Did Christ Change the Sabbath?
By Frederick M. Wilcox
The Lord Jesus Christ stands as man’s perfect example. It is therefore proper in every relationship of life to consider what Christ would do. What relationship did Christ sustain to the law of God and to the Sabbath commandment? Did he by word or act during his earthly ministry indicate that any change had been made in the Sabbath institution? or that its sacredness had been transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week? Surely the determination of this question is one of great moment, which should settle for all time, in the mind of every disciple, the Sabbath controversy. As to the attitude Christ would sustain during his earthly ministry toward the law of God, inspired witnesses many years before his incarnation clearly testified. The Spirit, through David, in the fortieth psalm, represents Christ as proclaiming the position he would take: "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 observance of the law of God on the part of Christ was not forced observance. Religion with him did not consist, as with many of the Jews, in obedience to set forms and ceremonies. He loved the law of God. It was written in his heart, in his very nature. The righteousness of his life was but the outward expression of that which existed within. This will be true in the case of his followers. Those who have entered into the new covenant relationship, who have had the law of God written in their minds and in their hearts (Heb. 8: 10), will bear in their lives the same testimony as did Christ to the claims of that law. The highest expression of love is obedience. Obedience to the law of his Father demonstrated Christ’s love for his Father, and Christ applies the same test to his disciples when he says: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The prophet Isaiah bears this testimony concerning the relationship which Christ should sustain to the law of God: "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. 42: 21. Instead of minimizing the law, or abrogating its claims, or abolishing it in whole or in part, Christ, by every word and act, would seek to magnify and make it honorable. He could make it honorable only by honoring it in his own life, by demonstrating the authority of its claims in his own experience. In his own life he magnified its divine principles. By beholding Christ we see the law of God drawn out in living character. We see what otherwise would appear as dead forms and stern commands manifested as living, holy, concrete truths. We come now to inquire whether the testimony of Christ’s own message and life was in harmony with these two prophecies which we have cited. In his beautiful sermon on the mount, as recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew, the Saviour declares that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it, or accomplish it. Matt. 5: 17-20, A. R. V. Not until heaven and earth pass away shall one jot or tittle of the law of God fail. It stands as the foundation of God’s government; and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of abrogating its claims, served only to establish and confirm its authority. Faith Establishes the Law
Says the apostle Paul, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the 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. Rom. 7: 7. The fact that it required the death of the Son of God to meet the demands of the law in order that the sinner might be redeemed, proves that the law was something that could not be set aside. How unreasonable to suppose that the great Jehovah should require the death of the Son of God in place of the sinner to meet the demands of the broken law, and then count the law of so little consequence as to annul or abolish it! Why should not the loving Father have set aside the law before the death of Christ, thus sparing the agony of his beloved Son? The fact that Christ died to meet the claims of the divine constitution is an argument forever as to its immutability. Christ’s Regard for the Sabbath
We come now more directly to the inquiry as to whether Christ wrought any change in the Sabbath. What was his own practise with reference to Sabbath observance? In Luke 4: 16 we have pointed out the fact that Christ went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and "stood up for to read." The evangelist states that he did this "as his custom was." It was no unusual act on his part, but was his weekly practise.10In his controversy with the Jews regarding the healing of the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day, Christ declares, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." If it was lawful to do well on the Sabbath day then, it was in harmony with the law. By this statement and by this miracle Christ clearly shows that he recognized the existence of the law of God, and of the Sabbath as a part of that law, and that his keeping the Sabbath on that occasion was in harmony with the true spirit of Sabbath observance. Read Matt. 12: 1-12. According to the Commandment
Not only was the Lord himself particular to show his regard for the Sabbath of the Lord, but his most intimate disciples, with their religious convictions strengthened, their spiritual vision clarified, and their consciences tendered by their association with the divine Master, showed their own particular regard for the same day observed by Christ. The time came when the Lord of life and glory was crucified. Before the Sabbath began, his body was taken from the cross and placed in Joseph's new tomb. His most intimate earthly associates, including those who had sat at his feet to receive his most particular instruction, prepared spices and ointments for the anointing of his body. But the Sabbath drew on, and this day they counted even too sacred for the prosecution of such a work as that in which they were engaged. The record is, "They . . . rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23: 56. If these intimate disciples of the Lord rested on the Sabbath day "according to the commandment," then they must have rested on the day enjoined by the commandment, namely, the seventh day of the week; for we find that "upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared" (Luke 24: 1), to complete the work which they had refrained from doing on the seventh day on account of the sacred character of that day. The Lord declared in his expiring agony, "It is finished," indicating that his sacrifice was complete. He closed the labors of his earthly life with the laboring portion of the week, and rested in undisturbed sleep and repose in the tomb on the seventh day. Upon the first day of the week he was awakened to a new life, and resumed the ministry of his earthly experience. The Spirit of the Lord, recording the history of Christ's earthly life, declares again and again and again, three times, that the Sabbath had just passed when the first day of the week dawned, showing that God, through his Spirit, recognized no other day than the seventh as the Sabbath of the Lord. Matt. 28: 1; Mark 16: 1, 2; Luke 23: 56 and 24: 1. Thus we find that Christ and his most intimate followers recognized throughout his earthly ministry the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath observed by the Jews, as the Sabbath of the Lord. No word does he utter regarding the abrogation of the Sabbath institution nor the sacredness of another day. Nor from the record can any other inference be drawn than that he held as sacred the day which he made holy and set apart for the benefit of man in the beginning. Therefore in answer to the inquiry at the head of this article, we may say emphatically and without a single reserve, Christ made no change in the Sabbath institution. His relationship to it indicates the relationship to be regarded by his disciples. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 1 John 2: 6.