The Importance of the Sabbath

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 4, 1897

The Importance of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is chiefly important for two reasons: (1) It is a memorial of God’s creative power and supreme sovereignty. As long as men observe the Sabbath according to the commandment, remembering it from day to day, they will never forget their Creator. (See Ex. 20:8–11; Eze. 20:20.) (2) Man, being a sinner, needs redemption and sanctification, in order to salvation. It takes the same power to redeem and sanctify as to create. Sanctification is re-creation. The Christian is created in Christ Jesus. (See Eph. 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17.) The Sabbath, the memorial of the creative power of God in Christ, becomes a sign of God’s redeeming and sanctifying and upholding power in Christ; and therefore as long as the Christian keeps the Sabbath according to the commandment, he can never forget his Saviour, who redeemed him not from a literal Egyptian bondage, but who sanctifies him from sin. (See Deut. 5:12–15; Eze. 20:12.)