There are many ways to research this biblical truth. I pray that you'll open your Bible and enjoy this study of God’s Word.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m not Jewish, Seventh-day Adventist, or Seventh-day Baptist. In fact, I choose not to affiliate myself with any denomination because I believe that we can knock down the walls that doctrine puts up between believers if we look to the Bible for all of our answers. Scripture was given to us as our life instruction manual, and it's our final authority. I simply love Jesus because of the fact that He took my punishment for everything that I ever did, or will ever do, wrong.
When I first heard of the 7th day Sabbath in the Spring of 2011, I thought, “But, church is on Sunday.” I doubted that Saturday could have possibly been kept throughout the ages. I then realized that Jewish history proves that they have kept this day sacred from Bible times until now, but I was perplexed. So, I started doing research. All of my research sent me straight back into my Bible, exactly where I belong. :-)
I knew that Exodus 20:10 said to keep the 7th day holy, but that’s not what we do today. It’s tradition to worship on Sunday. Who’s tradition though? God’s or man’s? Everything I do now, I bounce off of the notion of: WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?
"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." John 15:10 (NRSV)
It can’t be more clear than that. Jesus kept the 10 Commandments, so I will too!
Jesus himself honored the Sabbath. One of the things that he was criticized for was breaking the Sabbath by healing people on it:
“Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.” John 5:16-18 (NRSV)
Jesus also says, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?” Luke 14:5 (NRSV)
So, I looked further into what the Bible tells us to do, and not do, on the day that God set aside and made holy.
Exodus 20:8-10 (NRSV) tells us: “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work”.
Nehemiah 10:31 (NRSV) says: “and if the peoples of the land bring in merchandise or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the sabbath or on a holy day”.
Isaiah 58:13-14 (NRSV) reads: “If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the LORD”.
The Bible is pretty clear that we don’t buy, sell, work, or just do whatever pleases ourselves on the Sabbath.
When I first thought of putting these things into practice, I was nervous. I thought: “What if I’m too sick or tired during the week to do laundry, errands, housework, etc., and the only day I have to do it is Saturday?” It was a struggle at first, but now I plan my week around being able to forget about these things on Sabbath. Exactly what God intended the day for, so that I can focus on Him, His creation, and His love for every single one of us. He doesn’t love the Sabbath keeper any more than someone who chooses not to keep it, but He certainly rejoices when we follow His commandments.
So this leads to: Why do I choose to do this? Am I trying to work my way into heaven? Absolutely not! We’re saved by God’s Grace. He loves His creation so much that He put a sacrifice in place for our sins so that we’re not bound by the law of: “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 (NRSV)
Jesus took the fall for every sin we’ll ever commit. He will blot out our sins in front of our Father if we use our free will to follow His example. We choose by Faith to accept this Grace. The fruits of Faith are repentance, obedience, and love. Our love for God and what He’s done for us compels us to find out exactly what He expects of us, and to live according to His will, and not our own. What compels us is the Holy Spirit that we invite to live inside of us and take direction from. I know that my own will has not worked out well at all, so it was simple for me to put my trust in God.
So, every week from sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday night, I look forward to my time with God, my time with my family, and the beautiful rest that fills my soul and fuels me for the upcoming days. I devote that time to God and forget about the world’s greed, hatred, violence, and evilness.
Leviticus Chapter 23 talks about “The Sabbath” along with other festivals or ceremonial sabbaths. In verse 32, it can be seen that: “from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath”. (NRSV)
In Mark 1:32 (NRSV), we see that the Jewish people did not want to bring their sick to be healed by Jesus until after the Sabbath had ended: “That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.”
In John 19:31(NRSV), we learn that it was against Jewish law for bodies to be left on the cross during the Sabbath: “Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.”
The women that were going to anoint Jesus’s body, as was the custom, did not buy or prepare their spices on the Sabbath. This can be seen in Mark 16:1-3 (NRSV): “When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
There are many of Paul’s writings that are taken out of context in regards to Sabbath keeping. 2 Peter Chapter 3 is wonderful reading, but pay special attention to verses 16-18 (NRSV) where it talks about Paul’s writings:
“speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
So when we look at Paul’s letter to the Colossians, who were new Christians being pressured to follow the Jewish Law, we get a much different perspective than what some individuals use the scripture for, which is FAR out of context. Colossians 2:16-17 (NRSV) reads: “Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” What Paul was telling these new Christians is to not feel pressured to follow the customs of the Jewish people. Their ceremonial sabbaths and food & drink offerings, as can be seen in the Old Testament, were a shadow of things to come. That THING to come was Christ! He was the living sacrifice. Therefore, old ceremonial laws were only for people that didn't believe that Jesus was the Lamb of God. To continue to sacrifice would denounce Jesus as the sacrifice that God made to reconcile us to Him. What we need to understand in this scripture is that it says “sabbaths”, not “THE sabbath” like the others that refer to the 7th day Sabbath.
The 7th day Sabbath could not be a shadow of things to come, as it was created by God to commemorate His work. It’s something given to us to help us to look back on creation and thank God for everything He has done for us. A commemoration is the opposite of a shadow. The shadow looked forward to Christ. Those shadows were the perfect lambs of sacrifice, something that Jesus fulfilled when He chose to die for our sins. No longer was there a need for the High Priest to atone for sins through ceremonies and sacrifices. In John 19:30 (NRSV), Jesus said this for a reason: “It is finished.” He didn’t say, “The 10 Commandments are null and void.”
In fact, Revelation 14:12 (NRSV) shows us what God will be looking for in the final days: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.”
Once this was made clear to me through my own research, I couldn’t consciously choose to throw out this knowledge. That would be hearing God’s message and refusing it because it’s inconvenient or because uninformed people would think less of me. Only God's opinion matters! "We must obey God rather than any human authority." Acts 5:29 (NRSV)
We have to ask ourselves these questions:
How much did Jesus endure for us?
Could we set aside a 24 hour period of time of selflessness to honor Him for the pain and mockery that He took for us?
Is our world in disarray because we don’t spend time in our Bible?
Should we worship Jesus on a day that a majority of our churches have deemed appropriate for worship, instead of the day that HE honored?
Does the Bible say that Satan will try to change times and laws? (Daniel 7:25)
Does the Bible say that God “does not change”? (Malachi 3:6)
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