The Unchanged and Unchangeable Sabbath

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 15, 1906

The Unchanged and Unchangeable Sabbath

The wide-spread proclamation of the plain teaching of the Scriptures concerning the true Sabbath of the Lord is arousing opposition. All the old arguments against the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, which have been answered so many times, are being revived, and other recently invented ones are being pressed into service. Some who profess to believe in Christ as their divine Lord and Saviour join the Pharisees of old in declaring that he was a Sabbath-breaker. Some think to set aside the Sabbath by stigmatizing it as Jewish, forgetting that “salvation is of the Jews.” Others assert that the law was abolished by Christ, who afterward reenacted all the commandments except the fourth, and as proof they pervert the teaching of the apostle Paul into the statement that “Christ is the end of the law,” overlooking the inconsistency in claiming that the law was brought to an end while admitting that nine tenths of it survived. Still others say that there was no Sabbath before Sinai and no Sabbath since the cross. All these positions are unscriptural, and dishonor Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and the Redeemer of lost sinners, but they often confuse the minds of those who either do not know the Scriptures or are seeking for excuses to evade the claims of the true Sabbath. As a help in keeping this whole question clear in the minds of our readers, we quote the following paragraphs from the chapter on the Sabbath in “The Desire of Ages:” —

The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai; but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. The people of Israel had a knowledge of it before they came to Sinai. On the way thither the Sabbath was kept. When some profaned it, the Lord reproved them, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?”

The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a

sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. “From one Sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up “to worship before me, saith the Lord.” . . .

As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to them. Satan was seeking to exalt himself and to draw men away from Christ, and he worked to pervert the Sabbath, because it is the sign of the power of Christ. The Jewish leaders accomplished the will of Satan by surrounding God’s rest day with burdensome requirements. In the days of Christ the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men, rather than the character of the loving Heavenly Father. The rabbis virtually represented God as giving laws which it was impossible for men to obey. They led the people to look upon God as a tyrant, and to think that the observance of the Sabbath, as he required it, made men hard-hearted and cruel. . . .

Christ would teach his disciples and his enemies, that the service of God is first of all. The object of God’s work in this world is the redemption of man; therefore that which is necessary to be done on the Sabbath in the accomplishment of this work, is in accord with the Sabbath law. Jesus then crowned his argument by declaring himself the ‘Lord of the Sabbath,’—One above all question and above all law. This infinite Judge acquits the disciples of blame, appealing to the very statutes they are accused of violating.

Jesus did not let the matter pass with administering a rebuke to his enemies. He declared that in their blindness they had mistaken the object of the Sabbath. He said, ‘If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.’ Their many heartless rites could not supply the lack of that truthful integrity and tender love which will ever characterize the true worshiper of God.

Again Christ reiterated the truth that the sacrifices were in themselves of no value. They were a means, and not an end. Their object was to direct men to the Saviour, and thus to bring them into harmony with God. It is the service of love that God values. When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery. . . .

Those who hold that Christ abolished the law, teach that he broke the Sabbath, and justified his disciples in doing the same. Thus they are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ himself, who declared, ‘I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.’ Neither the Saviour nor his followers broke the law of the Sabbath. Christ was a living representative of the law. No violation of its holy precepts was found in his life. Looking upon a nation of witnesses who were seeking occasion to condemn him, he could say unchallenged, ‘Which of you convicteth me of sin?’

The Saviour had not come to set aside what patriarchs and prophets had spoken; for he himself had spoken through these representative men. All the truths of God’s Word came from him. But these priceless gems had been placed in false settings. Their precious light had been made to minister to error. God desired them to be removed from their settings of error and replaced in the framework of truth. This work only a divine hand could accomplish. By its connection with error, the truth had been serving the cause of the enemy of God and man. Christ had come to place it where it would glorify God, and work the salvation of humanity. . . .

To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ’s creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of his mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats his invitation, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’