Articles

I recently had conversation with an individual about the Christian’s attitude and practice of “Sabbath.”

The first day of the week, or Sunday, is not “the Christian Sabbath” as some may believe. Colossians 2:14-17 plainly states that Christ has taken away the old law, “nailing it to the cross.” The passage specifically mentions the Sabbath. The Hebrew writer gives us instruction about the intent of Christ. Christ “takes away the first, that he may establish the second. By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:9-10). In Christ we have a “new and living way” (Heb. 10:19-20) because “Christ is the end of the law” (Rom. 10:4, and we are “made dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Rom. 7:4). That law includes the Ten Commandments (Rom. 7:7).

We are no longer answerable to the worship, sacrifices, or instructions of the Law or Judaism (Heb. 10:4). We are answerable to the New Covenant which is sealed by the blood of Jesus (I Peter 1:18-19).

Jesus experienced the struggle that religion had done to the original intent of the Sabbath. In Mark 2, His disciples were ridiculed for plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Religious leaders had made human restrictions to “keep” the Sabbath pure and holy. Jesus’ conflict is seen in the next chapter when He healed the withered hand of a man in the synagogue. Let us not become guilty, like the Pharisees, of making laws.