Hi Society,

We all tend to view the Law as code when in fact, the Law is spiritual. The spirit of the Sabbath Law is Jesus Christ as it is a foreshadowing of the rest of God that we enter into when Christ is revealed to us a Savior and we respond in faith. Our lives don't belong to us, they belong to God and His rest is not sitting around doing nothing but it is abiding as we are but living out what he has already foreordained as all of His Work was completed upon the Sixth Day; in His eternal realm all history is complete and we in Christ have also entered that eternal realm.

It is also not enough to refrain from the acts of murder or adultery if we still do those things in our imagination. The sanctification that is Jesus living in us is actually perfecting us to the point that our desires don't run contrary to the Law. Outward observance can never change us inwardly, only Jesus and faith in Him births us as new creatures who desire the Laws of God.

Having said all of that, I think it is fine to worship on Saturday while being mindful that it is the true Biblical Sabbath, but for the Christian, the Sabbath ought to be a matter of daily life, that being a life willing lived unto God and not to ourselves. Jesus fulfilled all the Law, now all I have to do is surrender to Him.

In the NT, we are instructed not to give up on assembling ourselves together but it does not say what day that should take place. There are no true Christian holy days but we are not to judge one another by the holidays we keep or don't keep but each of us should do all things as unto the Lord. The faith that is Jesus Christ is one of inward condition and not of outward observance.

Pam

p.s. I have a feeling that in the end, Timothy may agree but even if he doesn't, I am thankful that he has brought this to my attention that I might take it to the Lord in prayer and to scripture that my understanding might be closer to the Will of God and not just something I do out of habit.

Pam I am answering you because the Lord has said you are one who seeks at all times to please Him, who bought you.
These verses are indeed True, for they come from the Bible.
The Lord never released us from keeping the Sabbath nor did he change the day we should keep it(the catholic church did); and if we don't keep the Sabbath, what is it in us that resists pleasing the Lord in this way?... the way He gave us and commanded us to keep....A gift of rest in Him for just one day, a day to do good.
The apostles kept the Sabbath, Jesus kept the Sabbath even in death(see my Bible study). He showed the right way to keep it. We only need follow His example and walk as He walked and do it gladly because we love Him.
Jesus was showing that Pharisees had corrupted the keeping of the Sabbath, not that they shouldn't keep it. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." We are to keep it holy and do all things that are good and in line with the will of the Lord, helping the poor, praying, Bible study etc. For just one day we are not to serve ourselves and our works.

P.S. I honestly do not understand peoples resistance to this commandment when on the other nine we are all in agreement. The commandments are both outward and inward obedience, they are holy. They stand as they are forever if were not so the Lord would have told us and not said "forever"
We should not mold the unmoldable, they were written in stone for a reason.

Hi Timothy,

I'm not sure that people are resisting obeying God but instead, read what you are writing as calling us to again turn to Law keeping. That is why I asked you about the sacrifices for Jesus fulfilled all of the commandments and our righteousness is in Him. I can't keep any of the Law but I am kept by Jesus.

Yes, the Sabbath is a gift for us. The Sabbath was the foreshadowing of the gift we have in Jesus. There are no special days set aside to enjoy Christ. Every day is the Sabbath in Him.

I think it is good to point out the true meaning, the substance of the OT Laws but we can go to church every Saturday according to our own will and it will accomplish nothing if we don't have Christ. If it were possible to find a church that was perfect in form and practice, it would profit us nothing without Christ. In the book of Revelation, Jesus gives warnings to those churches who are not perfect in form or in practice but in none of those warnings does He tell believers to come out of those churches but rather the opposite, to hold on until His coming. God does not always put us where we are most comfortable but where He has work to be accomplished. Sometimes, or really oftentimes, the church in which I fellowship is also my mission field. There is no perfect church and there never will be until Christ Jesus presents us as spotless, we are being perfected as we are living stones in the process of being dressed to fit the New Jerusalem.

The letter of the Law kills, Timothy. It is the Spirit that gives life and the very spirit of the Sabbath Law is Jesus Christ. Every day we are to rest in Him for we no longer live to ourselves but in everything to Jesus. Jesus is the living Sabbath as He is the living Word. Because of Jesus, I have communion with my Heavenly Father everyday. He has numbered all of my days and also pre-ordained how I am to live each one. I plan my days but my plans come to be only if He is willing. My will and what I purpose to do counts for nothing if that is not what God has laid out for me.

In any event, the circumstances of my life and the love of my Father in meeting my needs in life, have placed me in a church that has Saturday afternoon services in a warm, modern building (this accomodates a blood disorder that I have) and I enjoy worshiping Him there and at that time just as I enjoy Him every day. I am thankful for God's gift of the Sabbath and for the fullness of that gift in Christ Jesus.

I'm not trying to argue, Timothy. I'm only hoping to clarify. I have also been subject to much legalism in my life and I know that it creeps in subtely. I began my life in Christ by Grace and in Grace, I will continue. God will allow me no other way.

Pam

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and our rest, He did not, however, take the place of the 4th Commandment, He upholds it and in Him we do rest on that day to honor Him, who gave us peace in our hearts and created all things having also rested on the 7th day and sanctified it.
Therefore we are to keep the 7th day holy and be reminded also there is yet another Sabbath Day coming, even 1,000 years long and even in that Day we will go up from Sabbath to Sabbath to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. So we have rest in our hearts, but we have not yet entered into the rest prepared for us.

