The Sabbath Through the Ages
By Charles L. Taylor
VIII. Christ and the Sabbath
In the fulness of time the Son of God came to earth and tabernacled in “sinful flesh.” The Creator of the worlds, the Representative of God, the Maker of the Sabbath, became the Son of Man, and by “a life of perfect obedience to God’s law . . . set an example for every human being.” His life was a complete fulfilment of the divine word given through David more than a thousand years before: “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. “He made plain to men the character of God’s law and the nature of His service,” and thus He fulfilled also the prophetic announcement of Isaiah, “He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21. At the time when our Lord Jesus Christ took His place among men, the law of Jehovah, as taught by the rabbis of Israel, had become a curse rather than a blessing to mankind. “It had been loaded down with traditions,” and “utterly hidden beneath the rubbish of men’s inventions.” This was particularly true in the matter of the Sabbath, and hence it was that much of the Saviour’s work had for its object the exaltation of true Sabbath-keeping. As another has said, “We shall find that the Saviour never missed an opportunity to correct their false notions respecting the Sabbath; and that He selected, with evident design, the Sabbath as the day on which to perform many of His merciful works. It will be found that no small share of His teaching through His whole ministry was devoted to a determination of what was lawful on the Sabbath.” See Matt. 12:1-13; John 5:1-16; 9:1-14; and other passages. Without danger of exaggeration, it may be said that the truths concerning the Sabbath, which Jesus so often and so forcibly enunciated, were considered by His people as the reason why He should be put to death. John 5:18. From the day that Jesus began to make plain the simple, sweet, beautiful Gospel truth of the Sabbath, the shadow of the cross began to fall across His path. And this is easily understood when we consider how vital to God’s people is the blessing of the Sabbath, and therefore important to the prince of evil that it be overthrown. Opposition to the true Sabbath has always been most bitter and relentless, instigated by him who sought from the beginning to overthrow the government of Heaven. But while Jesus met most intense opposition regarding the proper observance of the Sabbath day, never once was the question of the day itself a matter of controversy. The Sabbath observed by the Master was identical with that which was kept by His people, the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Turning to the record of His work, we find that Sabbath-keeping was the very habit of His life. “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and as His custom was, He went into the synagog on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. Very early in His ministry He specifically announced Himself as Lord of that Sabbath which was made for mankind at the beginning and which it was His custom to observe. Mark 2:28. As Lord of the Sabbath, as author of the day itself, He emphasized the fact that its truest observance was but a requirement of the great law of which it was and is so important a part. When wrongfully accused because of healing the sick during holy time, He asked, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?” Mark 3:4. “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Matt. 12:12. Thus did Jesus “magnify the law [of the Sabbath] and make it honorable.” By both example and teaching He gave it its true setting in the Decalogue and in the realm of Christian experience. And can any one candidly say that we are not to follow in His steps? But while our Lord so often and so lucidly set forth the Sabbath truth, we have no record that He ever gave a new Sabbath law. This was altogether unnecessary. The law of God thundered forth from Sinai was an eternal moral code, given by Himself for all mankind, and remaining unchangeable and unchanged forever. And besides this, Jesus came and dwelt among men not as a law-giver, but as a law-keeper. John 15:10. That He simply kept the Sabbath law that already was, is an incontrovertible argument in favor of the fourth commandment as given from Sinai. Certainly, Jesus sought earnestly to lead His people to know that He had not come to abolish or change the law as they knew it. Every tittle of its sacred “ten words” was as enduring as heaven and earth. Matt. 5:17, 18. It is a remarkable fact that Jesus not only taught the Sabbath and sacredly observed it while He lived, but He made provision for its keeping after His return to His Father in heaven. Speaking of the time when Jerusalem should be destroyed, A.D. 70, He said, “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Matt. 24:20. In other words, He instructed His children to pray in His name, to ask for His help, to enable them to keep the Sabbath in the time of stress and trial that was to come nearly forty years after His crucifixion. And do you suppose, dear reader, that He failed to answer their prayer which was offered in harmony with His word? The history of the destruction of Jerusalem shows that the children of God were mightily helped at that time in the matter of the Sabbath. By His life the Lord Jesus set the seal of God’s everlasting approval upon faithful Sabbath-keeping. In this as in other parts of His blessed work He gave us an example. But not by His life only did He stamp the Sabbath as divine and eternal; by His death He made it a part of the new covenant experience. The blood of Calvary ratified that covenant, and the new covenant is God’s law written in the heart. Heb. 8:10. Just so surely as Christ died on the cross, so surely is the Sabbath of the Lord a part of the great work wrought in men’s lives by the operations of the Holy Spirit. All, therefore, who live under the new-covenant plan will be found in hearty and loving accord with the blessed Sabbath of God. In this connection it may readily be seen that no change in the law of the Sabbath subsequent to the cross could for one moment receive the divine approval. After the blood was shed and the covenant ratified, the terms of the covenant remain fixed and absolute forever. Heb. 10:16, 17; Gal. 3:15. As the Sabbath was unchanged until Jesus died, and as it was a part of the great law which His death honored and sealed, it5must remain unchanged and a part of that law so long as the law itself continues. Blessed Sabbath! Many indeed there are who now know it as a part of their new-covenant life, and many there are who will yet be caused to rejoice in the same blessing. Dear reader, if you are not one of those who already know, will you not receive the honor now?