The Sabbath of the New Covenant.
By A. Delos Westcott
"Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. 20: 12. IT is by the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ that Christians are sanctified. This was true in the old dispensation as well as in the new. "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 2 Thess. 2: 13. "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. 6: 11. "Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1: 2. See also Eze. 11: 19, 20 and 36: 26, 27; Heb. 10: 28, 29. As the Sabbath is the sign of sanctification, and as it is the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ that sanctify, it is therefore plain that the Sabbath is the sign by which Christians are to know that God sanctifies them by the Holy Spirit and the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the observance of the Sabbath is the sign that men accept the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ for their salvation. It is only by virtue of the new covenant that the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ are available for man. That the term "new covenant" means "renewed covenant" is demonstrated by the fact that it existed in the days of Abraham; and is, in short, identical with God's "everlasting covenant." See Gal. 3: 13-18; 4: 22-27; Heb. 13: 20, 21. Christ died on the cross, "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." And the purpose of Christ's death was to carry out the provisions of the renewed, or everlasting, covenant. See Heb. 9: 15; 10: 29; 13: 20; Matt. 26: 27, 28. Therefore, since the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ are available only by virtue of the everlasting covenant, it is demonstrated that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of the acceptance of the renewed, or everlasting, covenant. The only fancied objection that can be brought against these plain Bible statements is the fact that in the past many persons who did not keep the seventh day have been blessed with the Holy Spirit. But God blesses people, not because of their entire freedom from error, but because of their sincerity, and because of their willingness to accept and obey all the truth that He has sent them. Sixty years ago very few people had ever had their attention called to the fact that the majority of Christians were keeping the papal, instead of the Bible Sabbath. Now the light on the Sabbath question is shining everywhere. "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Acts 17: 30. Said Christ, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin." That which was once a sin of ignorance, now becomes a sin of presumption. When the Jews rejected the light, Jesus said, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Reader, have you not noticed that since the proclamation of this Sabbath message began, there has been more and more a dearth of the Holy Spirit in the religious bodies that have rejected the message? "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." John 3: 19-21; 12: 35; Heb. 10: 26, 27.