By Titto Thomas
Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to Christ. [Colossians 2:16-17]
As a very young Christian I remember being asked to keep the Sabbath. The person who ‘commanded’ me had explained in detail, and yes the whole package looked very convincing. At that point of time I was desperately trying to please the Lord and I thought if keeping the Sabbath would make him happy, I would be more than willing to try it out. Anyway I took it before the Lord and he led me to the above verses! But Sabbath is not a very light topic in the Bible therefore I believe we need to look at it responsibly! Allow me to get to the question by explaining our position on the Old Testament.
The Old Testament
We all have this question. “As a New Testament believer, how do I handle the Old Testament?” Paul answers this question in Romans 15:4: For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.
The things in the Old Testament were written for our ‘learning or instruction’. Therefore the implication is that we have a lot of things to learn from the Old testament.
An analogy that the Lord showed me was this ” If someone came and beat you up with a stick, who would receive the retaliation. The stick or the person?!” The realm of the spirit was concealed from the common man in the days of old! Now we know more realities, we know who our real enemies are. Not Assyria or the Hittites, But powers and principalities in the heavenlies!
It is fundamental that we realize the importance of the Old Testament and it’s implication for us. No we don’t swallow it, hook, line and sinker. Rather, we learn things from it!
The Law of Life
As we move on to the New Testament we come face to face with another reality: the Law of life. Now this is definitely going to shock some people: although there are instructions mentioned in the New Testament, we find not a single mention of right or wrong! Because Law (referring to OT) meant just that! Right or wrong! The important point here is that although God (through HIS WORK) abolished right and wrong he established a much higher law, The Law of Life! For example when one person asked Jesus, what to do with soldiers who asked the Jews to carry their load, Jesus did not reply with right or wrong (as the man wanted) but instead replied that they should go the extra one mile!
See: the law of life goes far beyond right or wrong to a much higher realm or plane! Once we understand these basic concepts we can look at our topic in detail.
The Old Testament Sabbath
The first occurrence of the Sabbath is in Exodus 16:23, when God asks the Israelites not to collect manna on the seventh day. He later includes it in the Ten Commandments, and even commands the death penalty for its violation. The Sabbath was also meant to be kept for all generations. The Sabbath day was by every means Holy! The Sabbath day signified rest. It was a sign (Exo 31:17). And as is every sign, so was this sign a pointer to something! The Lord says it was a sign of God resting from a work (definitely not because he was tired!). It just means he had made something perfect and stood back to enjoy it! But there was something bigger encapsulated in this. It was a pointer to something greater, as was the entire Old Testament.
Sabbath: The Pointer
When we reach the Gospels we find that the Sabbath concept was totally misused. As with all scriptures, we humans had bent and twisted it. The perfect beginning for this was when Eve replied to Satan. She said “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall YE TOUCH IT, lest ye die.” God had never told Eve that she would die if she touched it! She just made the whole command a bit spicier! The political and religious institution of the day had used it to their advantage! Just think about it, The WHOLE Old Testament is pointing to Jesus but only a handful of people really understood him, when he arrived! I am not just talking about a few verses but 39 books, and 99 percent of the people missed out on it! Yes they were very dogmatic but they missed the point. Brothers and sisters, are we at that point too? Have we missed out on what the Bible is trying to say?
Jesus contradicted the Sabbath idea of the day by grossly violating it and declared himself the LORD over it. Just as every other ‘THING’, the Sabbath too was a pointer to the man himself – “JESUS CHRIST”. That’s the ultimate reality!
Sabbath in the New Testament
Now in the New Testament we can be misled into thinking that God is contradicting Himself when He says things like Col 2:16-17. But He is not. He just moved it to a higher plane.
He clarifies what He says in Colossians in Hebrews 4:9 “There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.” So there is a Sabbath for us. And it goes beyond locking yourself in your house on a Saturday. It comes in the light of resting from another work! A spiritual work which ended with a cry from Jesus on the cross! “IT IS FINISHED“. The work of salvation is over, we can now rest from our works! We don’t have to strive to work for our relationship with God. We can now stand back and enjoy Him. We all must see this in our lives. It is so pivotal. The breakthrough in my Christian life came when I saw this! (five years after being born again of Him and filled with His spirit!). I pray that God would open your eyes too to see this great truth. God has finished his great work and now (amen and amen) He is at work, through His Spirit, working it out in our lives. We just stand back and say YES ( to Him). That’s it!
