinence from
certain foods and the observance of certain
days, contrary to the gospel. Paul said that
those things were only shadows of what was
to come and have been made obsolete by the
coming of Christ (Heb. 8:13). Shadows are
not solid or permanent, they only exist
because some real object has cast the
shadow. The Old Covenant ceremonies were
merely shadows, Jesus Christ is the
substance. Now that he has come, the
ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Covenant
have no further use because they were
fulfilled by Christ (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1). No one has the right to judge anyone
regarding those issues.
The phrase “a
festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day”
refers to the annual, monthly, and weekly
holy days of the Jewish calendar (1 Chron. 23:31;
2 Chron. 2:4; 31:3; Ezek. 45:17; Hos. 2:11). The weekly seventh day Sabbath is
clearly meant because Paul had already
mentioned the ceremonial festivals and new
moons and would have no reason to repeat
himself (see chart below).
Leviticus 23
describes all of the sacred days the Lord
commanded Israel to keep in the Old
Covenant. After the Sabbath, the other
Jewish feast days are given in the order of
the Hebrew calendar (Lev. 23:4-44). In
Leviticus 23:3, the seventh day Sabbath is
listed along with all of the other appointed
feasts and holy convocations of the LORD
showing that it was part of the ceremonial
requirements of the Old Covenant. At special
times the Sabbath could be set aside because
of greater concerns (1 Sam. 21:1-6; Num. 28:9-10; Matt. 12:1-5). None of the moral
commands of the Decalogue could ever be set
aside for any reason.
The
Apostle Paul said we have no right to judge
other people based on whether or not they
observe the Sabbath and other Holy days of
Judaism.
Romans 14:5-13
says, “One person esteems one day as better
than another, while another esteems all days
alike. Each one should be fully convinced in
his own mind. 6 The one who observes the
day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The
one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord,
since he gives thanks to God, while the one
who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord
and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us
lives to himself, and none of us dies to
himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the
Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So
then, whether we live or whether we die, we
are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ
died and lived again, that he might be Lord
both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why
do you pass judgment on your brother? Or
you, why do you despise your brother? For we
will all stand before the judgment seat of
God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So
then each of us will give an account of
himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not pass
judgment on one another any longer, but
rather decide never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance in the way of a brother.”
In Romans 14:5-13, Paul forbids those
people who held certain days higher, or with
greater esteem than other days (Sabbath
days, Feast days, and fasting days are all
in view), to condemn those who do not. We
are not allowed to bind another person’s conscience
with commands that do not apply to the
Christian life. There are two commands that
we are to pursue where our Savior gets all
the glory, loving God and loving our
neighbor. When we do those two things, we
fulfill the New Covenant, law of Christ (cf.
Mark 12:28-31; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
If you try to
live by the Old Covenant Law you must keep
it all perfectly to be saved. If you break
even the smallest command you come under the
curse for breaking the Law.
Galatians 3:10-12 says, “For all who rely on
works of the law are under a curse; for it
is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not
abide by all things written in the Book of
the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident
that no one is justified before God by the
law, for “The righteous shall live by
faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith,
rather “The one who does them shall live by
them.’” (Deut. 27:26; 28:15; cf. Jer. 11:3-5; James 2:8-10; Rom. 10:5).
God’s Word says we labor in vain when we try to live by
the Old Covenant law.
Galatians 4:10-11; says, “You observe days
and months and seasons and years! I am
afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
Paul had to rebuke the Galatians for
thinking God expected them to observe
special days as holy, including the seventh
day Sabbath. They were part of the rituals,
ceremonies, and festivals of the Jewish
religious calendar given to Israel but were
never required for the church. Paul warned
the Galatians, just as he did the Colossians
and the Romans against legalistically
observing special days as if they were
required by God (Col. 2:16-17; Rom. 14:1-6).
Galatians 5:1-4 says, “For freedom
Christ has set us free; stand firm
therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke
of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that
if you accept circumcision, Christ will be
of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to
every man who accepts circumcision that he
is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You
are severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away
from grace.” (see Acts 15:10, 11, 28, 29).
Christians are told to rest in
the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all
you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light.” (NIV)
Every day is a
Sabbath rest for those who trust in Jesus
Christ alone for their salvation.
Sabbatarians will sometimes argue that
Hebrews 4 reaffirms the command to keep the
seventh day Sabbath in the New Covenant.
Hebrews 4 uses 3 different illustrations for
the type of rest God wants us to enter into in the
New Covenant. The rest God Himself entered
into after he created the universe (Heb. 4:4), the rest spoken of by David in the
psalms (Heb. 4:6-7), and the rest Joshua
wanted Israel to enter into when they took
possession of the promised land (Heb. 4:8-10). But the book of Hebrews doesn’t say
anywhere that we have to keep the weekly,
seventh day Sabbath from the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us that the rest
God wants us to enter is the spiritual rest
of faith. God’s rest is not about keeping a
day of the week holy. The rest in Hebrews 4:9-11
is called a “sabbatismós” (Sabbath
rest). It is not the seventh day Sabbath
from the Old Covenant. This is a perpetual
Sabbath rest to be enjoyed by believers
without interruption in their fellowship
with the Father and the Son, in contrast to
the weekly Sabbath rest given to Israel
under the Law. It is a divine rest that
believers enter into with God spiritually.