"For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” ~ Hebrews 4:3-9

Yes, the children of Israel could not enter God's rest for they were rebellious and disobeyed. When we rebel, we seek our own work and not the work of the Father. We lay our own works to rest when we abide in Christ that His work might be done in us a through us. Outward obedience with a heart full of selfish desires is a person who can never find rest.

Hebrews: 4:9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Also Jesus said that "he who loses his life will find it". Our true life is hid in Christ and that true life is lived in service to God not in outward obedience but in obedience that comes from the heart. The children of Israel had disobedient hearts as well as actions.

Hebrews 4:4-8 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works" and again in this place: "They shall not enter my rest." Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day."

That rest which the Jews could not enter because of disobedience is offered to us in Christ. When I accepted Christ, my purpose was changed. Before Jesus, I existed as a vessel of dishonor as I lived my life according to my sinful desires and actions. In Christ, I am a vessel of honor set apart for the work of God. I no longer live to self and to sin but I live to God and righteousness in Christ.

The Sabbath is good for us just as all the Law is good for us but I can't keep the Law for my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. The moment I attempt to purpose in my own heart according to my own will that I will keep the Sabbath holy for God, I will fall down and scrap all of the skin from my face. If God desires that I worship him corporately on Saturday, then He will continue to keep me where He has presently placed me. Even my own faithfulness is wholly dependent upon God. Jesus is my Sabbath and in Him, I find rest.

Pam

Galatians 3:15-25

15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

(next verse -emphasis added)

***25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.***

Ambree,

I love the book of Galatians because God used it to free me from religious bondage. I at one time in my life, was completely deceived into believing in a Gospel that was part Grace and part human works. Salvation through Christ alone was never denied but my life thereafter, according to those I listened to, was up to me and my work. Thankfully, God allowed me the full end of such a false gospel and I was a total failure according to my peer group at the time. I failed because my focus was so intent upon my keeping myself holy and 'my testamony' as one to exemplify Christ that I thought of Jesus seldom and of sin most all of the time. The harder I worked the more pitiable I became. I nearly lost my family and my life. In the book of Galatians, God showed me that I had begun in Christ, depending upon Him for Salavation, and that I also must fully depend upon Him to live the kind of life that only Jesus can live. I can't keep the Law, and that includes all ten of them for even if I don't act on them I am liable to break them spiritually, in my own heart. I can't keep the Law but Jesus keeps me and as long as I keep my thoughts on Him and take every thought captive to Him, then He is magnified in me and my sinful, pitiful self is demagnified.

It is Biblically correct to publically worship on Saturday but if my mind and heart are not set upon Jesus as I do so, it is of no value at all. Any day that I fail to take up my cross and follow Jesus is a failed day even if according to the letter of the Law I have acted in full outward obedience. We should never keep any day according to the tradition of men but in all things, do them as unto the Lord.

We must all take Timothy's words, not his person, to Jesus and measure them there. Each of us must live as God directs us to live. There is no other Way to worship the Father but through Him.

In Christ and He in me and He in the Father, and when these three agree, that is the true manefestation of the Sabbath rest. That rest is available to all in Jesus.

Pam

If such an one, called beloved of the Lord and in whom He dwells, comes before God and dedicates any day, of which the Lord did not command, yet dedicates it to the Lord in ignorance or because of false teaching...to the Lord it is dedicated. For this is acceptable and well pleasing to the Lord. And to this same one shall it be credited unto righteousness, according to their heart, though they be in error, according to which day shall be kept holy unto the Lord.

Yet if another, who has full knowledge, come and say, "I also dedicate this certain day to the Lord", and it be the correct day, the seventh, according to the Father's commandment, proclaiming his righteousness before men, casting judgment against those he perceives as less worthy because of their error...to this man shall it be credited unto shame, though he be not in error according to the commandment. Though he has kept this day by his mouth, he did not keep it in his heart, nor unto God, but to himself has he kept it...having not kept it at all. To this man, he shall be abased.

And to the one who is erred, who yet remains humble with a sincere heart, they shall be exalted, and from this place shall they come into the correct knowledge in keeping the seventh day holy, according to the Word of the Lord, for they have already kept it in their heart, though they have lacked knowledge of which day should be dedicated. So then, in their sincere striving toward righteousness, and by the intent of their heart, shall their faith come to completion in the keeping of the fourth command of the Father, when they come into the true knowledge of the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy, being the seventh as it was written.

It is far easier to move a man, whose heart is in the right place, to a new day, than to move a man, with a wrong heart, to a place that is right, if he feels he already abides there.

Yet, remember this: All, who come into the true knowledge of the Word, must then walk in its ways, and no longer in their own way, nor in man's ways.

[Jesus]
Walk uprightly in Me, in My footsteps...
abiding in My doctrine,
according to the faith and knowledge
you have received.

Progress toward perfection, seeking on by faith,
not according to tradition or the
commandments of men.

Seek and you shall surely find,
for all you need is written for your edification
in the Scriptures of Truth.