I made the point (I hope I made it well!) that Jesus is the One to whom the Seven Sabbaths foreshadowed in my previous post on the subject. Now let me wade a little deeper into the subject and the controversy surrounding sabbatarianism.

There are two prevailing views within the Church regarding how a Christian should observe the weekly sabbath (there is little to no controversy regarding the other six sabbaths) – the minority view that the recurring weekly sabbath should be observed and honored in accordance with the Old Covenant, and the majority view that Christians should honor Sunday in memorial of the Resurrection. I am going to take the position that neither are commanded as an element of Christian worship. 

It is near universally recognized that nine of the Ten Commandments are restated in the New Testament, but the sabbath commandment is absent either as a command to maintain the Old Covenantal sabbath or as an establishment of a new sabbath within the New Covenant. Where’s the sabbath in the Christian life and practice? 

Well, it’s right there in plain sight. We just weren’t looking in the right place! In Isaiah 49:8 God speaking to the coming messiah, “I give you as a covenant to the people.” The Old Covenant was external, written on tables of stone. The New Covenant is internal; it comes written on the heart in the new birth. The New Covenant is the gift of God’s Son for the redemption of the race. It is the very person of Jesus Christ. 

It is Jesus who is rest (sabbath) for those the Father has given the gift of salvation. Let me say it again, Jesus is the Christian Sabbath. Now that does not mean we should now work (or play) seven days a week without interruption. Not at all. Our need for physical and spiritual rest did not end at the cross. What ended was the covenantal requirement to observe the seventh day of the week as sabbath. A Christian is free to observe any day as a day of worship and refreshment, but he is not free to ignore his need for communion with fellow Christians in the worship of his savior, instruction from the elders in the scripture, and reflection on the mercies of God. Christians need a physical sabbath to draw nearer to the One who is sabbath.