ARE CHRISTIANS OBLIGATED TO KEEP THE SABBATH?

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Copyright 1994 - 2012 Endtime Prophecy Net

Authored By  : Bill Kochman (aka The WordWeaver)

Published On : October 27, 2001

Last Updated : January 3, 2009

Observing The Sabbath, Every Day A Blessing, Acknowledging
God On Daily Basis, Hypocrisy Of Church Attendance, Charade
Of The Jews, Lip Service Or True Worship, Spiritless Feast
Days, New Testament Christians, Old Testament Law, Jesus
Frees Us From The Law, Purpose Of The Sabbath, Mosaic Law
Our Schoolmaster, Letter Of The Law Or Spirit-Led, Saved By
Grace And Not By Works, Grace And Works Can Never Be Mixed,
Blood Of Animals Or Blood Of Christ, View Of The Jerusalem
Brethren, Don't Let Anyone Judge Your Freedom In Christ,
Live According To Your Own Faith, Stand Fast In Freedom



While I have already written extensively regarding the
correct attitude which modern New Covenant Christians should
have towards the Old Testament Levitical and Mosaic Laws, now
and then, this topic still comes up on our private Christian
mailing list. Recently, one of our conversations touched on
the topic of the Christian denomination known as the Seventh
Day Adventists, and the fact that observance of the Sabbath
day is a central part of their doctrine. In asking me about
this subject, one of our dear members quoted the following
verse from the Book of Genesis:

"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created
and made." Genesis 2:3, KJV

This woman then proceeded to ask me the following question:

----- Begin Quote -----

Wouldn't that Day, being blessed, hold some special
significance, if we acknowledged it, and worshiped the Lord
as our Creator on that Day, just as Sunday is set aside
today?

----- End Of Quote -----

In answering this woman, the first point I would like to
make here, is that I do not believe that it is necessary for
us to acknowledge one particular day each week in order to
honour the Lord. As far as I am concerned, every day is a
special blessing, because every day is given to us to live
by the Lord. As the Psalmist was inspired to write:

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice
and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24, KJV

Over a thousand years later, the Apostle Paul penned the
following words to the brethren at Rome, when they too were
apparently having problems, because some of them felt that
it was necessary to observe certain feast days, while some
of the others viewed every day as being the same, and of
equal importance:

"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth
every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind." Romans 14:5, KJV

Rather than acknowledge a particular day as part of a weekly
ritual, because it is mandated by some branch of organized
religion, I believe that it is much more important that we
acknowledge the Lord in our lives; and quite frankly, in our
home, we do this every single day of the year, and not just
on one day of the week when worldly people try to show their
holiness and devotion to God. We shouldn't do things out of
mere habit, or simply because it is the politically correct
to do, but rather because we have thankful hearts. If we do
have thankful hearts for all that the Lord has done for us,
we will manifest our thankfulness to Him every day, and we
will acknowledge Him every day. If we are not truly living
our lives in obedience to God's Word and Will; and if we are
not acknowledging Him in our lives every single day of the
year; then setting aside one hour of one day a week is
nothing short of total hypocrisy, and God doesn't like it!

As I point out in the article 'The Biblical Practice Of
Fasting', by the time that Jesus arrived during the First
Century, the so-called worship of the spiritual elders of
Israel had been reduced to nothing more than a pitiful and
hypocritical charade before both God and man. It was all
talk and no substance; it was spiritless and dead; just like
so many modern church services today. It is for this reason
that Jesus strongly rebuked the Scribes and the Pharisees,
and thoroughly exposed their sins and the hypocrisy of their
ways, in such discourses as that found in Matthew chapter
twenty-three. In the Gospel of Mark, the Lord very pointedly
told His self-righteous religious enemies that they honoured
God with their mouths, while their hearts were very far from
Him, as we see here:

"...Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is
written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,
as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like
things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the
commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
Mark 7:6b-9, KJV

As you can see, in rebuking the spiritual elders of Israel,
Jesus was quoting from the Prophet Isaiah. This is because
since the days of the Prophets, the Lord had been rebuking
the Israelites because of their dry, spiritless religion of
dead works. This, of course, included their observance of
certain feast days, including the sabbaths. These solemn
practices had become utterly worthless and vain. In fact,
they were quite disgusting to the Lord, because they were
not being done from the heart; and they were not coupled
with true obedience; as we see by the following verses:

"And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it
were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the
assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and
sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the
indignation of his anger the king and the priest."
Lamentations 2:6, KJV

"Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your
faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall
take you away with it." Malachi 2:3, KJV

