Were the Christians of Past Centuries Sealed without the Sabbath?
By A. Delos Westcott
A VERY interesting question in connection with the subject of God's seal is this: How were those Christians sealed who never observed the seventh-day Sabbath, which is declared in the Bible to be God's sign, or seal? How was the thief on the cross sealed? He was not even baptized. With the exception of our dear Saviour, no person ever lived upon this earth who did not at some time break one or more of the Ten Commandments; "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" and "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." It is therefore certain that no person can transgress any one of God's commandments without making himself a sinner; and hence that no one can transgress the fourth commandment, by working on the seventh day, without becoming a sinner. His sin may be one of ignorance, of carelessness, or of presumption. "And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; tho he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." Lev. 5:17. "When he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing." Verses 4, 5. "And the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him." Verse 18. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. It is a good thing to be cleansed from all sin, but that is not enough; we must also be filled with all righteousness. The cleansing from sin removes all the blots and false entries from our life's record, leaving its pages clean and white—a perfect blank. But God requires that the pages shall be filled with perfect deeds. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10. These works which God has ordained (or "prepared," margin) are enumerated in His law. Our life record may be divided into two parts—the past and the future. How shall we be able to fill with good works the pages of the past? "Being justified freely by His grace thru the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation thru faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, thru the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Rom. 3:24-26. Ah, the righteousness of Jesus that is to be credited to our account to take the place of our past record of sin! When Jesus was here in the flesh, He lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. 4:15; 5:7-9; Ps. 40:7, 8; John 15:10. He said, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me." "For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." How was He enabled always to obey? What was the secret of His power? He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing." His success is all summed up in one word—faith. Faith is the key that unlocks the power-house of heaven. "O ye of little faith!" was His reproof to His disciples when they were unable to do the works which He did. Christ's life of obedience in the flesh was just as essential to our salvation as was His death. By taking our sins upon Himself, and then having His life of perfect obedience credited to us on the books of heaven, He was able to repair our sad record of the past. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Rom. 5:10, 17-19. In what did Christ's Sabbath righteousness consist? Did it not consist in obeying the fourth commandment by the observance of the seventh day? Probably every observer of the Sabbath in the world to-day has sometime broken this commandment. We have all come short. What are we to do? Only one thing can be done—we must let Christ have our Sabbath-breaking, our sin, and we must accept His Sabbath-keeping instead. Then when the Father looks upon the books of heaven, He will not see our mistakes and disobedience at all, but will see only the perfect obedience of His Son. Perhaps some Sunday observers have not kept that day as carefully as they felt they should. What are they to do? They must also accept the Sabbath obedience of Christ. And if they accept it, will it not appear on the books of heaven that they are observers of the seventh day? In other words, if Christ's Sabbath righteousness becomes their Sabbath righteousness, will they not be the same kind of Sabbath-keepers that Christ was? No one5claims that Christ ever kept Sunday; consequently He has no Sunday righteousness, or obedience, to give to anybody. There was no command in the Bible to observe Sunday, and of course there could not be any obedience when there was no law to be obeyed. It is therefore certain that all who have been saved by the righteousness of Christ are recorded in heaven as seventh-day Sabbath-keepers. Perhaps thousands of them kept Sunday all their lives, supposing it to be the true Bible Sabbath. They accepted Christ's righteousness without stopping to consider exactly what it was. They walked in the light so far as they had opportunity to learn of it. When they awake in the resurrection, they will be surprised at some of their mistakes (who will not?), but they will be glad that they accepted Christ's righteousness for what it really is, rather than for what they knew about it.