Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Exodus 20:8 ¶ "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Exodus 20:8 ¶ "Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). |
Bible Question:
Are Christians to keep the Sabbath? "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Exodus 20:8 (ESV) 1. Are Christians obligated to keep the Sabbath—the Sabbath of Old Testament Judaism? 2. Are Christians obligated to turn Sunday into a kind of a Sabbath with similar restrictions? 3. Are Christians to reject all Sabbath Law and enjoy freedom from that Sabbath Law and leave any other designated day alone, as to prescribing any specific restrictions? 4. What is the Lord's Day, as Sunday is called in the Scripture? Who instituted it, and to what degree are we obligated to it? Before you submit an answer to one or more of the above questions, make sure your post is biblically based and, whenever possible, you have included Bible references to support it. |
Bible Answer: Hi, kalos! Part 1 of 2 “Are Christians to keep the Sabbath?” Yes, as we are to emulate the Creator: On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating. (Genesis 2:2-3) “1. Are Christians obligated to keep the Sabbath—the Sabbath of Old Testament Judaism?” There were changes brought by Jesus, not the destruction of the Law but the fulfillment of the Law, restoring the Law to its perfect state: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose is achieved. (Matthew 5:17-18--see some of the changes in Matthew 5:19 through 7:27) The Old Testament Judaism occupied itself with forewarning Jesus’ arrival: Because it was towards John that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the Law were leading; (Matthew 11:13) The Law was our schoolmaster and we received tutelage from the Law until the arrival of Jesus Christ: Then what is the purpose of the Law? It was added to deal with crimes until the ’progeny’ to whom the promise had been made should come; and it was promulgated through angels, by the agency of an intermediary. Now there can be an intermediary only between two parties, yet God is one. Is the Law contrary, then, to God’s promises? Out of the question! If the Law that was given had been capable of giving life, then certainly saving justice would have come from the Law. As it is, scripture makes no exception when it says that sin is master everywhere; so the promise can be given only by faith in Jesus Christ to those who have this faith. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, locked up to wait for the faith which would eventually be revealed to us. So the Law was serving as a slave to look after us, to lead us to Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a slave looking after us; for all of you are the children of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus, (Galatians 3:19-26) Though Jesus did not remove our obligation to the Sabbath, He clarified the its purpose: And he said to them, ’The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; so the Son of man is master even of the Sabbath.’ (Mark 2:27-28) Many times Christians behave as the Masters of the Law, the Pharisees and Sadducees, in respect to the Sabbath and other issues of Faith. Jesus’ reply to ostentatious sanctimony (theirs or ours) devastates any feigned adherence to God’s commandments: Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet not one of you keeps the Law! ‘Why do you want to kill me?’ The crowd replied, ‘You are mad! Who wants to kill you?’ Jesus answered, ‘One work I did, and you are all amazed at it. Moses ordered you to practise circumcision--not that it began with him, it goes back to the patriarchs--and you circumcise on the Sabbath. Now if someone can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me for making someone completely healthy on a Sabbath? Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgement be according to what is right.’ (John 7:19-24) Yet this argument is not new; it was made by Yahweh hundreds of years prior to the incarnation of the Word: They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. …Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fast days and you exploit all your workmen; look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. …Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? …If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words, if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon. |