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the
blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come
to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to
tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling
of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the
solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my
soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear
them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine
eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not
hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment,
relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow." Isaiah 1:11-17, KJV

Isn't that quite amazing? The ancient Israelites were going
through all of the right motions of pretending to be a holy
sanctified people with all of their special feast days and
Sabbath observations; they were making long prayers to God;
they were offering their morning and evening sacrifices;
they were getting together and having their solemn meetings;
and the Lord was utterly sick of it. He didn't want to have
anything to do with it. In fact, He even went so far as to
say that He didn't even want to hear their prayers because
they stunk in His nostrils. Their prayers were no longer a
sweet-smelling incense to Him; they had become a foul odor
which nauseated Him. How much those verses remind me of so
many modern church-goers who also go through the motions of
pretending to be Christian, while they live their daily
lives in hypocrisy and deep sin, and collectively do things
to other nations of the world, which a Christian people
simply should not do!

It should be clear then, that if our hearts are not right
with the Lord, going to church on Sunday, or Saturday, or
Wednesday is not only a meaningless act, it is in fact a
hypocritical act; legalism at its worst; and God utterly
hates it. But returning to our main point concerning the
necessity of observing holy days such as the Sabbath, the
simple truth of the matter is that we Christians are not
under the Old Testament Covenant; we are under the New
Testament Covenant; which was signed and sealed by Jesus'
own Blood. I explain this concept in more detail in such
articles as 'Is Jesus The Only Begotten Son Of God?', as
well as in 'The Blood Atonement: In Jesus' Own Words'. I
encourage you to read them if you desire a more in-depth
understanding of the significance of the Sacrifice of our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The point is, being as we Christians are covered by the New
Testament Covenant, or agreement if you prefer, we are no
longer bound by the bondage of the Old Testament Law as the
pre-Christian era Israelites were. As I explain in quite a
few other articles, such as in 'The Royal Law: Thou Shalt
Love', Jesus came to free us from dependence upon the Law.
That is why in explaining these things to the Law-observing
Jews of His time, He said such things as the following:

"...If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free... If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed." John 8:31b-32, 36, KJV

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable
year of the Lord." Luke 4:18-19, KJV

Jesus was free from the Law; and He taught His followers
that they could be free from the Law as well. For example;
after an incident where the Lord's Disciples were caught
picking corn on the Sabbath day, consider what happened
next:

"And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on
the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto
them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need,
and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? How
he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the
high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not
lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them
which were with him? And he said unto them, The sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore
the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath."
Mark 2:24-28, KJV

On another occasion, when Jesus was about to perform another
miracle of healing, once again His religious Law-observing
enemies found opportunity to attack Him. Notice again how
the Lord responded and put them to shame due to their self-
righteous legalism, and lack of love and mercy:

"And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation,
because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said
unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to
work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the
sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou
hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose
his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to
watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years,
be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he
had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed:
and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things
that were done by him." Luke 13:14-17, KJV

Over and over again those self-righteous, supposedly Law-
observing Scribes and Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking
the Mosaic and Levitical Laws; and each time, Jesus would
respond to their holier-than-thou accusations with words
such as we find in the previous two examples. Jesus offered
them an opportunity to be freed from the weight and burden
of the Law, but many of them simply refused to accept His
invitation. They preferred the old ways, the old customs,
the old traditions, and the old doctrines, because through
their rejection of Christ, they could continue to boast of
their own supposed righteousness, as well as keep the common
people under their control, through their subtle manipula-
tion of the Law. How much this sounds like some churches
today, which make certain unnecessary demands upon their
blind flocks; such as forced observance of the Sabbath, or
honouring Mary and the Saints, or going to confession, or
being water baptized.

Please notice precisely what the Lord says in the previous
verses. First of all, He tells them that He is the Lord of
the Sabbath. What does He mean by that? In my view, He is
saying that He and His Father created the Sabbath, so He is
entitled to do whatever He wants to do on it, whether they
like it, or agree with it, or not. Second, the Lord is also
very clearly saying that the Sabbath was not made for men to
be under bondage to it. That is why He says 'The sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the sabbath'. The idea behind
the Sabbath, was simply to instruct men to rest when their
bodies required it. That, in my opinion, is the spirit, and
true intent, of the Law concerning the Sabbath. You need to
remember that the Israelites were under Egyptian bondage for
a period of several hundred years. They didn't have a day
off from work; they didn't know what it meant to rest; so
the Lord had to teach them to do so by making it a law.

