You see Yahweh (God) Himself setting the example for setting a time aside for rest as HE rested on the seventh day (that’s a study in itself).  It is made part of the Law of Moses since the Law revealed the holiness and character of Yahweh, though it really did not give the power needed to be truly holy yourself.  That would come later through faith in Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant.  But the Law was holy and revealed God’s Holiness to Israel.  You have to understand that the Law of Moses was given authority also under the specific First Covenant that Yahweh had with the nation of Israel specifically. 

This is why you see ceremonial laws included which included everything from not eating shellfish to not wearing mixed weaved clothing in order to separate themselves from their heathen neighbors.  God wanted Israel to have an example that was noticeably different for a witness.

The Sabbath Law legalized “resting”, and put it in the forefront of the Children of Israel’s minds as a blessing connected into the Law.  Isn’t it funny how people get hold of something that God intended for blessing and can through their own religious ideas, turn it into a bondage?

The Key to understanding what the Sabbath is today is to understand which covenant and law of the Bible that the church is under now.  There is many times a difference in what many people preach, and what the Bible actually says.  It is our relationship as Christians to the Law of God which is important. 

We are not lawless (God forbid), but we are not under the Law of Moses either.  We are under the commandments of Jesus Christ given to us by the Apostles.  We are under the Law of the Spirit given authority under the New Covenant,  just as there was a time when the Nation of Israel was under the Law of Moses under the authority of the Old Covenant.  If you confuse this and fail to understand which Covenant we are under, then we will not get the right understanding.  The Law of Moses was nailed to the Cross and died with Jesus at Cavalry as He “fulfilled” the Law and its obligations.

John 14:15  “ If ye love me, keep my commandments. “

John 14:23-24 “ ²³ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ²⁴ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

1 John 2:3-5 “  ³ And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. “

Matthew 28:19-20 “ ¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus gave us the New Covenant.  The Apostles under the power of the Holy Spirit not only received the Word of God through Jesus (the living embodiment of the New Testament), but through the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit gave it to us.  Jesus said that the words that HE spoke was both Spirit and Life, and that living spiritual Word is alive to us today brought alive by the Holy Spirit in us today.

The way that many denominations and groups interpret certain scriptures is biblically unsound because they like to pick and choose which laws that they like and throw away the ones that they do not. We hear things like a separation of the moral and ceremonial law, but that idea is not in scripture.  The Law of Moses is made up of 613 laws, but the together was one LAW.  If you were guilty of one part, then you were guilty under the law.  This is one reason it was a curse for nobody but Jesus ever kept it wholly.  The Sabbath Laws that many like to bring up are part of the “the LAW”, or the Law of Moses. 

There were 613 laws part of the one body of the LAW.  The truth is that if you were guilty of one of those 613 laws, you were guilty of the whole thing.

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

Deuteronomy 27:26 “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.“

So, if you have polyester and cotton blended together in your shirt, or ate shrimp or pork, or turned on your coffeemaker to make some coffee on Saturday, you have broken the Law and are guilty of it all.

You can’t take the parts that you want and throw away the rest.  You can’t say that we just make it a New Testament kind of thing and change it the way that we want to.  If you put yourself under any of the Law of Moses, you have put yourself under the curse of the Law and you have literally turned from the Faith in Jesus Christ and the New Covenant and said it is not enough.

Galatians 1:6-8 “ ⁶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: ⁷ Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. “

Galatians 3:1-3 “ ¹ O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? ² This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? ³ Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? “

The Judaizers were trying to say that faith in Jesus was not enough.  They said that the power of the Holy Spirit and the commandments of Jesus was not enough.  You had to keep the Sabbath as the Jews, and you had to be circumcised as the Jews, and you had to keep the Law of Moses in general as the Jews, but still believe on Jesus.  It was “another gospel” that based their walk on religious works.  It takes the emphasis off of Jesus and the cross and our faith, and puts it on us.    It is FOOLISH and VAIN.  It will CURSE you if you believe it.

I won’t go too far on this tangent except to say that when you start looking at groups according to Peter and Paul that had blasphemed the Holy Spirit… one way to do it is to once you have believed on Jesus, turn back into the LAW basically rejecting Jesus as the only way to salvation.  There is no forgiveness for that.  It really will curse you.

TESTIMONY:  If I may just speak from my own heart.  I want to give my own testimony quickly in relationship to what the Word of God teaches here.  See, I was raised in a good sound church that believed the whole gospel.  But there was a lot of traditionalism that was embedded in the church (though much less than most of the same denomination church in this area).  I wandered from God for 7 years in my teens and made a royal mess of my life with sin.  Yes, there were demonic powers trying to destroy me, but my own lusts gave them the ammunition to do it.  When Jesus set me free at age 20, I was really set free and set on fire with the love and zeal of God.  I love the Lord... and I developed a voracious appetite for His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is a really healthy and good spiritual diet.

But having said all of that, God started a process back in 1983, where He started revealing beliefs that I had because some teacher or some tradition had taught me.  As I studied over the years, God would ask me... "where in my Word do you find that?"  And I would then find what the Word of God did actually say.  You see, the Word of God is an amazing thing.  From Genesis to Revelation (and all parts in between), there is a singular link of God that is giving the same message... the same author wrote it you see, the Holy Spirit.  I know that Prophets and Apostles and Kings did the penmanship, but you see through it all the same message and a message that agrees with the whole (not all traditional views of the Bible agrees, but the Bible itself does beautifully).  I have ruffled the feathers of many an atheist online over the years as I could very vividly give them the biblical evidence that they demanded as everything from prophecy being ultra-accurate with history to the testimony of those willing to die for the faith who all gave the same witness in power.  

My point?  My point is that there were things that I found myself saying as a young minister, such as, "the  moral law of the Old Testament is still in effect in the New and just the ceremonial law was finished."  I had heard that, but its not in the Bible.  In fact, to say that is to SLAP JESUS IN THE FACE metaphorically speaking.  Its like saying, Jesus, I know you gave all and went to the cross, but it isn't enough... we still have to have the Old Testament Law... or at least parts of it as the Sabbath.  It is a slap at Jesus and if you carry it to its logical conclusion, will lead you to APOSTASY.  I had to repent of those early words because they were not true.  I grew and learned the Word and found that God installed New Law with the New Covenant, and it is what Jesus taught.  It expands greatly on the Old Covenant and you see the moral points of the Law being brought into more vivid understanding with New Covenant, but the actual Old Covenant and the Law died on the cross at Calvary.  That was the point of what Jesus did.  To say that we have to have the Law of Moses also is to deny Jesus!