The Sabbath in the New Covenant Intro

The word Sabbath means to cease or desist, or quit working. It is related to the word seven in Hebrew (from an Aramaic word meaning full or complete). You see the connotation of a Sabbath Day or Year meaning “sevened” literally in Hebrew.

The Jewish Sabbath on their calendar was from Sundown on Friday evening until Sundown Saturday Evening. This is a literal Sabbath. Sunday, which we will address in a little while, was the Lord’s Day which the church was seen in the New Testament seen gathering to worship also because it was the day that Jesus resurrected.

It is a misnomer to call Sunday the Sabbath, although that is what many people call the Sabbath.

The actual Sabbath was the Seventh Day or Seventh Year on the calendar, and it was given by God to us as a gift of rest. It is basically Saturday to us today. It is legalized as such under the Law of Moses in the Old or First Covenant that was between God and Israel.

BEFORE WE CAN LOOK AT WHAT THE SABBATH IS TO US TODAY, WE MUST LOOK AT WHICH LAW OF GOD WE ARE UNDER AND WHICH COVENANT, AND WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. Every misunderstanding and false teaching on the Sabbath comes from mixing up covenants and the Law of Moses. I would rather just go to the main text and blessing of the Sabbath, but the widespread teaching of unbiblical ideas on the Sabbath necessitates this first step (which is will be larger than the study sadly). But we must have an understanding of the Old and New Covenant and what it is to be “saved” by faith in Jesus Christ.

The TRUTH is that if you are a born again Christian under the New Covenant, then you are under the New Covenant and the Law of the Spirit instead of the Law of Moses which was under the Old Covenant. The Bible is very plain on which Covenant and which law that we are under as the Church. The Sabbath like all the rest of the 612 parts of the Law was fully opened and transformed from a type to a reality in the New Covenant. The Law of Moses was a shadow of greater spiritual realities that we now have in the New Covenant. The Sabbath and Jubilee have been expanded past their old shadows now.

Hebrews 10:9-10, 14 “ 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. “, 14 “ For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. “

The Law of Moses was a school master or teacher giving us shadows of greater spiritual realities that we would have in coming New Covenant when the Messiah would come and fulfill the law.

Hebrews 10:1-4 (NASB) “ 1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins“

Galatians 3:23-25 (KJV) “ 23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. “

We are no longer under a schoolmaster of the Law of Moses. It served its purpose and had its time for Israel, but now, the New Covenant is for the whole world through Jesus Christ, and we are under FAITH instead of the LAW.

These scriptures and more are the reasons that some people hate the Apostle Paul. Like the Judaizers of the Galatians, they are trying to say that faith in Christ and the New Covenant is not enough alone. Though a lot of Paul’s writings dealt with this, Peter and James and actually the prophets of old all spoke of the same coming Covenant when God would write His Law on our hearts. This isn’t the Law of Moses of stone, but of the Spirit, and it is to the whole world and not just Israel and those who would become Jews.

The Bible also warns us of people who would try to take us back under the curse of the Law now that we are under the blessing of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. This seems to be a major theme with certain religious groups who like to judge all others as heretics or blasphemers who worship on Sunday. But the reality is that if you try to convince others to go back under the Law, then you are preaching “another gospel” and are accursed in God’s eyes.