As I point out in some of the aforementioned articles, the
Apostle Paul tells us plainly that the Law was only meant to
serve as a schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ; at which
time our dependence would be upon Him, and not upon strict
adherence to the Mosaic Law, for our Salvation, as we see
here:

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that
faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."
Galatians 3:24-25, KJV

Sadly, as we have already seen, some people today, even
certain Christian denominations, such as the Seventh Day
Adventists, are just like those self-righteous Jews of old.
They have taken a step into the legalistic past by mandating
that their members observe the Sabbath. Such people have
fallen under the bondage of the letter of the Law, instead
of being Spirit-led, and freed through Christ. In describing
the Law-bound Jews of his own time, and explaining how New
Testament Christians must be led by the Spirit instead, the
Apostle Paul wrote:

"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, and NOT IN THE LETTER; whose
praise is not of men, but of God." Romans 2:28-29, KJV

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God." Romans 8:14, KJV

You see; as Paul says there, we can choose to live according
to the letter of the Law as the Jews did; we can try to do
everything right on the physical level, (such as be circum-
cised, or observe the Sabbath), in order to convince other
people of how good and holy we are, so that we might win
their praise, but it is all nothing but dead, legalistic,
self-glorifying works; and in the end, they will amount to
nothing, and they will be burned. As the Apostle Paul also
wrote:

"Now if any man build upon this foundation [meaning Christ]
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every
man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare
it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work
abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a
reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer
loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
1 Corinthians 3:12-15, KJV

What God desires of us most, is true worship of the Spirit,
in humility, so that He can receive the praise, glory and
honour, and not us. As Jesus said to the woman at the well
so long ago:

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth." John 4:24, KJV

To be quite honest, I am not very familiar with the doctrine
of the Seventh Day Adventists. I don't know if they view the
observance of the Sabbath as an essential part of God's
Salvation Plan. I certainly hope that they don't, because if
there is one thing of which I am absolutely certain, it is
that our so-called 'good works', including observance of the
Sabbath, cannot possibly ever save us, or contribute to our
Salvation in any way. As I point out in such articles as
'Are You Crucified With Christ?', Jesus Christ paid the full
price for our Salvation, and our works cannot add to what He
has already accomplished. As I have shared with my readers
many times before, the Scriptures plainly tell us:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any
man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9, KJV

"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no
more grace: otherwise work is no more work."
Romans 11:6, KJV

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
Titus 3:5, KJV

So either we believe that we are saved fully and totally by
God's Grace, or else we try to save ourselves through our
own so-called good works and observance of the Mosaic Law.
We simply cannot have one foot standing upon Grace, while
the other is standing upon the Law and good works. Please
don't misunderstand my words. I am not saying that there is
no place in the life of the Christian for works. As I point
out in such articles as 'Parable Of The Sower: Salvation And
Service', as well as in 'Study, Work, And Don't Be Ashamed',
works are indeed a very important part of our walk and life
service to the Lord; but, if we are counting on our works to
save us, if our faith is in our works, then we are doomed to
absolute failure from the start; because we will never be
good enough, or holy enough, or worthy enough, to deserve
Salvation and Eternal Life of our own accord; because as
James wrote, absolutely none of us can keep the entire body
of the Mosaic Law. If we break even just one of them, we are
guilty of having broken them all:

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10, KJV

Furthermore, if we could keep the entire Law, and save
ourselves through our own good works, then as Paul also
wrote to the Galatians, we have nullified the Sacrifice of
Christ, and He died in vain:

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
Galatians 2:21, KJV

The reason why Jesus was able to do the things which He did
on the Sabbath day, is because He was free from the letter
of the Law; and so are we when we believe in Him, and accept
His Atonement for our sins. It is just that simple. We
simply cannot be saved through our observance of any part of
the Old Testament Mosaic Law, including the observance of the
Sabbath; because if we could, that would be depending upon
ourselves, instead of upon the Sacrifice of Christ. Allow me
to share with you a few more important Scriptures on this
subject, as they make this very clear to those who have eyes
to see, and ears to hear:

"And by him [Jesus Christ] all that believe are justified
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the
law of Moses." Acts 13:39, KJV

"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is
no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through 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. Where is boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the
law of faith." Romans 3:20-27, KJV

"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law
by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God." Romans 7:4, KJV

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified...I do not frustrate the
grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain." Galatians 2:16, 21, KJV

"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of
God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith."
Galatians 3:11, KJV

"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you
are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
Galatians 5:4, KJV

