This question has been circling in the Church for decades. Are Christians required to keep the sabbath? My answer may shock many people. But take a moment and consider what I have to say. I’ve been struggling with this question for years. As a Christ believer, I desire to follow Christ and His commandments. I take His whole counsel very seriously. Many will say that we are to observe the Sabbath as God intended for the House of Israel. I am not a Jew, but a believing Gentile. I once was dead in my transpasses but my faith in Jesus has brought me to Life and I am now bound to the Law of Liberty, the Law of The Spirit and I am able to partake in the promises to Abraham of eternal life and spiritual inheritance (Eph. 3:6, Heb. 6:14-17, Rom. 4:13-17).
Today, we will focus on just the Sabbath and towards the end I will share a really cool connection of the 10 commandments to the New Testament in hopes to give you more hope that you, being alive, in the Spirit should follow the commandments.
The Unbelievers Were Denied Sabbath Rest
I’m going to focus on Hebrews 4:1-16 as my basis to answer this question. So, let’s break it down verse by verse. I highly recommend that you study the whole book but for today’s topic we will just look at chapter 4:1-11.
Hebrews 4:1-2
“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”
The writer of Hebrews is offering the Church an example of Israel’s past to illustrate a possibility and the seriousness of some within the group failing to believe. The generation who heard the Lord’s call, through Moses, left Egypt but they did not make it to the promised land. They saw God’s powers in the desert, they received the Covenant, and heard the Word of God. But Hebrews 3:17 says God was angry for 40 years. Who was He angry with? With those same people. They angered God by disobeying the Word time and time again demonstrating unbelief. So the Lord declared they would all die.
The author of Hebrews continues to write that things haven’t changed for the Church.
4:1, we should tremble at the thought that there might be some among us who possess the same kind of evil, unbelieving. This calls to 2 things,
- We should be concerned for their eternal future.
- Remember the consequences that impacted Israel (wandering in the wilderness).
4:2, The writer of Hebrews says these people (the unbelieving) were denied Rest. They were denied to have rest even if they participated in the Sabbath. They heard the word but it didn’t benefit them. They were not “united” or “mixed together” in faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And the penalty of unbelief is to not enter the rest of God.
Therefore, are Christians required to keep Sabbath rest? YES. I will further elaborate on this as we continue to dig up the rest of chapter 4.
Believers Called to Sabbath Rest
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, ”They shall not enter my rest.”
4:3 The writer defines what he means by “entering rest”. He quotes from Psalm 95, where the Lord himself equated Israel’s disobedience with forfeiting with entering rest.
4:4 The writer refers to the creation account and what it means to be denied God’s rest. To be denied the true meaning of Sabbath.
- The Lord took a day at the end of creation to rest.
- He rested in the sense that He ceased the creation process.
- Even now, the Lord is at “rest” from creation, because it ended day 6.
4:5 The Lord declared that disobedient Israel wouldn’t enter into His Sabbath rest. This rest has begun and is everlasting.
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
4:6 Those who are disobedient and unbelieving in the desert were being denied entry into the Lord’s presence, where He is at rest. It’s only by faith some will enter into the Lord’s rest. Those in the desert had good news preached to them, but still they failed to enter the rest because they disobeyed what they heard.
4:7 Proves that the rest of God was describing an euphemism for entering into His presence, into salvation.
4:8 The writer says that if entering rest merely meant entering Canaan under Joshua, then we wouldn’t have had David repeating the call to enter rest centuries later.
4:9 The writer concludes that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
The word “rest” in the Bible is a word God uses to describe entering into salvation by faith, which leads to our glory in God’s presence. That rest is God’s rest. He made the rest available. It’s not a rest that we earn. It’s a rest that He earned by His work, and He invites us to experience it by faith.
When we have faith in His promises, we enter into His Sabbath rest. We do not work out a way to salvation; we rest in the work God did on our behalf through Christ.
The Promise of Sabbath Rest in Christ
10 For whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
4:10 The one who has entered the Lord’s Sabbath rest is the one who has rested from His works, just as God rests from His works. The day you receive Christ as your Savior, you cease from your works of salvation and enter the Lord’s Sabbath rest. That weekly rest that Israel enjoyed under the Law was a memorial of the Lord’s everlasting rest of salvation.
By faith we enter the Lord’s rest, the perpetual rest, when we accept Jesus as Savior. This rest is not one day of the week. God’s perpetual rest, a rest that lasts every day of every week. By faith alone, not by your works.
We cease from working for salvation and resting in the finished work of Christ and believing in His promises. By doing so, we enter into His everlasting Sabbath rest of salvation.
4:11 The writer encourages us to enter the rest and remember the Lord’s kindness and mercy in the face of Christ. Continue remembering and speaking the Gospel.
To sum it up,
Every believer is called to Sabbatical rest. Being that we have ceased from our working our way to salvation and believing the finished works of Christ. By believing in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, making Him Savior, we enter in the everlasting Sabbath rest. This is a requirement for us today.
Here is a cool meme that I found to be helpful when someone says that the law is no longer found in the New Testament. This was great put together and thankful to the one that did. Not sure who it was, but thankful I came across it. Hope it helps.
