THERE IS NO SUNDAY-KEEPING RIGHTEOUSNESS.
By H. W. Reed
The law of God is to witness to your righteousness; and if you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that law will witness to it. The law contains, as it were, ten witnesses. The fourth one will witness concerning the Sabbath we have kept. If we have kept the same one Christ did by faith in him, and have his righteousness on this point,—the Sabbath-keeping righteousness that he wrought out every Sabbath of his life,—I say, if we have this imputed to us, then the fourth commandment will witness to that righteousness as being just what the law demands. No one can receive any Sunday-keeping righteousness from Christ. This for the best reason in the world; and that is that the law did not demand it, and Christ did not work out any such thing. He wove no Sunday threads into the robe of his righteousness. Sunday-keeping is of man-made origin; and Christ weaves no such threads into the garment with which he will clothe his saints. No one can have Christ’s righteousness to cover points that Christ did not work out as righteousness. Righteousness works out right-doing; and as Christ did not observe Sunday, that is not a part of his right-doing; it is not a part of his righteousness, and the law can not witness to it. If, then, you desire a righteousness to which the law can witness, take the righteousness of Christ, and you will certainly be safe. He met the demands of a perfect law. That law demanded then, as it does now, perfect righteousness. But man can not render this of himself. His own righteousness is filthy rags compared with the spotless garment of Christ’s righteousness. Then as Christ never observed Sunday, that does not enter into his righteousness. And if we present Sunday-keeping as righteousness, whose righteousness is it?—Certainly it is not Christ’s; for he never observed it: neither is it of the law; for the law does not demand it. Then of whose righteousness is Sunday-keeping, Christ’s or man’s?—It is of man’s only. And as that righteousness is filthy rags, and as the law can not witness to it, the law must witness against it. So we appeal to all Sunday-keepers to repent of this sin of Sunday-keeping; for it is a violation of the law of God. Throw away your own righteousness; for your own is all you have on this point. And then by faith in Christ’s power keep the Sabbath that Christ kept, and let the righteousness of Christ thus be imputed unto you, that the law of God may witness to your imputed righteousness as meeting the demands of the holy law. Who will not do it?