Notice in that last verse, Paul is telling the backslidden
Galatian brethren the very same thing that he wrote to the
Roman brethren in Romans 11:6; and that is, that either we
are saved, or justified, by the Law, meaning our own good
works, or else we are saved solely by God's Grace. There
simply can be no mixing of the two; and that is precisely
what some modern-day Christians, such as the Seventh Day
Adventists, or perhaps the Messianic Jews, are doing, when
they insist that we must believe in Jesus, but we must also
fulfill parts of the old Mosaic Law, such as observing the
Sabbath. They are trying to mix the Old Covenant, which was
sealed by the blood of animals, with the New Covenant, which
was sealed by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, or as the
Lord Himself called it, the Blood of the New Testament:

"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins." Matthew 26:28, KJV

So allow me to ask you something dear reader: Are you a New
Covenant Christian, or are you bound to the Old Testament
Law like those legalistic Jews of old? Do you truly trust
completely in the Blood of Jesus Christ for your Salvation,
or are you secretly trusting in your own perceived goodness
and self-righteousness? Personally, I am convinced that we
New Testament era Christians are not bound by the mandates
of the Mosaic Law for our Salvation. Our only hope is in
Christ. Furthermore, I believe that no one should place
unnecessary burdens upon others, or attempt to add to God's
finished work through Christ, because of the rigid dogma of
their particular denomination. As James, Peter and the other
Apostles wrote to the Gentile Christian brethren who were
living outside of Israel:

"For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay
upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication:
from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare
ye well." Acts 15:28-29, KJV

Allow me to ask you a final question: If the Jewish-born
Jerusalem brethren, (who personally knew and were taught by
Jesus Christ Himself), considered it very important for the
Gentile Christians to observe the Sabbath day, why didn't
they include it in this list of recommended observances
which they sent to them? The answer seems very obvious to
me: They didn't consider the Sabbath observance necessary,
or even a priority, for the Gentile brethren. In fact, after
explaining to the Colossian brethren how Christ had freed
them from the curse of the Law, by nailing the ordinances of
the same on His own Cross, the Apostle Paul then tells them
to not let anyone judge them because of what they did or
didn't eat or drink, or because they didn't observe the
various feasts and sabbaths like the legalistic Jews did:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross...Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the
new moon, or of the sabbath days:" Colossians 2:14, 16, KJV

Just as Paul had questioned the Galatians regarding why they
had backslidden from the freedom they had gained in Christ,
and allowed the legalistic Jews to place them anew under the
bondage of the Law, he also questions the Colossian brethren
in a similar manner when a few verses later he states:

"Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of
the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye
subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Which all are to perish with the using;) after the
commandments and doctrines of men?" Colossians 2:20-22, KJV

In other words, Paul is saying, 'If you truly believe that
you have become dead to the Law through the body of Christ,
then why are you still observing and obeying the doctrines
and commandments of men, according to the Mosaic Law?'. So
what we have seen then, is that Jesus, the Jewish Apostles,
and Paul, all make it clear that we are no longer bound by
the mandates of the Mosaic Law, insofar as our Salvation is
concerned; and that includes the observance of the Sabbath
day. In summing up his thoughts on this topic to the Roman
brethren, Paul states:

"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth
every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind." Romans 14:5, KJV

So while I have now given you a clear understanding regarding
what the New Testament teaches concerning the relationship
between New Covenant Christians and the Mosaic Law, it is up
to you to decide what you want to believe; because as I am
sure you must realize, we must each choose to live according
to our own faith. If after reading this message, you still
desire to observe the Sabbath, it is really up to you. Allow
me to emphasize here that there is absolutely nothing wrong
or evil about doing this; but it simply isn't necessary, and
it certainly won't help to save you. Only Jesus saves. If
you fully realize that you are only saved by God's Grace
through Christ, and not by any ritualistic works of the Law,
and if observing the Sabbath, or going to church on Sunday
makes you feel like you are pleasing the Lord, then by all
means do it; but just remember that if you really want to
please the Lord, you need to remember Him, and acknowledge
Him, every single day of your life, and not just when your
particular brand of organized religion calls you to church.
God desires a continual, on-going relationship with you, and
not just a once-a-week date at the local church building,
where many people worship Him in name only.

As for me and my house, we will follow Paul's advice to the
Galatians when he writes:

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage." Galatians 5:1, KJV

I am free from the bondage of the Law through Christ; how
about you? With these thoughts, I will bring this article to
a close. I pray that it has been both instructive, as well
as a blessing, in your life.

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