Your response and the danger
Back to the question: Should Christians observe Sabbath? If we are looking for a yes or a no, we are barking up the wrong tree. Let me explain…as I mentioned above, the law of life in which we operate now does not involve good or bad. It has to do with what the inner life in you is swelling up for. For those who claim that it’s biblical, all I want to tell you is that we no longer need to observe it like the Old Testament. Yes there is a new testament Sabbath and it has to do, not with sitting home on a Saturday, but with a state of rest in relation to God (i.e. we no longer have to earn our relationship with God).
Two books, Galatians and Colossians, were written because someone hinted about following the Jewish traditions. As you read through these books we see the fire inside Paul as he wrote it. (Gal 6.11). God wanted you and me to stay clear of legalism! And He was very serious about it (Gal 5.4). If you are ever led to observe Sabbath because of a stand you need to make or other personal choices, go ahead! But you are in serious error if you make it into a doctrine, or if you force someone else to do it! We are not called to stand at the sign, but to move on to where the sign leads us. Sabbath is perfected in Jesus. This is what the sign is pointing to. So don’t hang around the sign, run to where it points to!
Titto,
Since it’s not about “good and bad”, or right or wrong, does that mean we are not to concern ourselves with the matter of sin?
And where does it say that this Law of life transcends good or bad?
carol,
We see through out the Gospels, that Jesus never answered with a good or bad. No, absolutely no way am I saying that this truth eliminates our concern on sin. Let me explain. If your brother is in a need…the law(as per OT) said, help him. But New Testament law goes take him into your house, provide for him and help him to overcome the problem!
Let me give you another example on sin. If we go by the good or bad concept(which was what the OT was all about) we say adultery is bad. But NT law goes like this.. You look at the most beautiful girl on earth and say… You ain’t nothing compared to my wife! See, if we christians moved on from thou shalt do this or though shall not do that, we would see more people walking in his life!
Also there are a lot of aspects where we know that Good or bad is not the ultimate. Take paul’s case for example in acts. It is said that the Holy Spirit prevented him from preaching the Gospel in Asia (acts 16.6. Was it good to preach the Gospel, of course it was but Life inside him prevented him.
Also when I mean by life I mean by the spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is the precious life of God deposited in us (Eph 1.13. Having died to our former self we are now alive in Christ(Gal 2.20). I use the word life because i want you to see the nature of work that God does in us through his Spirit! He makes us alive in righteousness in holiness etc through his life.
We are living on exchanged lives, brethren! I hope to cover this in detail in another post!
Titto you will need to make that more clear.
But I do see where “good and bad” had it’s origin in. It started off when Eve ate of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ever since we find man have a gauge. We realize God never intended man to come to this place. He intended man to trust Him and walk in oneness with Him.
But Titto, you will need to distinguish good and bad with respect to our works. Scripture says we will be judged for our works and there are just two categories: “good” and “bad”.
It also goes onto say “Overcome evil by doing good”.
Just to make things clear =)
Sidhu
Hello Titto, I am a spirit-filled, born again Jew. In the years that I have worshipped our Lord Jesus Christ, I have never understood the compunction of other born again followers of Jesus (be they Jewish or Christian) to willingly place themselves under the law and live there.
CHRIST JESUS IS MY SABBATH REST and I choose to live my life “abiding” in Him – in Him Who is my rest. The spirit intention that undergirds my choosing is for a 24/7 abiding not a once-a-week abiding.
Any “should” ritual/practice from the OT, which really is nothing more to me than “Jesus plus something else,” is no-thing that will ever bring me into the freedom for which Christ died and has set me free. It is letter and not Spirit and so it is lacking/wanting because it is, by its very nature, unfulfilled. I believe Paul when he said that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.
On the other hand, the decision at times to consciously rest from work and other pursuits and to meditate on my true position of abiding in Christ Jesus Who is my rest, has been as powerful as fasting.
Thank you for graciously inviting responses to this post.
