| (Copyright 2023) by Jeffrey Caldwell (Arkansas) |
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| Christ, in His earthly ministry, has much to say about the Sabbath. But Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept is the most neglected. Christ originated the Sabbath and certainly understands God’s holy purposes for its holiness (Genesis 2:2-3, John 1:1-3). Jesus underscores God’s purpose for creating the Sabbath in telling us: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people” (Mark 2:27 NLT)! “God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy” and a day of rest as a commemoration of His completed “very good” creation of the heavens and the earth—to meet the needs of people. Furthermore, the Sabbath was declared holy “to meet the needs of people” before there was any sin and without reference to sin, as a gift of God to humanity for His holy purposes. “God’s law was given [after sin commenced] so that all people could see how sinful they were” (Romans 5:20 NLT, my comment in brackets). It is sinful to fail to honor the holiness of the Sabbath and God’s holy purposes for it, but those holy purposes and that holiness originated BEFORE and without reference to the sinfulness that came afterwards. The Sabbath is holy before sin. When people were in complete harmony with God there was no need for God to “command” them to keep it! Now that we have sinned, the Sabbath nevertheless remains holy “to meet the needs of people”! The Sabbath ever meets the needs of people: before sin, and after sin. Given Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept, that “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people” we can be sure it was honored as holy by Adam and Eve with God and by all the faithful servants of God whose lives are recorded in the Scriptures. The holiness of the weekly Sabbath was never rescinded or undone by God, regardless of the tradition of most of Christendom. Christ never changes His mind about holiness: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! So, the weekly Sabbath is honored as holy, not only before and after sin throughout biblical times, but the weekly Sabbath is prophesied to be honored as holy by all humanity in much better times yet to come (Isaiah 66:23). It is not Christ who teaches us to ignore and trample on the holiness of the weekly Sabbath. Nor does He characterize honoring its holiness—as HE intends it to be honored—as any sort of burden! Christ’s teaching remains the same, whether Christendom listens or not: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! The holiness of God’s weekly Sabbath not only commemorates Creation, but it also celebrates the holy freedom God intends for His children (Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 5:15). The LORD’s instructions given in Leviticus 23 confirm the weekly Sabbath as “an official day for holy assembly” which Christ honored by example throughout His earthly life. Christ, our Teacher, Judge and King, has not transferred the holiness of the seventh day of the week to the first, nor has God given it to any man nor group of men to do so. May God give us more grace to let our devotion to CHRIST–and thus especially to HIS teaching–be pure and undivided! ———————————————————————————————————- See Jeffry Caldwell’s other articles at: Caldwell, Jeffrey – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) ———————————————————————————————————- |
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