DID CHRIST CHANGE THE SABBATH.
By F. M. W.
Christ is recognized as man's example, therefore what Christ did every one of His followers with the same occasion may do likewise. And as it is proper to inquire into the relation Christ sustained to every phase of Christian experience, it is but reasonable also to inquire what relation he sustained to the law of God, and especially to the Sabbath commandment. Did Christ during His earthly ministry preach or practise the abrogation of the law or any part of the law? Did He anywhere in His earthly life declare that the sacredness of the Sabbath of the past had been transferred to another day of the week? If He did, His course forever settles the Sabbath controversy. What relation did the work of Christ sustain to the law of God? What relation do the prophecies of the Bible say that he would sustain? What relation did Christ and His apostles say that He did sustain? Certainly from the concurrent testimony we should be able to draw a safe conclusion. David, in the fortieth psalm, by the inspiration of the Spirit, speaks these words in Christ's stead: “Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Verses 7, 8. The prophet Isaiah speaks as follows: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21. If the law of God was in the heart of Christ, it would be hard to see how His outward practise could be the exact opposite of the principle existing within. The highest manifestation of love for God is obedience. Says the Saviour, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” Hence, if the law of God existed in the heart of Christ, the outward manifestation would be conformity of life to the divine precepts. It also would be difficult to understand how Christ could magnify the law of God and at the same time discount its claims or nullify a tenth part of its demands. He did indeed magnify it in that He manifested in His own life its divine principles, and taught men that it embraced more than dry forms, pertaining to the essence and spirit of Christianity. The testimony of our Saviour regarding His position on the law of God is clearly defined in His Sermon on the Mount. He says emphatically that He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it, or do it. (See Matt. 5:17–20; Luke 16:17; John 4:34.) The apostle Paul states emphatically that faith in Christ, far from making void the law of God, only serves to establish and confirm that law. Rom. 3:31. How does the death of Christ and faith in His atonement establish the law? Christ died for sinners. Sin is the violation of the law of God. 1 John 3:4. The law of God is the foundation of His government. The authority of God Himself rests upon government, the same as the authority of every earthly power. And the fact that it required the death of the Son of God to meet the demands of that law in order that the sinner might be free, proves that the law was something which could not be set aside. Thus we see the strength of the law and the stability of the government of God through the sacrifice of the life of Christ, which was required to meet its demands. How unreasonable in the great Law-giver to4meet the demands of that law, and then count the law of so little consequence as to annul or abolish it! Why should not the loving Father set aside the law before the death of Christ, thus sparing the agony of His beloved Son? The fact that Christ died to meet its legal claims is an argument forever as to its immutability. But now we come more directly to the detail of the inquiry as to whether Christ wrought any change in the Sabbath. It was the custom of our Saviour to meet with His countrymen on the seventh day and engage with them in religious service. Luke 4:16. In His argument with the Jews on the point of His healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day, Christ recognized the existence of the law of God, and the Sabbath, as a part of that law, which should be observed. Matt. 12:1–12. When Christ was crucified, His most intimate disciples petitioned Pilate to deliver His body for burial before the seventh-day Sabbath, on account of their regard for that day. Matt. 27:57, 58. And others of His intimate friends, including Mary Magdalene, and doubtless His own mother after the flesh, after preparing spices and ointments for the anointing of His body on the sixth day of the week, ceased their labors on account of the Sabbath of the Lord, which they counted so sacred as to be an unsuitable time for the embalming of their blessed Jesus. And Christ Himself, after finishing His work and ending His earthly ministry upon the sixth day of the week, rested in undisturbed sleep and repose in the tomb during the seventh day, and again upon the first day of the week took up the work and labors of His earthly ministry. And the Spirit of the Lord, as recorded in Matt. 28:1, in Mark 16:1, and in Luke 23:56 and 24:1, declares that the Sabbath had just passed when the first day of the week dawned. Thus we find that Christ and His most intimate followers recognized throughout His earthly ministry the Sabbath observed by the Jews as the Sabbath of the Lord. Not a word does He utter regarding the abrogation of the Sabbath commandment nor the sacredness of another day. Nor from His practise can any other inference be drawn than that He held as sacred the day that He Himself had commissioned with His own divine blessing. Therefore in answer to the inquiry at the head of this article we may answer emphatically and without a single reserve, Christ did not institute any change in the Sabbath of the Lord. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6. F. M. W.