THE MORAL OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH.
By G.
It has recently been advanced as an argument against the binding obligation of Sabbath observance that it is not essentially a moral obligation. It is assumed that a moral obligation must be based on something that could not have been otherwise, that must be through all generations. One writer illustrates the proposition in this way:— The Scriptures say: “Like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.” In the same way they might have said: “You shall be just, for I am just,” and “You shall be truthful, for I am truthful.” Every law, then, that in any form demands holiness of life, or truthfulness, or righteous dealing, reflects an attribute of the divine character in unchangeable perfection, and hence expresses an obligation that can not be abrogated even by the will of God. From this it is assumed that Sabbath observance is not of this nature, for the reason that it might have been otherwise; that God “could, had He so willed, have finished His creative work in five days, and ordained the keeping of a fifth day, or failed altogether to demand the observance of any day whatever, without the least conflict with His unchangeable character.” Now all such argument is pure assumption, and is born of a desperate travailing in order to bring forth a pretext for not obeying the Sabbath commandment. We admit that God could not “make a world in which lying would be a virtue, and telling the truth would be a vice,” because “it is impossible for God to lie;” but it does not follow that God could have done aught else than He did do in the matter of the creation, and of the Sabbath, and have it all for the best interests of His creatures. He alone is the judge of that matter, and fallible man has no right to assume that some other way than God did do might have been just as well. All the false doctrines in the world could be hung on just such reasoning. He always does the best thing, and nothing else than the best can be as good as the best. The creature’s relation to the Creator is based upon what the Creator did do, and not upon what He might have done. When one admits that the injunction, “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy,” is a moral precept binding through all dispensations, by what logic can he assume that the commandment to rest on the seventh day because God rested on the seventh day is not equally binding? On the one hand, God says, Be thus because I am thus; and on the other hand, He says, Do this because I did it. The holy, perfect, infallible One gives both commands and both the reasons. What fallible creature will assume that the one is a moral obligation, and the other is not. Who will assume to say that what God is, is more important than what He does? Is it not by what He does that we know what He is? It is by His works that we know His law is perfect. See Psalms 19. The Sabbath law “demands holiness of life” in express words: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” No one without holiness of life can keep the Sabbath holy; and holiness is admitted to be “an attribute of the divine character in unchangeable perfection.” God, the holy One, not only made a day holy, but He made the seventh day holy. Therefore, if there be any virtue in the divine act of resting, and in the divine sanctification of the day, then the seventh day is imbued with “an attribute of the divine character in unchangeable perfection.” Its unchangeable character is further declared by Christ when He says, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” The effort to establish the subterfuge that to imitate the divine character is more essential than to obey the divine will, must fall because of its innate weakness. There is no means by which we may be made partakers of the divine character but by obedience to the divine will. “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” In this we are not ignoring justification by faith. By faith in Christ we simply get the benefit of His obedience. Had He not been obedient in all things, He could not have been an acceptable substitute for the sinner. By faith in Christ His righteousness (obedience) is imputed to the penitent sinner; and by faith His righteousness is imparted to the disciple, that he may be enabled to continue in obedience. The will of God, as expressed in His law, is man’s rule of life that he may develop a character in harmony with the divine character.