Should Christians Keep the SABBATH?

It’s important to decide whether Jesus’ followers are required to keep the Sabbath as a holy day of rest.  The words of the prophet Isaiah may help:

58:13 “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot

From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,

And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable,

And honor it, desisting from your own ways,

From seeking your own,

14 . . Then you will take delight in the LORD.”    NASB

This picture of the Sabbath day is far more than just a day of no work. It is a day to delight in God, to think about His ways, His works and His words.

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt. They responded to God’s law the way slaves respond to a taskmaster’s authority: “I will do whatever you command.” When Jesus came he saw his service not as following orders, but as working joyfully alongside his Father! Still, the Law is God’s law. Jesus declared all of it to be in force, but he strengthened it by transforming it into a law of spirit, written in the hearts of his disciples. He gave examples of serving God, and of having compassion for other people and care and compassion for animals.

Jesus’ explanation for his Sabbath observance was that even on the Sabbath God takes care of His people and, therefore, they must do the same.

Jesus is set out in the Bible as the coming King of this whole world. In a New Testament letter to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, the writer argues that God’s day of rest, His Sabbath, does not point back to the time of Creation, but forward to the future Kingdom (Hebrews 4:1-10).  Until that time, our rest must be to not do what pleases us and sinning. We must change from serving ourselves to serving God.