We are meant to begin to experience it now, in this
life, and then on through eternity.
The
book of Hebrews is talking about trusting in
Jesus Christ alone for our salvation.
The Jewish Christians were warned not to
leave Christ behind by apostatizing and
going back to Judaism. Trying to keep the
Sabbath day as a moral obligation was seen
as lapsing back into Judaism and putting
yourself back under the Old Covenant law. Returning to
Judaism is described in the book of Hebrews
as going back to destruction (Heb. 10:39).
The Old Covenant system of laws and
ceremonies were never able to save us, they
only pointed forward to the one who can,
Jesus Christ.
The New Covenant rest
that God promises us is the assurance of
salvation in Jesus Christ alone. Just as God
rested after his work of creation, we too
can experience physical and spiritual
rest when we stop working to earn our
salvation and trust completely in the
eternal life that Christ has already given
to us (Heb. 4:9-10; Matt. 11:28; John 3:16; 5:24; 17:3; Rom. 6:23; 1 Jn. 2:25).
Each covenant had signs that represented the
covenant. The Sabbath was given to Israel
alone and served as one of the ceremonial
signs of the Mosaic Covenant (Exod. 31:16-17;
Ne. 9:13-14; Ezek. 20:12, 20). The New
Covenant has its own ceremonial signs in
baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 28:19-20;
Rom. 6:1-11; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6).
The people who
tell you that the seventh day Sabbath of the
Old Covenant must be kept today don’t
understand the first thing about the New
Covenant that Jesus Christ gave us. They
tell people to keep some of the laws from
the Old Covenant just like the Judaizers did
in Paul’s day (Acts 15:1-28; Gal. 1:6; 3:1-5). They mix laws found
throughout the Bible without any regard for
their context, or the covenant they apply
to.
Each covenant is a new legal contract. A
contract has to have all of its legal
requirements clearly laid out in the
contract. We are never told to keep the Old
Covenant laws anywhere in the New Covenant.
Just the opposite! The Apostle Paul wrote
over one-third of the New Testament and
never once told his converts to keep
the Mosaic Law or the Sabbath, and none of
the other apostles did either. There is no
day of rest set aside for believers in the
New Covenant. Jesus wants us to rest in him
for our salvation.
The New
Covenant is not without law. In fact,
Christians live by a higher law, the law of
Christ. The moral obligations of the New
Covenant are superior to the Old Covenant
Law in every way.
Paul
argues in Galatians that the law given to
Israel on Mount Sinai has no authority over
anyone who follows Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Savior (Gal. 2:15-21; 3:10-14; 3:23-26; Gal. 4:4-5; 4:21-5:6). He then told
the Galatians to act ethically and walk in
the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18; 5:25; 6:8). Those
who follow Jesus Christ are told to be led
by the Spirit and fulfill “the law of
Christ” (Gal. 5:18; 6:2). And in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul demonstrated how
Christians should show their love for one
another by not demanding their own personal
rights over others.
Paul clearly
uses the phrase “law of Christ” to mean
something other than the law given to Israel
on Mount Sinai and considered by most Jews
to be their own special possession. The law
of Christ is what Christ said were the two
greatest commandments in Mark 12:28-31,
“Which commandment is the most important of
all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important
is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind and with
all your strength.’ 31 The second is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than
these.” The law of Christ, then, is to love
God with all of our hearts and love our
neighbors as ourselves.
We
have to understand the terms for the
covenant we live under.
When
a Christian steals something, they break the
law of Christ, not the Law of Moses (Eph. 4:28).
If we choose to keep part of the Old
Covenant Law such as the Sabbath, or the
dietary restrictions, we are free to do so,
but keeping the Law of Moses out of the
belief that we are obligated to do so denies
the perfect and finished work of Jesus
Christ on Calvary’s cross (Acts 15; Col. 2:14-17;
Gal. 4:10-11; 1 Jn. 4:10; Eph. 1:7; 2 Cor. 5:18).
The simple truth
is, no one can keep the Old Covenant
anymore. The Mosaic Covenant contained 613
commandments, many of which are not even
possible to follow today due to the lack of
a Jewish temple and the Levitical
priesthood. Jesus ended it all when he died
on Calvary’s cross.
Don’t let anyone tell you
Christians are required to keep the seventh
day Sabbath from the Mosaic Covenant. The
Sabbath was only a shadow of the good things
to come, Christ is the substance (Col. 2:13-17;
Heb. 8:5; 9:9, 11, 23; 10:1). It was a
ceremonial requirement of the Old Covenant
Law that Christians do not have to keep.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28,
“Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
(NIV)
References:
1. See: Aseret ha-Dibrot,
“The
Ten Commandments - Judaism 101” Also: “The
Decalogue: Ten Commandments or Ten
Statements?”
2. See Meredith G. Kline, The Structure of
Biblical Authority. Grand Rapids, Mich.
Eerdmans; 1975, 1972; p. 18, 59.
3. CSB
Study Bible: Exodus 19:3-24:11.
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