I’m posting this comment for Titto:
Let me explain why I put in this particular para “The Law of Life”. Suppose I give you this article and say “Nope you don’t need to be strict on a Physical Sabbath!” and you come across a young brother in the Lord, who is very passionate about following the Sabbath. What will you reaction be? Will you mock him saying “come on you don’t need to follow it.” You might as well destroy his Faith! Now the question there is not right or wrong, it demands you follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit. He might even lead you to follow the Sabbath for his sake till the other person comes to a realization that the physical Sabbath is not a strict doctrine anymore! Or maybe you might find yourselves in the opposite, you might have to take a stand against it! It is just as the Holy Spirit leads as you deal with individual persons and situations.
Why I particularly used the word life is because that is what God breathed into us when we were born again. The issue of Life is not a small one in the bible. It is a qualitative one which cannot be neglected. Eph 4:18 explains the life of God. Although Paul wrote it explaining the gentiles, he draws comparison of a person not walking in the Spirit here.
Titto
Not understanding the intentions or motivations of another person’s practices is not the same as mocking them. For me, it is utterly and thoroughly the opposite!
I believe that every day of our lives should be ‘holy to the Lord’. I’m glad that I am free to live like that.
I agree that we don’t need to be legalistic and follow the same practices that the people of the OT did with respect to the Sabbath. However, we all still need a sabbath (little “S” as in “day of rest”) each week. We were not designed to work 10 days straight. We work six days and rest on the seventh because that is the pattern that God gave us.
Sidharth and Titto,
You say, “We see through out the Gospels, that Jesus never answered with a good or bad. No, absolutely no way am I saying that this truth eliminates our concern on sin.”
Uhhhhh, actually He did all the time. He spoke of sin. That would be the bad, you see. Then He spoke of repentance. That would be the good, you see.
And if you study the prophets Israel was promised and new covenant, with the law written on their hearts. And Romans one tells us the gentiles, without the OT had the law written on their hearts so much that they deserve hell because they broke the Law.
So, no, good and bad, right and wrong are NOT the province of only the Old Covenant.
Christ is our righteousness. That is the good, you see.
In Christ,
Phil Perkins.
There is never an elimination of good and bad, Phil Perkins.
I believe Titto was trying to drive home another point. For example, eating food sacrificed to idols doesn’t bring us closer to the Lord nor does it take us away from the Lord. 1 Cor 8 is very clear about this. But in this case, what we need to consider would be the faith of a weaker brother who believes that these things do matter. We may know the truth about it, but knowledge puffs up while love builds.
Titto wasn’t trying to eliminate sin or the need of repentance as what I understood. Please clarify it with him.
Sidharth
Phil,
Is Jesus God….YES
Is Jesus the word….Yes
In the word was Life…Yes
I guess that implies that in God is Life!
Now is Jesus better than the old testament. Of course he is!(Hebrews 7:22)
See the life in God is superior to the old testament.I used the word Good nad bad on purpose. Now I could have just mentioned the law(don’t do this and Do this…basicaly Good or bad) and the new testament. But I brought it into context by being specific about life.
I can also hear some people say that… No you can’t derive things like that. Well these are basic truth you and I must understand. I am also targeting your mindset which says in particlar situations..”I think this is the right thing to do” Comon u don’t know that, and all our lives should be lived out of hearing from the master, not your concept of Good or bad.
Also naturally living in the life of God always causes you to do extraordinary Good things and totally totally reject bad and evil things. Ultimately this is how it should be, we dont live with our eyes on Good or bad, but so full of him that you do what you see HIM do and pull people out of the fire.
If you have anymore clarifications or arguments on this you can mail me.
Nice article. I tend to agree on all fronts. Actually, I think Mike’s comment sums it all up quite well.
I have struggled with the topic and have come to similar conclusion…legalism is the pivotal point and should be avoided. The law is written on our hearts, clearly sin should be avoided and faith in the Lord and guidance from the Spirit helps us on all those counts.
With that said, I have over the past several months observed a “sabbath” day of rest when able and find it a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, recharging, spending time in the Word, and appreciating a day of rest from my toils. No ritual, no doctrine, just a nice day of rest.
Anyway, nice post!
Please check out this youtube video. EraunaoGraphe (His username) did an in-depth study filled with context on the Sabbath. He did a video series on this so it is extremely thorough.
Please check out an in depth video series about the Sabbath. The youtube username of the gentleman doing this THOROUGH series is EraunaoGraphe. His studies are filled with Biblical context. Great study.