p. 5 | The Sabbath by E. L. Cardey

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 25, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 12.

The Sabbath

By E. L. Cardey

By E. L. Cardey

The Sabbath in the Law and in Christ

VERILY My Sabbaths ye shall keep: . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” Ex. 31:13, 16. That divinely appointed institution, ordained of the Lord to be the evidence of sanctification to Israel, lost none of its significance or power in the life and teaching of Christ. He, who through the sacrifice of Himself has become the sanctifier of sinners, appointed the Sabbath as a part of the law, and gave it to His people to be the means of retaining their justification. Heb. 2:11; Rom. 3:21.

At the close of the six days of creation, when the hours of the first seventh day began, it was Christ who rested upon that day, and sanctified it, and made it a Sabbath. John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16. When Israel stood afar off and trembled at the awful spectacle of flaming Sinai, it was Jesus who made the covenant with His people, and uttered the sacred words of the Decalogue. 1 Cor. 10:1-4; 1 Peter 1:10, 11. Thus by creation and command, the Sabbath emanated from, and received the sanction of Christ. It would scarcely be supposed then, when He took upon Himself human form (John 1:14), that He would deny the eternal claims of the Sabbath as given in the fourth commandment. It will be noticed that Christ made the Sabbath before sin entered the world, and the sacrifice of His life had become necessary.

The Sabbath was the bulwark of Israel’s religion, because it occupied that peculiar and important position in the Decalogue of designating the Giver of the law, and pointing out His work. When Israel forgot God, and trampled the Sabbath under foot, they soon turned to the worship of Baal. Elijah charged Ahab and his people with having forsaken the commandments of God and followed Baal. The result was, that nearly all Israel had lost sight of God as the creator; and it was necessary for Him to perform a mighty miracle by the hand of Elijah to convince them of the true God. 1 Kings 18:18.

There can be no question about the important place the Sabbath occupied in the old covenant, or the dispensation of law. The question we wish to answer now is, Was the Sabbath institution, including the definite day that it stood for when it was made, transferred to the new covenant, or the dispensation of grace? Let us consider first the relation of Israel to the new covenant, and secondly the relation of Christ to the law and the Sabbath.

For Israel

Israel, that remarkable word which stands for God’s people in all ages, expresses the idea of the divine and human united, the last two letters of the word denoting the divine. God gave the name to Jacob when he had wrestled all night with the Lord. He said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. The new covenant was made with the house of Israel (Heb. 8:6), and its promises were for Israel only. Eph. 2:12, 13. When Christ is accepted in the heart, the “stranger” and “Gentile” becomes an Israelite indeed, and an heir to the covenant of promise. Gal. 3:29; Rom. 2:28, 29.

How completely the atonement of Christ and the privileges of the gospel accomplish that work for man whereby he can be called “Israel”—the divine and human united. With this thought in mind, Paul said, “And so all Israel shall be saved.” Rom. 11:26. Sinful man could never have been called “Israel” had not God in mercy made possible the promises of the new covenant that was ratified by the blood of Jesus. Heb. 9:12-15. Israel, under the old covenant, was vitally related to the new, for they were saved by virtue of its promises and conditions; while their observance of the laws of the sanctuary as given to them, became the thermometer of their faith in the coming Saviour, who was to make the new covenant with the house of Israel. The Sabbath, however, was to remain a test of loyalty to both houses of Israel. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” Ex. 31:16. Webster, in defining the word “perpetual,” says it means “never-ceasing,” “unfailing.” The seventh-day Sabbath occupies this “never-ceasing, unfailing” position in the new covenant. As it was the covenant of “knowledge” to ancient Israel (Eze. 20:20), so it remains for Israel under the blessings of the gospel. Its claims are even greater under the new, than under the old covenant, for under the new the law of God, the Ten Commandments, are inscribed upon the fleshy tablets of the heart. Heb. 8:10. We conclude, then, in harmony with Inspiration, that the seventh-day Sabbath which occupied such a large place in the worship of Israel under the old covenant, should occupy the same position under the new.

Christ’s Relation to the Law and the Sabbath

Jesus’ mission on earth was not to disregard constituted authority, or make of none effect the law. He charged the scribes and Pharisees with having done this by heaping traditions upon the commandments of God. Matt. 15:3, 9. At the beginning of His earthly ministry He clearly defined His position relative to the moral law, in the following words:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18.

We may readily infer from this, that He regarded with equal importance each of the Ten Commandments. Not only this, but He regarded the very letters as important, for not one “jot” (yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet) or “tittle” (meaning the “horn,” a short projection in certain Hebrew letters extending the base line beyond the upright one which rests upon it) of the law could perish. In His own life, He practised to the very letter this teaching regarding the law of God. Who could convict Him of sin? He kept the commandments perfectly. John 15:10; Heb. 4:15.

His mission on the earth in the flesh was to keep the law that man had failed to keep, and so perfectly did He succeed, that no voice could be raised, or finger point out one place wherein He had transgressed God’s precepts. He did not exalt the fourth commandment above the other nine, neither did He give it a secondary place. From His childhood, until the close of His earthly ministry, both by observance and instruction, Jesus showed His regard for the seventh-day Sabbath. In early life, it was His custom to attend the synagogue for worship on that day. Luke 4:16. At the beginning of His ministry, He exalted that day by declaring that He was Lord of it. Mark 2:28.

Again, just before He finished His earthly mission, He commanded the disciples to pray that they might be kept from transgressing the Sabbath when Jerusalem would be destroyed. Matt. 24:20. This command called for Sabbath observance at least forty years after the death of Christ, for Jerusalem was not destroyed until A.D. 70. No act, or teaching in the Saviour’s life, relative to any institution, could be more significant than thus asking the church to remember the Sabbath in prayer.

Finally, in the completion of the divine plan for man’s redemption, or re-creation, the seventh day was again the day of rest from a completed work. Jesus was crucified on the sixth day, or Friday. Just before the close of the day the Father hid His face from His Son. In that awful hour of darkness, Jesus cried, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost and died. John 19:30. On that Friday afternoon, when He yielded up His life, the plan of salvation was forever sealed, and the new covenant ratified. His body was taken down and laid away. The Sabbath drew on, and the Son of God rested in the tomb on that day from His work of redemption. He who rested on the first seventh day of earth’s time, “from all His work which God created and made,” also rested on the same seventh day in the sepulcher from His great work of recreation.

Many years after, in writing of this particular Sabbath day, and the events that are connected with it, Luke tells us that the women also returned, “and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” When Luke wrote his Gospel, he still remembered the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. After Jesus ascended to His Father, He sent back this word to us through His servant:

“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6.

The lives of the apostles, and all their writings are in accord with this teaching. They kept the Sabbath. It was Paul’s manner so to do. Acts 17:2. He kept the day among the Gentile nations. Acts 16:13; 13:14, 42, 44; 18:4. All the New Testament writers are in harmony with the Saviour’s statement, that He “came not to destroy the law” of God. Paul says, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19. James’s admonition is, “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:12. And the Holy Spirit in speaking through John the revelator says, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Sabbath observance is essential to-day for the one that would have his life perfected in Christ according to the commandments, for the Sabbath command is a part of the Ten Commandments, and “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10.